Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/467

 preparing quarters for troops from England in view of the menace of war with the United States of America over the Trent affair; and afterwards acted as secretary to the royal commission, of which Sir J. W. Gordon [q. v.] was president, on the defences of Canada, visiting every post on the frontier.

Between 1866 and 1870 Crossman was engaged by the treasury to report on the legation and consular buildings in Japan and China and to arrange for new buildings where necessary. In the course of his mission he secured for the admiralty the site for a new dockyard at Shanghai; and he accompanied both the naval expedition to Nanking and Yung Chow in 1869 and the force of sailors and marines which was landed in Formosa and at Swatow in 1868 and 1869. Varied service occupied him after his return to England. Promoted regimental major on 5 July 1872 and lieutenant-colonel on 11 Dec. 1873, he became assistant director of works for fortifications at the war office on 1 April 1875, but on 6 Sept. following he joined a special commission appointed by the colonial office to inquire into the resources and finances of Griqualand West. In recognition of his services he was made C.M.G. (May 1877). From 1876 to 1881 he served as the first inspector of submarine mining defences and as member of the royal engineers committee for submarine experiments and stores, visiting all the defended harbours at home and also at Halifax (Nova Scotia), Bermuda, and Jamaica abroad. Under his auspices submarine mining became a valuable part of harbour defence. During 1879 and 1880 he was also president of an important committee on siege operations, which conducted many practical experiments with a view to remodelling siege operations to meet improved artillery. In 1881–2 he visited Esquimalt, Fiji, Hong-kong, Singapore, Penang and Labuan and the Australian colonies, making full reports on their defences and requirements. On his return (July 1882) he was commanding royal engineer of the southern military district with headquarters at Portsmouth, but was absent in 1883 on a commission of inquiry with Sir George Smyth Baden-Powell [q. v.] into the financial condition of Jamaica and other West India islands. He was made K.C.M.G. on rendering the final report (March 1884).

Crossman, who was promoted brevet colonel on 11 Dec. 1878 and regimental colonel on 6 May 1885, resigned his command at Portsmouth in order to stand for parliament. He was returned in June 1885 as liberal M.P. for Portsmouth. Refusing to accept Gladstone's home rule policy, he joined the liberal unionists and retained the seat till 1892. He had retired from the army with the honorary rank of major-general (6 Jan. 1886), and in Jan. 1883 had succeeded to his father's estate in Northumberland. He was a J.P. for the county, alderman of the county council, and served as sheriff in 1894–5. He was for many years chairman of the River Tweed commission and president of the Berwick Naturalists' Club. He was also an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He died at the Hotel Belgravia, in London, on 19 April 1901.

Crossman was twice married: (1) at Albany, King George's Sound, Western Australia, on 3 March 1855 to Catherine Josephine (d. 1898), daughter of John Lawrence Morley of Albany; and (2) in London, on 29 June 1899, to Annie, eldest daughter of Lieut.-general R. Richards, Bombay staff corps, who survived him. By his first wife he had two sons and three daughters.

 CROWE, EYRE (1824–1910), artist, eldest son of Eyre Evans Crowe [q.v.] by his first wife Margaret, daughter of Capt. Archer of Kiltimon, co. Wicklow, was born in London on 3 Oct. 1824. Sir Joseph Archer Crowe [q. v. Suppl. I] was his younger brother. His sister Amy Mary Anne (d. 1865) married in 1862, as his first wife, Col. (Sir) Edward Thackeray, V.C., a cousin of the novelist. During his childhood Eyre's father removed with his family to France, where they remained till 1844. In Paris Eyre and his brother Joseph learnt drawing as boys of M. Brasseur and in 1839 Eyre became a pupil of the great painter Paul Delaroche. In 1844 Crowe accompanied his master and his fellow pupils to Rome. With one of them, the distinguished French painter and sculptor Jean Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), Crowe enjoyed a lifelong friendship, and they corresponded with one another till Gérôme's death.

In 1844 Crowe's family resumed residence in London, where he joined them and spent most of his remaining life. 