Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/330

Flight when the archbishop was fifty-seven years of age, and shows Cranmer without the long white beard which he suffered to grow after Henry VIII's death in the following year. The picture is signed ‘Gerbarus Fliccus Germanicus faciebat.’ It has been frequently engraved, viz. in Thoroton's ‘History of Nottinghamshire’ (1677), Strype's ‘Memorials of Cranmer,’ Lodge's ‘Illustrious Portraits,’ and other works. Other portraits from the hand of the same painter have been noted, viz. ‘Thomas, first Lord Darcy of Chiche’ (painted in 1551), at Irnham in Lincolnshire; ‘James, second Earl of Douglas and Mar’ (painted in 1547), at Newbattle Abbey, East Lothian; and others. The last-named portrait, which is probably a copy of an older one, as the earl was killed at Otterbourne in 1388, is stated to be signed ‘Gerbicus Flicciis Germanicus faciebat ætatis 40.’ A curious double portrait was offered for sale at Christie's auction-rooms on 25 July 1881; it contained two small portraits of the painter and a friend, named Strangways, who were fellow-prisoners in London at the time (1554) when it was painted, and the painting was executed in prison, according to the inscriptions. This picture was then in the possession of Robert de Ruffiero, Belsize Park Road, and had formerly belonged to Dr. Edward Monkhouse, F.S.A. All these portraits are painted in the style of Lucas Cranach, the great Lutheran painter of Saxony, and this, taken with the date of imprisonment and the painter's connection with Cranmer, would point to his being one of the victims of the religious persecutions of Queen Mary's reign and himself an ardent protestant.

[J. G. Nichols, in Archæologia, xxxix. 25; Cat. of the National Portrait Gallery, 1888; information from G. Scharf, C.B., F.S.A.]  FLIGHT, BENJAMIN (1767?–1847), organ-builder, was son of Benjamin Flight, of the firm of Flight & Kelly, organ-builders. In conjunction with his son J. Flight and Joseph Robson he constructed the apollonicon, an instrument with five manuals, forty-five stops, and three barrels. This ingenious contrivance was exhibited in 1817 and the following years until 1840. The partnership with Robson was afterwards dissolved, but Flight continued to interest himself in certain inventions and improvements in the mechanism of organs. He died, aged 80, in 1847, leaving the business in the hands of his son, J. Flight, who carried it on until 1885.

[Grove's Dict. i. 74, 532; Rees's Cyclopædia, private information.]  FLIGHT, WALTER (1841–1885), mineralogist, son of William P. Flight of Winchester, was born in Winchester 21 Jan. 1841. He was educated at Queenwood College, Hampshire, where Debus then taught chemistry and Professor Tyndall physics, and in after life Debus was his constant friend. After coming of age Flight proceeded to Germany and spent the winter session of 1863-1864 studving chemistry under Professor Heintz at the university of Halle. He passed the next two years at Heidelberg, and acquired a thorough knowledge of chemistry. His studies in Germany were completed at Berlin, where he acted for some time as secretary and chemical assistant to Professor Hofmann. In 1867 Flight returned to England, and took the degree of doctor of science at London University. In 1868 he was appointed assistant exammer there in chemistry under Professor Debus. On 5 Sept. 1867 he became an assistant in the mineralogical department of the British Museum under Professor N. Story-Maskelyne. In the laboratory, which was now specially fitted up, he commenced a series of researches upon the mineral constituents of meteorites and their occluded gases, which rapidly brought him into notice. He was appointed examiner in chemistry and physics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1868, and in 1876 examiner to the Royal Military Academy, Cheltenham. He also acted for several years as a member of the committee on luminous meteors appointed by the British Association. In 1880 he married Kate, daughter of Dr. Fell of Ambleside.

Flight wrote twenty-one papers on scientific subjects, of which the first three, all on chemical subjects, appeared in German periodicals in 1864-5-70. The later papers were chiefly upon meteorites, dealing in detail with the recorded circumstances of their fall, and with their mineralogical and chemical constituents; several, written in conjunction with Professor Story-Maskelyne, give accounts, published in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' of the meteorites which fell at Rowton in Shropshire, at Middlesborough, and at Cranbourne in Australia. A paper, thus jointly written, on 'Francolite, Vivianite, and Cronstedtite from Cornwall,' appeared in the 'Journal of the Chemical Society' for 1871. The last paper Flight wrote was on the meteorite of Alfianello in Italy. Between 1875 and 1883 Flight contributed a series of twenty-three papers to the 'Geological Magazine,' entitled 'A Chapter in the History of Meteorites' (published in book form in 1887). Flight was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 7 June 1883. In 1884 he was taken so seriously ill that he was 