Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/178

 during it organised and carried out two expeditions. In Aug. 1895 he landed the brigade which captured M'weli, the stronghold of Mburuk, a rebellious Arab chief, for which service the general Africa medal with 'M'weli, 1895' engraved on the rim was awarded; in Aug. 1896 part of his squadron bombarded the palace at Zanzibar and deposed the pretender, Rawson receiving the brilliant star of Zanzibar, first class, in acknowledgment from the sultan; his action was officially approved, and he received the thanks of the admiralty. In Feb. 1897 he landed in command of the naval brigade of his squadron, with which, together with a force of Haussas, he advanced to and captured Benin city, in punishment for the recent massacre of British political officers. He received the K.C.B. for this service in May 1897, and the clasp for Benin. On 19 March 1898 he was promoted to vice-admiral.

Rawson commanded the Channel squadron from Dec. 1898 to April 1901, after which he was appointed president of the committee which investigated the structural strength of torpedo-boat destroyers. This was his last naval service. In Jan. 1902 he was appointed governor of New South Wales, 'a post for which his tact, kindliness, and good sense were sturdy qualifications.' Sir Harry was a successful and popular governor, and in 1908 his term of office was extended by one year to May 1909. He was promoted to admiral on 12 Aug. 1903, and retired on 3 Nov. 1908; in June 1906 he was made a G.C.B., and a G.C.M.G. in Nov. 1909. He died in London, following an operation for appendicitis, on 3 Nov. 1910, and was buried at Bracknell parish church, a memorial service being held at St. Margaret's, Westminster.

Rawson married on 19 Oct. 1871 Florence Alice Stewart, daughter of John Ralph Shaw of Arrowe Park, Cheshire, and had issue five children. Lady Rawson died in the Red Sea on 3 Dec. 1905, while on passage out to Australia.

A cartoon by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1901.

 READ, CLARE SEWELL (1826–1905), agriculturist, the eldest son of George Read of Barton Bendish Hall, Norfolk, by Sarah Ann, daughter of Clare Sewell, was born at Ketteringham on 6 Nov. 1826. His ancestors had been tenant-farmers in Norfolk since the end of the sixteenth century. He was educated privately at Lynn, and from the age of fifteen to twenty was learning practical agriculture upon his father's farm. Before he was of age he was managing the large farm of Kilpaison in Pembrokeshire, and was afterwards resident agent on the earl of Macclesfield's Oxfordshire estates. He returned to Norfolk in 1854 and took his father's farm at Plumstead, near Norwich, until 1865, when he succeeded a relative at Honingham Thorpe, and farmed about 800 acres there until Michaelmas 1896.

In July 1865 he was returned to parliament as conservative member for East Norfolk, which he continued to represent until the Reform Act of 1867, when Norfolk was divided into three constituencies. He sat for South Norfolk from 1868 to 1880, when he was defeated at the general election by one vote. He then declined to stand for North Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, but in Feb. 1884 was returned unopposed for West Norfolk, sitting until the dissolution of parliament in 1885, when he retired from the representation of the county. He unsuccessfully contested Norwich in July 1886.

In his first speech in parliament, in 1866, in support of Sir Fitzroy Kelly's motion for the repeal of the malt tax, he suggested, as an alternative, a beer tax of one penny per gallon upon all beer that was sold; that a licence should be paid by private brewers; and that all cottagers should be free to brew their own beer, a concession granted later. He strenuously supported and promoted all the acts of parliament passed for the suppression of cattle plague and all other imported diseases among live stock; advocated the inalienable right of the occupier of the land to destroy ground game; persistently contended for the compulsory payment of tenant farmers' improvements in the soil; argued that all property, and not land and buildings alone, should contribute to local as well as imperial burdens; and in 1876 carried a unanimous resolution in the House of Commons in favour of representative county boards.

In 1865 he served on the cattle plague commission, and for twenty years sat upon almost every agricultural committee of the House of Commons. In Feb. 1874 he was appointed by Disraeli parliamentary secretary to the local government board, but resigned in Jan. 1876, in consequence of