Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/405

 of the government of India (Lond. Gaz. 14 Aug. 1891) and was promoted K.C.B. on 19 Nov. 1891. From 1892-3 he commanded the Peshawar district with the rank of major-general. He was given the reward for distinguished service and was placed by his own wish on the unemployed list on 8 June 1893. His military reputation stood at the time very high, but increasing deafness unfitted him in his opinion for active duty.

Collett was a keen student of botany. He first became interested in this subject in 1878 during the Kuram Valley expedition at the opening of the Afghan war. He published the results of his botanical work in the southern Shan States, Burma, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society' (Botany, xxviii. 1-150). He was an original member of the Simla Naturalists' Society. After his retirement he worked assiduously at Kew, and at Ms death was preparing a handbook of the flora of Simla, which appeared posthumously, edited by W. B. Hemsley, F.R.S., as 'Flora Simlensis' (Calcutta and Simla, 1902). He died, unmarried, at his residence, 21 Cranley Gardens, South Kensington, on 21 Dec. 1901, and was buried in Charlton cemetery, Blackheath. His herbarium was presented by his family to Kew.

 COLLINGWOOD, CUTHBERT (1826–1908), naturalist, born at Greenwich on 25 Dec. 1826, was fifth of six sons of Samuel Collingwood, architect and contractor, of Wellington Grove, Greenwich, by his wife Frances, daughter of Samuel Collingwood, printer to Oxford University. Educated at King's College School, he matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 8 April 1845, and graduated B.A. in 1849, proceeding M.A. in 1852 and M.B. in 1854. He subsequently studied at Edinburgh University and at Guy's Hospital, and spent some time in the medical schools of Paris and Vienna. From 1858 to 1866 he held the appointment of lecturer on botany to the Royal Infirmary Medical School at Liverpool. Elected F.L.S. in 1853, he served on the council in 1868. He also lectured on biology at the Liverpool School of Science.

In 1865 he issued 'Twenty-one Essays on Various Subjects, Scientific and Literary.' In 1866-7 he served as surgeon and naturalist on H.M.S. Rifleman and Serpent on voyages of exploration in the China Seas, and made interesting researches in marine zoology. One result of the expedition was his 'Rambles of a Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Seas' (1868). Returning to Liverpool he became senior physician of the Northern Hospital and took a leading part in the intellectual life of the city. In 1876-7 he travelled in Palestine and Egypt. Collingwood was through life a prominent member of the New Church (Swedenborgian). Besides 'The Travelling Birds' (1872) and forty papers on natural history in scientific periodicals he published many expositions of his religious beliefs, of which the chief were: 'A Vision of Creation,' a poem with an introduction, critical and geological (1872); 'New Studies in Christian Theology ' (Anon. 1883); and 'The Bible and the Age, Principles of Consistent Interpretation' (1886). For the last years of his life he resided in Paris, where he died on 20 Oct. 1908. He married Clara (d. 1871), daughter of Lieut.-col. Sir Robert Mowbray of Cockavine, N.B.; he had no issue.

 COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON (1848–1908), author and professor of English literature, born at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, on 26 March 1848, was eldest of three children, all sons, of Henry Ramsay Collins, a medical practitioner, by his wife Maria Churton (d. 1898) of Chester. The father died of consumption on 6 June 1858 at Melbourne while on a voyage for his health. John was looked after by his mother's brother, John Churton (d. 1884) of Chester. After some preliminary schooling at King's School, Chester, he entered in 1863 King Edward's School, Birmingham, where at the first speechday (July 1866) he distinguished himself by his declamation of English poetry. On 20 April 1868 he matriculated as a commoner from Balliol College, Oxford. Although he was already well read in the classics and in English literature, he made no mark in pure scholarship. After obtaining a third class in classical moderations he graduated with a second class in the school of law and modern history. His undergraduate companions included Mr. H. H. Asquith,