Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/37

Harrison presented him with a handsome ring and vase. At length the efficiency of his system was officially recognised, and Harris received the honour of knighthood (1847), and subsequently a grant of 5,000l. In 1860 he was appointed scientific referee of government in all matters connected with electricity, and superintended the fitting up of his conductors at the royal palaces, the houses of parliament, the powder magazines, the royal mausoleum at Frogmore, and other public buildings. Harris resumed his researches, but made no further important discoveries. His handbooks of ‘Electricity’ (1848), ‘Magnetism’ (1850–2), and ‘Galvanism’ (1856), contributed to Weale's Rudimentary Series, were clearly written, and passed through several editions. Harris died at 6 Windsor Villas, Plymouth, on 22 Jan. 1867. He was an accomplished musician, performing on both harp and piano, and an excellent conversationalist. At the time of his death he had in preparation a ‘Treatise on Frictional Electricity,’ which was published posthumously in the same year (1867) with a memoir of the author by Charles Tomlinson, F.R.S. He was also author of: 1. ‘Observations on the Effects of Lightning on Floating Bodies; with an account of a new method of applying fixed and continuous conductors of electricity to the masts of ships,’ 1823. 2. ‘On the Utility of fixing Lightning-Conductors in Ships,’ 1830. 3. ‘On the Protection of Ships from Lightning’ [1837]. 4. ‘State of the Question relating to the Protection of the British Navy from Lightning by the method of Fixed Conductors of Electricity, as proposed by Mr. Snow Harris,’ privately printed, 1838. 5. ‘Remarkable Instances of the Protection of certain Ships of her Majesty's Navy from the Destructive Effects of Lightning. To which is added a list of two hundred and twenty cases of ships struck and damaged,’ 1847. 6. ‘National Defences,’ 1862. 7. ‘Supplemental National Defences,’ 1862, a reply to Sir Morton Peto's pamphlet entitled ‘Observations on the Report of the Defence Commissioners.’ 

HARRISON, BENJAMIN (1771–1856), treasurer of Guy's Hospital, fourth son of Benjamin Harrison (1734–1797), also treasurer of Guy's Hospital (who was second son of Sir Thomas Harrison (1700–1765), chamberlain of the city of London, see Gent. Mag. 1765, p. 46), was born at West Ham on 29 July 1771, lived for twelve years with his father at Guy's, and succeeded him in the treasurership in 1797. For fifty years he governed the hospital and managed its estates despotically without salary. One of Cruickshanks' caricatures depicts him as a king sitting on a throne with his subjects prostrating themselves abjectly before him. He introduced many improvements. In concert with Sir Astley Cooper [q. v.] he, in 1825, established Guy's as a complete medical school separate from St. Thomas's, with which it had always been allied. Harrison greatly resented an inquiry into the hospital administration which was made by the charity commissioners in 1837, but no abuses were discovered. He was F.R.S. and F.S.A., deputy-governor of the Hudson's Bay and South Sea Companies, and chairman of the Exchequer Loan Board. He was selected as one of the three appeal commissioners for the city of London on the first imposition of an income tax. He lived latterly at Clapham Common, being closely connected with the ‘Clapham sect,’ and died there on 18 May 1856, aged 84. He married in 1797 Mary, daughter of H. H. Le Pelly of Upton and Aveley, Essex, by whom he had three sons (the eldest, Benjamin [q. v.], becoming archdeacon of Maidstone), and six daughters, the eldest married to W. Cripps, M.P. for Cirencester 1841–8, sometime a lord of the treasury.  HARRISON, BENJAMIN, the younger (1808–1887), archdeacon of Maidstone, born on 26 Sept. 1808, was son of Benjamin Harrison [q. v.], treasurer of Guy's Hospital. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 17 May 1826, and was elected a student in 1828 (B.A. 1830, M.A. 1833). Harrison had a distinguished career at Oxford, where he was contemporary with Mr. Gladstone and other remarkable men. He was placed in the first class for classics and in the second class for mathematics (1830); gained the Ellerton theological essay prize, the Kennicott and the Pusey and Ellerton Hebrew scholarships, in 1831–2, and the chancellor's English essay prize in 1832. The subject of the last was ‘The study of different languages as it relates to the philosophy of the human mind’ (printed Oxford, 1833). He took part in the Oxford movement, and wrote Nos. xvi. xvii. xxiv. and xlix. of the ‘Tracts for the Times,’ mostly on the scriptural authority for the episcopalian organisation of the church. But he was deterred from the Romeward movement both by his ecclesiastical connections and by his conservative temperament.