Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/246

 Rev. W. Griffith, Holyhead, he became an independent preacher, and in 1853 entered Bala Congregational College. Thence he went in 1856 to New College, London; he returned to Bala in 1857 for a year as assistant-tutor, and in 1858 became a member of the Congregational College at Brecon, graduating B.A. at London University in 1860. His first pastorate was at Llanbrynmair (1861–6); he was then for four years (1866–70) minister of the English church at Welshpool, and for two (1870–2) of the English church at Carmarthen. From 1872 to 1897 he was one of the tutors of Brecon College, and from 1897 head of the institution. He died at Brecon on 7 Jan. 1907.

Rowlands, whose bardic name was ‘Dewi Mon,’ was of versatile gifts, an able preacher and teacher, a skilful writer of Welsh and English verse, and a conspicuous figure in Welsh literary and political life. In his later years the critical state of his health kept him somewhat in retirement. His chief works are: 1. ‘Caniadau Serch’ (Welsh lyrics), Bala, 1855, published when he was nineteen. 2. ‘Sermons on Historical Subjects,’ London, 1870. 3. ‘Grammadeg Cymraeg,’ Wrexham, 1877, a short Welsh grammar. 4. ‘Gwersi mewn Grammadeg,’ Dolgelly, 1882, a manual of lessons in grammar. 5. A Welsh version of the ‘Alcestis’ of Euripides, 1887, sent in for competition at the Aberdare eisteddfod of 1885; it divided the prize with another version and both were printed in one volume at the cost of the marquis of Bute. 6. ‘Telyn Tudno,’ Wrexham, 1897, containing the life and works of his brother-in-law, the poet Tudno (Thomas Tudno Jones). Rowlands worked much with the composer Joseph Parry, [q. v. Suppl. II], and supplied English words for the opera ‘Blodwen’ and the oratorios ‘Emmanuel’ and ‘Joseph’; he was also literary editor of Parry's ‘Cambrian Minstrelsie’ (Edinburgh, 1893). He was one of the four editors of the hymns in ‘Y Caniedydd Cynulleidfaol’ (London, 1895), the hymn and tune book of the Welsh congregationalists, and in 1902 was chairman of the Congregational Union of Wales. He took a leading part in Breconshire politics and was a member of the committee which drafted the county scheme of intermediate education. He married (1) in 1864, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of William Roberts of Liverpool, by whom he left a son, Wilfred; (2) in 1897, Alice, step-daughter of J. Prothero, of Brecon.

 ROWTON, Bakon. [See (1838–1903), politician and philanthropist.]

RUNDALL, FRANCIS HORNBLOW (1823–1908), inspector-general of Indian irrigation, born at Madras on 22 Dec. 1823, was youngest son of the seven children of Lieut.-colonel Charles Rundall, of the East India Company's service, judge advocate general of the Madras army, by his wife Henrietta Wryghte. The second of his three brothers. Captain John William, Madras engineers, died on active service in the second Burmese war on 12 Nov. 1852. Educated at Kensington grammar school and at the East India Company's military seminary at Addiscombe (1839-41), he was gazetted to the Madras engineers on 10 Dec. 1841, and after the usual course at Chatham reached India on 23 Dec. 1843. He was adjutant of the Madras sappers and miners for a few months, but in Sept. 1844 joined the public works department as assistant to General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton [q. V. Suppl. I] in his surveys for the irrigation of the Godavery delta. After brief duty in Tanjore, to acquire knowledge of the great Cauvery works, he assisted Cotton in the construction of the Godavery works from 1845 to 1851. Warmly attached to his chief, he shared both his rehgious fervour and his enthusiastic belief in irrigation and navigable canals for India. He was appointed district engineer of Vizagapatam and Ganjam in 1851 (when also he was promoted captain) and district engineer of Rajamahendri in May 1855, a position which gave him charge of the further Godavery works then in progress.

In 1859 Rundall became superintending engineer of the northern circle and departmental secretary to the Madras government. He was soon serving in addition as consulting engineer to the government for the Madras Irrigation Company's works. In 1861 he was gazetted lieutenant-colonel and granted special leave to be chief engineer to the East India Irrigation and Canal Company, then constructing the Orissa canals on plans laid down by Cotton. Though water was supplied from 1865, the works were not sufficiently advanced to be effective in the terrible famine of the following year, but under Rundall they constituted 