Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/133

 iron-casemated fort under George's Head, the alteration of the harbour batteries of Sydney and the battery for 25-ton guns at Middle Head, important portions of the Port Phillip defences. The works which protect Hobart were improved by him; Adelaide and Brisbane also received his attention.

Scratchley was promoted to be brevet colonel on 20 Feb. 1879. He was made a companion of St. Michael and St. George on 24 May of the same year for his services in Australia. In 1881 Scratchley was appointed vice-president of a commission in New South Wales to report on the military defences of the colony. He retired from active military employment on 1 Oct. 1882, with the honorary rank of major-general, but continued in his employment under the colonial office. In April 1883 he returned to England to consult the war office as to the general plan of defences for the colonies of Australasia, and as to the manufacture of heavy ordnance and details of fortifications.

In the autumn of 1884 the imperial government, having repudiated the action of the Queensland government in annexing the whole of New Guinea, decided to declare a protectorate over south-east New Guinea, and on 22 Nov. Scratchley was gazetted her Majesty's special high commissioner for this territory. He arrived at Melbourne on 5 Jan. 1885. The colonies were angry with the home government for the delay in dealing with New Guinea, by which portions of it had fallen to other powers. This irritation was not lessened by having to find 15,000l. a year among them for the maintenance of the government of the new protectorate. Scratchley's first duty was the delicate one of visiting each colony to arrange the quota of contribution. On 6 June 1885 he was made a K.C.M.G. On 15 Aug. he left Sydney to visit his government, arriving on 28 Aug. by the specially fitted-out steamer Governor Blackall at Port Moresby in New Guinea. Here he established his seat of government. The difficulties were considerable, provision having to be made for the protection of the isolated white people as well as for the control of the enormous and suspicious native population. In September he made an expedition up the Aroa river, and later, accompanied by H.M.S. Diamond and two other men-of-war, made a coasting voyage, in order to investigate the circumstances of several murders of white men. He died at sea just after leaving Cooktown for Townville, on 2 Dec. 1885. He was buried in St. Kilda's cemetery, Melbourne, with public honours.

A likeness, enlarged from the last photograph taken of Scratchley, hangs in Government House, Sydney. A book entitled ‘Australian Defences and New Guinea’ embodies Scratchley's views on colonial defence. It was compiled from his diaries and notes by Mr. Kinloch Cooke.

Scratchley married, at Melbourne, Victoria, on 13 Nov. 1862, Laura Lilias, daughter of Sylvester John Browne of co. Galway, by whom he had two daughters, Violet and Valerie, and a son Victor; they, with their mother, survived him.

Scratchley contributed three papers to the ‘Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers:’ one of them was a ‘Report on the Demolition of the Nawab's Fort, Furruckabad,’ 1858 (new ser. vol. viii.); another consisted of ‘Notes on the Fort and Entrenchments of Kussia Rampoor in Oudh’ (ib.)

[Royal Engineers Records; Despatches; War Office Records; obituary notices in Royal Engineers' Journal, vol. xvi. 1886; Annual Register, 1885; Melbourne Argus and Sydney Morning Herald, December 1885; Times, 4 Dec. 1885; Kaye's Sepoy War; Malleson's Indian Mutiny; private papers.]  SCRIBA or, ROBERT (fl. 1170), theological writer. [See .] SCRIMGER, HENRY (1506–1572), professor of civil law in Geneva. [See .] SCRIMGEOUR, JAMES (1550?–1612), constable of Dundee. [See .]

SCRIVEN, EDWARD (1775–1841), engraver, was born, according to his own account, at Alcester, Warwickshire, in 1775, but his name does not appear in the parish register of that place. He was a pupil of Robert Thew [q. v.], and became eminent as an engraver, chiefly of portraits, in the stipple and chalk manner. He worked mainly for the publishers of expensively illustrated books and serials, such as the ‘British Gallery of Portraits,’ 1809–17; ‘Ancient Marbles in the British Museum,’ 1814, &c.; Tresham and Ottley's ‘British Gallery,’ 1818; Lodge's ‘Portraits of Illustrious Persons,’ 1821–34; Dibdin's ‘Ædes Althorpianæ,’ 1822; Jerdan's ‘National Portrait Gallery,’ 1830–4; and Mrs. Jameson's ‘Beauties of the Court of Charles II,’ 1833. His few detached plates include ‘Telemachus and Mentor discovered by Calypso,’ after R. Westall, 1810; portrait of Rev. Richard Broomhead, after J. Allen, 1818; portrait of Thomas, lord Clifford of Chudleigh, after S. Cooper, 1819; ‘Miranda,’ after W. Hilton, 1828; and portrait of Dr.