Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/487

 into the Red Cross Aid Society. Of that body he was chairman from the first, and he visited in this capacity the scene of the war in France, being received at the Prussian headquarters at Versailles, and penetrating into besieged Paris. In July 1870, as commissioner of the society, he was present during the campaign between Turkey and Servia, and his private letters from the front to his father-in-law attracted the attention of Lord Beaconsfield. In the spring of 1900 he was with difficulty prevented, though the hand of death was visibly upon him, from sailing for South Africa to direct the operations of the Red Cross Aid Society during the Boer war. In 1881 he was made K.C.B. on the occasion of the 'coming of age' of the volunteer force, and he was raised to the peerage in July 1885 under the title of Baron Wantage of Lockinge, becoming lord-lieutenant of Berkshire in the same year. In 1891 he was chosen by the secretary for war, Edward Stanhope [q. v.], to preside over a committee appointed to inquire into the length and conditions of service in the army, the recommendations of which were the source of some much-needed ameliorations in the lot of the private soldier. In 1892 Lord Wantage succeeded the duke of Clarence as provincial grand master of the freemasons of Berkshire.

The death of Lord Overstone in 1883 placed a princely fortune at the disposal of Lord Wantage and his wife. The owner of large estates in Berkshire and Northamptonshire, he became one of the leading agriculturists in the country, devoting special attention to the breeding of shire horses and pedigree cattle. A man of lofty personal character, he cherished a strong sense of the duties and responsibilities attendant upon wealth and high station, lie was a generous and discriminating patron of art, and assisted by his wife's judgment added largely to the line collection of pictures formed by Lord Overstone. He was one of the founders and chief supporters of the Reading University College, which since his death has benefited largely by the munificence of Lady Wantage. He died at Lockbige Park, Wantage, and was buiied at Ardington, after a long illness, on 10 June 1901; there was no issue of the marriage, and the title became extinct.

Wantage was of singularly fine presence, and his massive head and refined features served more than one artist as models for King Arthur and the ideal 'Happy Warrior'; he was frequently painted, the best portraits being respectively by Mr. W. W. Ouless, R. A., now at Lootdnge, and by Sir William Richmond, R.A., painted in 1899, now at Carlton Gardens. A cartoon portrait by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1870.

 LINGEN, RALPH ROBERT WHEELER,  (1819–1906), civil servant, born in Birmingham on 19 Feb. 1819, was only son of Thomas Lingen of the old Herefordshire family [see ] by his wife Ann, eldest daughter of Robert Wheeler of Birmingham. Lingen was sent to Bridgenorth grammar school at the beginning of 1831, the head boy of the school at the time being Osborne Gordon [q. v.]. In May 1837 he won a scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, and went into residence in the same year. His contemporaries included James Fraser [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Manchester, an old schoolfellow, Frederick (afterwards Archbishop) Temple [q. v. Suppl. II], with whom he was brought much into contact in later years on educational matters. Sir Stafford Northcote, and Froude. One of his closest friends through life was Benjamin Jowett, who, writing to him in 1890, spoke of 'a friendship of more than fifty years' standing.' From school Lingen brought a high reputation for scholarship, which was fully sustained at the university. In 1838 he gained the Ireland scholarship, in 1839 the Hertford. In 1840 he took a first class in the final classical school, and next year became a fellow of Balliol. In 1843 he won the Latin essay, and in 1846 the Eldon scholarship. In 1881 he received the hon. degree of D.C.L., and in 1886 he was made hon. fellow of his old college, Trinity.

Lingen, who became a student at Lincoln's Inn on 4 May 1844, read in chambers until 6 May 1847, when he was called to the bar. Shortly afterwards he entered the education office, than under a committee of the privy oouncil, and in 1849, when he was only 30 years old, became secretary in succession to Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth [q. v.], the first holder of the office. 'This post he filled for twenty years, and during the creation of our elementary education system he was the controlling executive force, if not also the virtual creator of successive codes' (Ann. Reg. 1905). While Lingen was serving under Kay-Shuttleworth, the latter remarked to him, in respect of some 