Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/611

 William, with whom the idea of forming the Alpine Club originated; and the foundation of the club was definitely decided upon in November 1857 by the two brothers, a cousin, Benjamin Attwood Mathews, and Edward Shirley Kennedy; the last, aided by Thomas Woodbine Hinchliff [q. v. Suppl. I], taking the leading share in its actual formation (Dec. 1857-Jan. 1858). Charles Edward Mathews played his part in the conquest of the Alps which followed during the succeeding decade, and he continued to climb vigorously for more than forty years, long after all the other original members of the Alpine Club had retired from serious mountaineering. He was president of the club from 1878 to 1880, and took a prominent part in its affairs till the last year of his life: 'no one has on the whole done so much [for mountaineering and for the Alpine Club] because no one has continued his Alpine activity over so long a period.' He was also one of the founders (1898) and the first president of the Climbers' Club, an association formed with the object of encouraging mountaineering in England and Ireland. Besides numerous papers in the 'Alpine Journal' (vols, i.-xxii.) he contributed articles on the guides Melchior and Jakob Anderegg to 'Pioneers of the Alps' (1887), and a retrospective chapter to C. T. Dent's 'Mountaineering' in the Badminton Library (1892); but his most important work in Alpine literature is 'The Annals of Mont Blanc' (1898), an exhaustive monograph, containing a critical analysis of the original narratives of the early ascents of the mountain, and a history and description of all the later routes by which its summit has been reached. Mathews himself climbed it at least twelve times.

He died at Edgbaston on 20 October 1905, and was buried at Sutton Coldfield. There is a monument to his memory in the garden of Couttet's hotel at Chamonix. Mathews married in 1860 Elizabeth Agnes Blyth, and had two sons and two daughters.

 MATHEWS, LLOYD WILLLAM (1850–1901), general and prime minister of Zanzibar, born in 1850, was son of Captain William Mathews, one of the pioneers of the volunteer movement. Entering the royal navy in 1863 as a naval cadet, he became a midshipman on 23 Sept. 1866, and in 1868 was stationed in the Mediterranean.

He first saw active service In the Ashanti campaign of 1873-4. He received the war medal and won promotion to the rank of lieutenant. On 27 Aug. 1876 Mathews was appointed lieutenant on board H.M.S. London, which was engaged in suppressing the slave trade on the east coast of Africa. He proved himself a capable and enterprising officer, capturing many Arab dhows and receiving the thanks of the admiralty. He retired from the navy with the rank of lieutenant in 1881.

Meanwhile in 1877 he was selected to command the army of Bargash, the Sultan of Zanzibar, who wished his troops to be drilled on the European model. Mathews trained and equipped a military force of 1000 regulars and 5000 irregulars, and henceforth devoted his services entirely to the Zanzibar government. He was given the rank of brigadier-general in the Zanzibar army, and in 1881 he was successful in capturing the Arab slave dealers who had murdered Captain Brownrigg, R.N. Mathews retained the confidence of Bargash's successors, and devoted his main energies to urging the suppression of slavery. In 1889 a decree was issued purchasing the freedom of all slaves who had taken refuge in the sultan's dominions; and in 1890 the sale or purchase of slaves was prohibited in Zanzibar. In November following, in accordance with the Anglo-German convention, Zanzibar was formally declared a British protectorate. In 1891 Mathews was appointed British consul-general for East Africa, but he never took up the duties of the poet. He preferred to remain in the sultan's immediate service, and in October following he became prime minister and treasurer of the reconstituted Zanzibar government. Under his enlightened rule the machinery of administration was reorganised with a minimum of friction, and the old order of rapidly transformed. Mathews's personality impressed itself on sultans. In 1896, on the death of Sultan Hamed bin Thwain, he opposed the attempt of Khalid to seize the throne. The palace was bombarded by British warships and Khalid was compelled to submit. Mathews then secured the installation of Sultan Hamed bin Mahommed, who was entirely favourable to British interests (27 Aug. 1890). Thanks to the prime minister's reforming energies, the legal status of slavery was abolished in 1897, compensation