Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/89

  

GAWLER, GEORGE (1796–1869), governor of South Australia, son of Samuel Gawler, captain of the 73rd regiment, was born in 1796, educated at the military college, Great Marlow, and entered the army 4 Oct. 1810. He served with the 52nd light infantry through the Peninsular campaign from Nov. 1811 to the end, being wounded at Badajoz and San Munos. At Waterloo, he led the right company of his regiment, and attained the rank of colonel. In 1833 he contributed to ‘The United Service Journal,’ part ii., a paper ‘The Crisis and Close of the Action at Waterloo, by an Eye-Witness,’ which was re-issued as a pamphlet (Dublin, 1833), and caused great controversy. Gawler contended that his own regiment (the 52nd), supported by the rest of Adams's brigade, and not the guards, defeated Napoleon's final attack. Gawler defended his contention against Sir Hussey Vivian in ‘The United Service Journal’ for 1833, and was corroborated by W. Leeke in his ‘Lord Seaton's Regiment at Waterloo,’ 1866. On 12 Oct. 1838 he became governor of the newly founded colony of South Australia, then in considerable difficulties owing to dissensions between the late governor, Captain Hindmarsh, and the resident commissioner of the South Australian Colonisation Society. Gawler was himself made resident commissioner by the Colonisation Society. Embarrassments followed. The Wakefield system, upon which the colony was supposed to be founded, aimed at an equality between the labourers emigrating and the demand for their services. Gawler, by undertaking large public works, concentrated the labourers in Adelaide, and prevented the settlers from obtaining their aid. A consequent diminution in the sources of revenue accompanied an increase in expenditure. By the end of 1840 the financial position of the colony looked critical, and the home government dishonoured Gawler's drafts. He was recalled, and by a mishap his recall was first announced to him by his successor, George (afterwards Sir George) Grey (13 May 1841).

Gawler returned to England and devoted himself to religious and philanthropic pursuits. He died at Southsea 8 May 1869.



GAWLER, WILLIAM (1750–1809), organist, teacher, and composer, son of a schoolmaster, was born in 1750 in Lambeth. His Op. 2, a collection of varied pieces for harpsichord or pianoforte, with instructions, was published by Preston in the Strand in 1780. ‘Harmonia Sacra,’ containing psalm tunes, anthems, hymns, and a voluntary, appeared in 1781. In 1784 Gawler was appointed organist (with a salary of 63l.) to the Asylum for Female Orphans, Lambeth; he composed for their chapel music (Op. 16) to ‘Twelve Divine Songs’ by Dr. Watts, and collected the psalm tunes in use there in 1785; two sets of voluntaries for the organ ; and some patriotic songs. He was parish clerk at Lambeth for many years, and died 15 March 1809. His sister married Dr. Pearce, lecturer at St. Mary's, Lambeth, master of the Academy, Vauxhall, and afterwards sub-dean of the Chapel Royal.



GAY, JOHN (1685–1732), poet and dramatist, is generally stated to have been born in 1688. But the parish records of Barnstaple, produced at the ‘Gay Bicentenary’ held at that town in 1885, show that he was baptised at Barnstaple Old Church on 16 Sept. 1685. He came of an ancient but impoverished Devonshire family, being the youngest child of William Gay of Barnstaple, who lived in a house in Joy Street known as the Red Cross. William Gay died in 1695, his wife, whose maiden name was Hanmer, in 1694. John Gay, in all probability, fell to the care of an uncle, Thomas Gay, also resident at Barnstaple. He was educated at the free grammar school of that town, his masters, according to his nephew, the Rev. Joseph Baller (Gay's Chair, 1820, pp. 14–15), being Mr. Rayner and his successor, Mr. Robert Luck, the ‘R. Luck, A.M.,’ whose miscellaneous poems were published by Cave in April 1736, and dedicated to Gay's patron, the Duke of Queensberry.

Luck writes, and it is asserted that Gay's dramatic turn was also derived from the plays which the pupils at Barnstaple were in the habit of performing under this rhyming pedagogue. It is also stated by Baller (ib. p. 16) that one of his schoolfellows and lifelong friends was [q. v.], afterwards master of the rolls. Little else survives respecting Gay's schooldays; but from the fact that there exists in the Forster