Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/562

 Maclure died at Manchester on 8 May 1906, and was buried at Kersal church, near that city. A monumental brass is in the chancel of the cathedral, and another memorial is in the grammar school.

He married on 7 May 1863 Mary Anne (d. 17 Oct. 1905), daughter of Johnson Gedge of Bury St. Edmunds, and had three sons, of whom William Kenneth took holy orders, and three daughters.

His brother. Sir John Wiluam Maclure (1835-1901), born at Manchester on 22 April 1835, and educated at Manchester grammar school, engaged with success in commerce and financial enterprise. He came into prominence as honorary secretary to the committee of the Lancashire cotton relief fund, instituted in 1862 for the relief of the operatives thrown out of work through the stoppage of supplies of cotton during the American civil war. Over 1,750,000l. was raised for this object, and Maclure received a public testimonial. He was an enthusiastic volunteer, becoming major of the 40th Lancashire rifles. As churchwarden of Manchester (1881-96) he was instrumental in collecting large sums of money for a thorough restoration of the cathedral. A strong churchman, he was in politics a conservative, and was elected in 1886 M.P. for the Stretford division of Lancashire, which seat he retained until his death on 28 Jan. 1901. His cheery temperament made him popular in the House of Commons. On 7 April 1892 he and three other directors of the Cambrian railways were admonished by the speaker by direction of the house for a breach of privilege in dismissing a stationmaster on account of his evidence before the committee on the hours of railway servants. He was created a baronet on 1 Jan. 1898. There is a tablet to his memory in Manchester cathedral. He married on 13 Dec. 1859 Eleanor, second daughter of Thomas Nettleship of East Sheen, Surrey, by whom he had three sons and four daughters.

 McMAHON, CHARLES ALEXANDER (1830–1904), general and geologist, born at Highgate on 23 March 1830, was son of Captain Alexander McMahon of Irish descent, formerly in the Indian service, by his wife Aim, daughter of Major Patrick Mansell (British army). After education at a private school, he obtained a commission in the 39th Madras native infantry on 4 Feb. 1847, but after eight years' service in that regiment became a member of the Madras staff corps, and was transferred in 1856 to the Pimjab commission, on which he served for thirty years, holding the rank of commissioner for the last fourteen. At the outbreak of the Mutiny, McMahon, then a lieutenant and assistant commissioner of the Sialkot district, in which was a cantonment, was in full charge owing to his superior's illness. On 9 July 1857 the native troops rose, and after murdering some Europeans, including four of their officers, decamped to join the rebels. But McMahon contrived to send a note to General John Nicholson [q.v.], who restored order at Sialkot so completely that McMahon was able to force the surrender of some 140 refugee rebels. In 1865 his ability as a judge was proved in a civil suit against the government of India which came before him as a Punjab commissioner. An intricate question, involving about 1,500,000l., had been remitted by the privy council for trial on its merits. McMahon's decision (against the plaintiff) was upheld on appeal by the superior courts of the Punjab and the privy council in England.

While commissioner of Hissar in 1871 McMahon began to work seriously at geology, and six years later published his first important paper in the 'Records of the Geological Survey of India' (vol. x.). This and its successors dealt with a group of crystalline rocks, some of which, after examination with the microscope, he maintained to be eruptive. Subsequently, in 1879, while on a furlough in England, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he entered himself as a student at the Royal School of Mines. On returning to India he investigated its rocks with increased vigour, contributing in all twenty-one papers to the 'Records.'

He retired in 1885 with the rank of colonel, becoming major-general in 1888 and lieutenant-general in 1892. Settling in London, he devoted himself to petrological studies, taking part in the proceedings of kindred societies and publishing papers in their journals, the total number of his contributions to geology being nearly fifty. As an investigator he was scrupulously careful and accurate. In petrology he merits a high place among the pioneers,