Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/124

 literary talent and critical value.’ ‘The Chess Tournament’ (1852) contains the games of the international tournament of 1851 and some others; of this a German rendering appeared at Berlin. A defence of the London Chess Club (by ‘a member’) from the strictures passed on it by Staunton in this volume was issued in 1852. ‘The Chess Praxis’ (1860) was another supplement to the ‘Handbook,’ carrying on chess theory for some twelve years later, and containing many well-selected games.

Staunton's name was conferred on the set of chessmen which are recognised as the standard type among English-speaking peoples. His ‘Chess Player's Text-book’ was issued in 1849, without date, to be sold with the Staunton chessmen.

Staunton's ‘Chess: Theory and Practice’ was left in manuscript at his death, and was edited in 1876 by R. B. Wormald, who succeeded him as editor of the chess column of the ‘Illustrated London News.’

From 1854 Staunton largely devoted his attention to the study of Shakespeare, of whose works he had been from youth an enthusiastic admirer. Between November 1857 and May 1860 he issued, with Messrs. Routledge, a new edition of Shakespeare in monthly parts, with 824 illustrations by Sir John Gilbert. The parts were bound up in three volumes. A reissue without the illustrations followed in 1864 in 4 vols. Staunton's text was based on a collation of the folio editions with the early quartos and with the texts of modern editors from Rowe to Dyce. The conjectural emendations, which were usually sensible, were kept within narrow limits, and showed much familiarity with Elizabethan literature and modes of speech. The general notes combined common-sense with exhaustive research. In 1864 Staunton issued a photo-lithographic facsimile of the 1600 quarto of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ from the copy in the Ellesmere collection. In 1866 he edited a photo-lithographic facsimile of the first folio edition of Shakespeare's works of 1623. Subsequently, between October 1872 and his death, he contributed a series of nineteen articles on ‘Unsuspected Corruptions of Shakespeare's Text’ to the ‘Athenæum’ (cf. Notes and Queries, 6th ser. iv. 264). His only other literary undertaking was a carefully compiled account of the ‘Great Schools of England’ (1865; 2nd edit. 1869).

Staunton was a brilliant talker in congenial society, prolific in anecdote and in apt quotation from Shakespeare. He died suddenly from heart disease at his house in London on 22 June 1874. He married, about 1854, Frances, widow of W. D. Nethersole, a solicitor, who was some years his senior. She died about 1882.

The St. George's Chess Club possesses a medallion-portrait, as well as a lithograph depicting the match in 1843 between Staunton and St. Amant.

[Information kindly furnished by the Rev. W. Wayte; Chess Player's Chronicle, 1874–5, pp. 117, 161–2; Bilguer's Handbuch des Schachspiel, 1891, pp. 59–60; Athenæum, 1874, i. 862; Illustrated London News, 4 July 1874, with portrait.]

 STAVELEY, CHARLES WILLIAM DUNBAR (1817–1896), general, was the eldest son of Lieutenant-general William Staveley [q. v.], by Sarah, daughter of Thomas Mather. He was born at Boulogne on 18 Dec. 1817, was educated at the Scottish military and naval academy, Edinburgh, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 87th (royal Irish fusiliers) on 6 March 1835. He became lieutenant on 4 Oct. 1839, and captain on 6 Sept. 1844. From July 1840 till June 1843 he was aide-de-camp to the governor of Mauritius, where his regiment was stationed, and where his father was acting-governor for part of the time. On his return home he was quartered at Glasgow, and saved a boy from drowning in the Clyde at imminent risk of his own life, as he was not fully recovered from a severe attack of measles.

He exchanged to the 18th foot on 31 Jan. 1845, and to the 44th on 9 May. From 15 June to 11 May 1847 he was aide-de-camp to the governor-general of British North America. An admirable draughtsman, his sketches proved very useful during the settlement of the Oregon boundary question in 1846. He was assistant military secretary at Hongkong, where his father was in command, from 20 March 1848 to 27 Feb. 1851.

He had become major in the 44th on 7 Dec. 1850, and went with it to Turkey in 1854. When the regiment embarked for the Crimea he was to have been left behind on account of illness, but he hid himself on board till the vessel sailed. He was present at Alma and at Balaclava, where he acted as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cambridge. On 12 Dec. 1854 he became lieutenant-colonel in his regiment. The 44th belonged to Sir William Eyre's brigade of the third division, and took part in the attempt on the dockyard creek on 18 June 1855, and in the capture of the cemetery—the sole success achieved. Staveley was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette, 4 July) and was made C.B. He also received the Crimean