Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/618

 for the China station, and when the Raleigh was wrecked near Hong Kong on the passage out, he followed Keppel and with him took part in the boat actions of Escape Creek on 25 May 1857 and of Fatshan Creek on 1 June. In August he was appointed to the Calcutta, flagship of Sir [q. v.]. and in Dec. he landed with the naval brigade before Canton. At the storming of Canton on 29 Dec. Gillford was severely wounded in the left arm by a gingal bullet; he was mentioned in despatches, received the medal with clasps for Fatshan and Canton, and on 26 Feb. 1858 was promoted to commander and appointed to the Hornet, which he took to England. On 22 July 1859 he was promoted to captain. From 1862 to 1866 he commanded the Tribune in the Pacific, and from Oct. 1868 to 1871 the battleship Hercules in the Channel. In 1872 he became an aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria, and was given the command of the steam reserve at Portsmouth. On the formation of Disraeli's ministry in 1874 he joined the Board of Admiralty as junior sea lord, and continued at Whitehall until the change of government brought in a new board in May 1880. He was promoted to flag rank on 31 Dec. 1876, received the C.B. in June 1877, and succeeded to the earldom on 7 Oct. 1879. From 1880 to 1882 he had command of the flying squadron, reaching the rank of vice-admiral on 26 July 1881, and being awarded the K.C.M.G. in March 1882; from Aug. 1885 to Sept. 1886 he flew his flag as commander-in-chief on the North American and West Indies station, laying down the command in consequence of his promotion to admiral on 22 June 1886. In June 1887 he was raised to the K.C.B., and in 1888 became a commissioner of the patriotic fund. He was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth from June 1891 to June 1894, was promoted to admiral of the fleet on 20 Feb. 1895, received the G.C.B. in May following, and reached the age for retirement on 3 Oct. 1902.

In the words of one of his messmates, Clanwilliam 'throughout his life was before everything a sailor, studious of the interests of the service and of those under his command, and probably valued his rank as an admiral much more than his title as an Irish earl or English baron.' He died on 4 Aug. 1907 at Badgemore, Henley on Thames, and was buried in the family vault at Wilton, near Salisbury. He married on 17 June 1867 Elizabeth Henrietta, eldest daughter of Sir [q. v.], G.C.M.G., governor of Queensland, and had four sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Richard Charles, Lord Gillford, born in 1868, entered the navy, was made lieutenant in 1891, was flag lieutenant to Sir [q. v.] in the Victoria in 1893, and leaving the navy shortly afterwards, died in 1905. The second son, Arthur Vesey Meade, Lord Dromore, born in 1873, succeeded to the earldom; the third, Herbert, entered the navy and reached the rank of commander in 1908; and the youngest, Edward Brabazon, was a captain in the 10th hussars.

A portrait by Rudolf Lehmann was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1899; a 'Vanity Fair' cartoon by 'Spy' was published in 1903; and an engraved portrait was published by Messrs. Walton of Shaftesbury Avenue.



MEAKIN, JAMES EDWARD BUDGETT (1866–1906), historian of the Moors, born at the house of his mother's brother at Ealing Park, London, on 8 Aug. 1866, was the eldest son in a family of three sons and two daughters of Edward Ebenezer Meakin, then a tea-planter in Almora, India, by his wife Sarah, only daughter of Samuel Budgett of Bristol. He was educated first at Mr. Hill's preparatory school, Redhill, and then at Reigate grammar school.

His father, who was keenly interested in oriental peoples and religion, visited Morocco, and founded there on 15 July 1884 the first English newspaper, the 'Times of Morocco,' which urged sympathetic consideration of native interests. James joined his father in Morocco for reasons of health. He acted first as assistant editor of the paper and then as editor. He at once studied the Moorish people and their language. Adopting native dress and the native name Tahar bil Mikki, he mixed freely with all classes, soon mastered the Moorish dialect of Arabic, of which he published in 1891 a word-book with English explanations ('An Introduction to the Arabic of Morocco'), and closely observed Moorish life. In 1890 he returned to England, to consider means of preparing a work on Morocco, which should be as authoritative as Lane's 'Modern Egyptians' on Egypt. But no publisher would encourage the scheme, which was abandoned. Nor would the Royal Geographical or the Scottish Geo-