Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/937

 920

REED.

in the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855 were intrusted to him, and ho drew up a similar report, when the Cross of the Lej^on of Honour was bestowed upon him. In 1858 Her liajesty appointed him surveyor of Crown pictures, and he has since been engaged in preparing a com- plete catalogue of aU such works of art belonging to the Crown. At the International Exhibition of 1862 the task of selecting and arranging specimens of British painting for the last hundred years was coi&ded to him, and the works of native British artists, from Hogarth to the present day, were honourably contrasted with those of painters of other coimtries. These labours led to the preparation, in con- junction with his brother, Mr. S. Eedgrave, of a history of British art, from the time of Hogarth to that first international gathering, under the title of " A Century of Painters," 18G6. He was after- wards enabled, by gifts to, and purchases on the part of, the nation, to form an historical collection of water-colour paintings at the Ken- sington Museum. Mr. Bedgrave resigned his appointment as keeper of the Royal pictures, and his con- nection with the Department of Science and Art in 1880. His more recent pictures, exhibited at the Academy, are : — " Sermons in Stones," " Startled Foresters," and " IVanquU Waters," 187 1 ; " Start- ing for a HoHday," " The Wreck of the Forest," and " The Mill Pool," 1875; ''Calling the Sheep to Fold," "To Market below the Hill," and " The Oak of the Mill Head," 1876; "Deserted," "Help at Hand," and " A Well-spring in the Forest," 1877; "The Heir come of Age," and " Friday Street, Wot- ton," 1878.

REED, Sib Edward James, K.C.B., M.P., born at Sheemess, Sept. 20, 1830, was educated at the School of Mathematics and Naval Construction, Portsmouth, served in a subordinate capacity in Sheer-

ness dockyard, and whs afterwards editor of the 3fec/uznic«* Magazine, He paid great attention to naval architecture, on which he became an authority, and was induced to accept the Secretaryship of the In- stitution of Naval Architects. He submitted to the Admiralty pro: posals to reduce the dimensions, cost, and time required for building our iron-clads, and was soon after appointed Chief Constructor of the Navy. In about three years he designed iron-clad ships for the British navy, amounting to an aggregate of 35,000 tons; a large iron-clad frigate for the Turkish government ; a fleet of steam- transports for the service of our Indian government, consisting of five ships of 4,000 tons each> a paddle despatch-steamer of war, and numerous tugs, life-boats, and other smaller vessels. After four years of fiuther service as Chief Constructor, Mr. Reed, whose ob- jections to rigged sea-going turret ships were well known, found these vessels so much in favour, that he resigned his office in July, 1870. His resignation was made renuirk- able by the capsizing of the turret ship Captain a few weeks after- wards. Mr. Reed was afterwfu^ds engaged in private pursuits, visit- ing occasionally the foreign dock- yards of Europe. He was returned to Parliament in the Liberal in- terest as member for the Pembroke boroughs at the general election of Feb., 1874. He represented that constituency till April, 1880, when he was returned for Cardiff. He received the Companionship of the Bath from the Queen of England ; the Star of the Imperial Order of St. Stanislas (1st class) from the Emperor of Russia; the Star and Ribbon of the Medjidie (2nd class) from the Sultan of Turkey, and the Knight Commandership of the Im- I>erial Ortler of Joseph from the Emperor of Austria. He is the author of works on Practical Ship- building, Iron-cased Shjps, and