Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Friday 17 February 1871, page 2


OBITUARY.

Sir William Thomas Denison.

Denison, Sir William Thomas, Major-General,

Knight (1846), K.C.B (1856), Colonel in the Royal

Engineers, was bom in 1804, the third son of John Denison, Esq., of Ossington, M.P. for Chichester. In 1838 Captain Denison married Caroline Lucy, daughter of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, G.C.B. ; and sister of Admiral Hornby, who visited us in the Flying Squadron ; and by her had several children, many of whom were bom in Tasmania. Sir William's half-sister, Charlotte, was married in 1811, to the Right Honorable Charles Manners Sutton, Speaker of the House of Commons, who was raised to the Peerage as Viscount Canterbury in 1835, and was father to the present Governor of Victoria. Sir William's eldest brother is the Hon. John Evelyn Denison, Speaker of the House of Commons. His second brother was Bishop of Salisbury, another brother is the celebrated Archdeacon Denison ; two other brothers, Henry and Stephen, stand high at the Bar as Queen's Counsel ; one, Frank, died as a Lieu-tenant in the Royal Navy, another, Charles, is Lieu-tenant-Colonel in the Army, and Alfred is Secretary to the Speaker. One of Sir W. Denison's sisters married the Reverend C. Des Voeux. Sir William was appointed Lieutenant - Governor of Tasmania in 1846, when he was knighted. He continued till 1855 in that Government, where "he at all times promoted the advancement of science, fostered liberal education, increased the facilities of commerce, abated the practical evils of the Convict Department, advocated the principles of legistive freedom, and by his private character sustained the moral dignity of government." In Jan., 1855, Sir William was promoted to be Governor-General of New South Wales, and on leaving this colony, he was presented with a purse of two thousand sovereigns, as a mark of the esteem and regard of the colonists. With £1,000 of this sum, Sir William purchased a centre piece of plate, and had an appropriate inscription placed thereon ; and the plate was exhibited here for some time. He remained in the government of New South Wales till 1860, when he was promoted to the Governorship of Madras, which he held till 1866, having for a short time acted as Governor-General of India. He retired on a well-earned pension of £700 a year in 1866, but this pension was suspended whilst he held office (at £1,000 a year) as Chairman of a Royal Commission on rivers, which he held at the time of his death. Sir William was always a great lover of children, as exemplified in his deep interest in the Queen's Asylum. He was a large subscriber to our charities, and the poor man never left his door unsupplied. As Chairman of the monthly meetings of the Royal Society, which he seldom missed attend-ing, old members well recollect his kind manner of drawing out the younger members, to give their quota of information to the general good, and the Govern-ment House, the Bridgewater Bridge, the Constitution Dock and the Launceston Waterworks aro imperish-able monuments of his engineering skill.

Very Rev. Henuy Alfouij, D.D.

Alfobi), Vehy Rev. Henuy, D.D., Dean of Canter-bury ; well known as a poet and Biblical critic, waa horn in London in 1810. He was educated at Ilminster Grammar School, Somersot, and Trinity College, Cambridge. His first effort in verse was "a volume entitled " Poems and Poetical Fragments," published at Cambridge in 1831 ; to which succeeded, in 1835, " Tho School of the Hoart, and other Poems," in two volumes. Of this work several editions have been published hore nnd in America. In 1834, Mr Alford was elected it Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and from 1835 to 1853 was vicar of Wymeswold, Leicestershire, whoro he added to the slender income of his benefice by taking pupils. In 1841, he pub-lished chapters on the poota of Greece ; was Huton Loctnrer in tho University of Cumbridgo in 1841-2 ¡ and Exntninor of Logie and Natural Philosophy ia tho University of London from 1841 to 1857. Mr, Alford published the first volume of his edition of the Greek Testament in 1811, and since then four more; the lust of which, completing the work, appeared in Fobruary, 1861. The former volumes havo passed through many ed itions. Ho is also tho author of several volumos of sermons. From 1853 to 1857 Mr, Alford was tho officiating minister of Queboc-street Chapel, whero he enjoyod a high reputation for elo-quence. In 1857, on tho death of Dean Lyall, he was appointod by Lord Palmerston to the deanery of Canterbury. A cheap odition (for the million) of Dr, Al ford's poomi, tho third printed in this country, has been published by Messrs. Rivington.-Jfeii of at Time. _