Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/506

 chairman of its finance committee. In 1885 he waa returned as conservative member for Evesham, in which division of Worcestershire his own property lay. He sat for the constituency until 1892, when he was elected for the Kingston division of Surrey, which he represented until 1895. Although he knew more about India than any other member, he was heard with impatience by the House of Commons, and did not take there the place to which his abilities entitled him. On retiring from parliament he was sworn a member of the privy council on 8 Feb. 1896, an honour which led to his election in March following as a fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1896 he published 'The Story of My Life.' 'Character Sketches from the House of Commons 1886–7' appeared posthumously in 1912. He died at Heath Brow, Hampstead Heath, on 15 March 1902, and was buried at Kempsey on 19 March. His second wife. Lady Temple, C.I., survived him, with two sons by his first marriage. Colonel Richard Carnac Temple, C.I.E., formerly chief commissioner Andamans, who succeeded him in the baronetcy, and Colonel H. M. Temple, consul-general at Meshed, and one son by his second marriage. Temple's personal appearance was ungraceful and lent itself to caricature, which he accepted with characteristic good temper. A cartoon portrait by ’Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1881. A statue of him, executed by Sir Thomas Brock, was erected in Bombay, shortly after he left that presidency.

 TENNANT, CHARLES, first baronet (1823–1906), merchant and art patron, born in Glasgow on 4 Nov. 1823, was elder of the two sons of John Tennant of St. Rollox, Glasgow. The family settled as tenant-farmers near A3nr in the fifteenth century, and descends in unbroken line from John Tennant of Blairston Mill, Maybole, who was born in 1635 (see Book of Robert Burns, ii. 265). A later John Tennant (1725-1810) was appointed factor of the Ochiltree estate, belonging to the Countess of Glencaim, in 1769, when he settled at Glenconner in the parish of Ochiltree. He was the intimate friend of the father of Robert Bums, and was one of the first to recognise the poet's genius. In his 'Epistle to James Tennant,' second son of this John, the poet refers in detail to all the members of that family. Charles (1768-1838), fourth son of John (referred to by Bums as ' Wabster Charlie'), was the grandfather of Sir Charles, and was the founder of the chemical works at St. RoUox. His elder son, John Tennant (1796-1878), Sir Charles's father, succeeded to these works and developed the business extensively.

Charles Tennant was educated at the High School, Glasgow, and was trained commercially at St. Rollox works, after a brief experience at Liverpool. In 1846 he was admitted as a partner in the concern, and was soon known as an exceptionally enterprising and farseeing man of business. In 1900 the St. Rollox chemical works were combined with many similar works throughout the kingdom to form the United Alkali Co., of which Sir Charles became chairman. At the same time he resigned his control of St. Rollox to his two sons. From the outset Tennant also interested himself in other of his father's ventures, which included the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Co. and the Steel Company of Scotland. He succeeded in transforming the Tharsis Co. into the British Metal Extracting Co. Subsequently he became chairman of the Union Bank of Scotland, and engaged hi many further mercantile ventures of great importance. He was concerned in several of the most extensive gold-mining companies in India; he was director of the Assam Oil Co. and of the Assam Railways and Trading Co.; and he acquired interests in the Chicago Great Western Railway Co., Nobel's Explosives Co., and the British South Africa Explosives Co. His keen business instinct, which enabled him to accumulate vast wealth, helped to rescue some of these companies from impending disaster and to set them on the road to prosperity.

In 1854 Tennant purchased the mansion and estate of The Glen, in Traquair parish, Peeblesshire. Here he found ample scope for his taste for landscape-gardening, and he lived to witness the fruition of his arboricultural plans. He also developed artistic tastes, and gradually acquired a collection of notable pictures. He bought Millais's portrait of Gladstone (presented to the 