Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/315

 the lines traversed, and the difficulties of landing railway material.

From an early period Shelford interested himself in the engineering works of rivers and estuaries, with which his principal contributions to the literature of his profession dealt. In 1869 he presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers a paper ‘On the Outfall of the River Humber,’ for which he received a Telford medal and premium. In 1879 he examined the River Tiber and reported upon a modification of a scheme proposed by Garibaldi for the diversion of the floods of that river. For his paper presented in 1885 to the institution, ‘On Rivers flowing into Tideless Seas, illustrated by the River Tiber,’ he was awarded a Telford premium.

Shelford's colonial services were recognised by the honour of the C.M.G. in 1901 and the K.C.M.G. in 1904. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 10 April 1866, and from 1887 to 1897 and from 1901 till death was a member of the council. In 1888 he was a vice-president of the mechanical science section of the British Association, before which he read two papers, in 1887 on ‘The Improvement of the Access to the Mersey Ports,’ and in 1885 on ‘Some Points for the Consideration of English Engineers with Reference to the Design of Girder Bridges.’ He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical and other societies, and served upon the engineering standards committee as a representative of the crown agents for the colonies.

After his retirement from practice he resided at 49 Argyll Road, Kensington, where he died on 3 Oct. 1905. He was buried at Brompton cemetery. He married in 1863 Anna, daughter of Thomas Sopwith, F.R.S. [q. v.], who survived him; by her he had eight children.

A portrait by Seymour Lucas, which was subscribed for by his staff for presentation to him but was not finished at his death, belongs to his widow.

 SHENSTONE, WILLIAM ASHWELL (1850–1908), writer on chemistry, born at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, on 1 Dec. 1850, was eldest son of James Burt Byron Shenstone, pharmaceutical chemist of Colchester, by his wife Jemima, daughter of James Chapman, of Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. Through his grandfather, Joseph Shenstone (b. at Halesowen), he traced collateral connection with Wilham Shenstone the poet.

Educated at Colchester grammar school, Shenstone afterwards entered his father's business. He qualified as a chemist in the school of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, securing there a Bell scholarship (1871), and was awarded in 1872 the Pereira medal. For two years he was demonstrator of practical chemistry in that school under Professor J. Attfield, leaving to become assistant to Dr. (afterwards Sir) W. A. Tilden, chief science master at Clifton College. In 1875 he was appointed science master at Taunton School, and in 1877 science master at Exeter grammar school, where he built a laboratory (see Nature, 26 July 1878). He returned to Clifton in 1880, succeeding Dr. Tilden as science master and holding this post until his death.

While assistant to Tilden at Clifton, Shenstone collaborated with him in an investigation on the terpenes, the results appearing in the paper 'Isomeric Nitrosoterpenes' (Trans. Chem. Soc. 1877). Jointly with Tilden he published also the memoir 'On the Solubility of Salts in Water at High Temperatures' (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 1884), and 'On the Solubility of Calcium Sulphate in Water in the Presence of Chlorides' (Proc. Roy. Soc. 1885). Other important papers, published in the Transactions of the Chemical Society, comprised 'Ozone from Pure Oxygen : its Production and its Action on Mercury' (1887, jointly with J. T. Cundall) ; 'Studies on the Formation of Ozone from Oxygen' (1893, jointly with M. Priest); 'Observations on the Properties of some Highly Purified Substances' (1897); and 'Observations on the Influence of the Silent Discharge on Atmospheric Air' (1898, jointly with W. T. Evans).

Shenstone was admitted a fellow of the Chemical Society in 1876, and was member of the council 1893-5; he was a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry from 1878, serving on the council 1905-6. He was an original member of the Society of Chemical Industry, and was elected F.R.S. on 9 June 1898.

He died on 3 Feb. 1908, at Polurrian, Mulhon, Cornwall, and was buried there. He married in 1883 Jane Mildred, eldest daughter of Reginald N. Durrant, rector of Wootton, near Canterbury, and had issue one son and one daughter. Devoted to his profession, Shenstone was highly successful as a teacher in physical science, and generally influenced the introduction of improved methods of science teaching in schools. 