Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/198

 question about which anyone acquainted with the difficulties of such situations would hesitate to express a confident opinion.

In March 1905, after nearly ten years' service, Gully found himself compelled, on the ground of health, to resign the office of speaker. The strain of his work was much increased by the serious illness of his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached. In accordance with custom, he received a peerage and a pension, and a vote of thanks from the House of Commons. He took as his title (Viscount Selby) the family name of his wife. Release from his official duties restored his health, and during the remaining years of his life he was a regular attendant at debates of the House of Lords, and served the public in many ways. He was chairman of the royal commission on motor cars, and also of the commission on vaccination; chairman of the board of trade arbitration committee in 1908, and a member of the permanent arbitration court at the Hague. He was also chairman of the executive committee of the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908. Gully was made an hon. LL.D. of Cambridge in 1900, and an hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1904, and received the freedom of the City of London on his resignation of the office of speaker. His health greatly suffered from his wife's death on 15 Nov. 1906. He was taken seriously ill whilst staying at Menaggio, on the lake of Como, in September 1909, and being brought home made a temporary recovery. He died on 6 November in that year at his country seat, Sutton Place, Seaford, and was buried at Brookwood. He married on 15 April 1865 Elizabeth Anne Walford (d. 1906), eldest daughter of Thomas Selby of Whitley and Wimbush in Essex. He had issue four daughters and two sons. His elder son, James William Herschell, succeeded to the peerage. His younger son, Edward Walford Karslake, was for many years private secretary both to his father and to his father's successor as speaker, and is now examiner of private bills for the two houses of parliament. The best portrait of Gully is that by Sir George Reid in the speaker's official house. Another portrait, painted by the Hon. John Collier in 1898, is in the hall of the Inner Temple. A cartoon portrait by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1896.



GURNEY, HENRY PALIN (1847–1904), man of science, eldest son of Henry Gurney by his wife Eleanor Palin, was born in London on 7 Sept. 1847. He entered the City of London School in 1856, under the headmastership of Dr. Mortimer, and remained there until 1866; at the school he gained the Beaufoy mathematical medal, and was head of the school in science in 1865. In 1866 he proceeded to Clare College, Cambridge, where he specialised in science and mathematics. He rowed in his college boat, and ran for the university in the inter-university sports of 1868 and 1869. He graduated B.A. in 1870 as fourteenth wrangler, and was fourth in the first class of the natural science tripos. At the university Gurney studied mineralogy and crystallography under Professor [q. v.], and acted for a while as Miller's deputy. Gurney was also the senior lecturer at Clare College in mathematics and natural sciences. Elected to a college fellowship in April 1870, he held it until 1883, when he was senior fellow of his college. In 1871 he took holy orders, and was appointed curate to Canon Beck, rector of the college living of Rotherhithe, and subsequently officiated for many years as curate at St. Peter's Church, Bayswater. Shortly after his marriage in 1872 he became lecturer for Walter Wren at Wren's tutorial establishment in Powis Square, Bayswater. Gurney's sound mathematical knowledge, clear method of teaching, and powers of organisation were found of such value that he became in 1877 managing partner of the firm of Wren & Gurney, which rapidly acquired celebrity as a preparatory establishment for young men wishing to enter the army, the Indian civil service, and other home or foreign office departments.

Meanwhile he had kept up his interest in mineralogy, and in 1875 he published his only book, a small but clear and useful work on crystallography, one of the manuals of elementary science issued by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In 1876 Gurney helped to found the Crystallogical Society, and was a member of its first council. In 1894 he was appointed to the post of principal of the Durham College of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in succession to Dr. William Garnett. At a critical period in the history of the College of Science Gurney showed tact, ability, and powers of conciliation and administration. Next year Gurney added the duties of professor of