Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/361

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Greenhill
349
Greenhill

service in Morocco for several years. He was vice-consul at Tetuan and acting consul at Tangier, and was engaged upon special missions in the court of Morocco at various times during the next ten years. In 1869 he was transferred to Tunis as acting agent and consul-general, and thence was moved to Damascus in 1871 and to Bairfit in 1873. In 1876 he was promoted to be consul at Scutari, and on 6 Jan. 1879 he became consul-general for Montenegro and the vilayet of Scutari. Here during three eventful years he did work which made his name familiar to the public. He consistently maintained the view that the Turkish government, though in urgent need of reform, was not beyond hope, and that the Christian subjects of the Porte were not faultless. He was frequently consulted by government, his opinions appeared in many blue-books, and he was freely attacked by the anti-Turkish party in England. In 1881 he was created C.M.G. in recognition of his services, and on 1 July 1886 he succeeded Sir John Drummond Hay as envoy to Morocco and consul-general at Tangier.

In Tangier Green's knowledge of oriental languages in which he was second only to Sir Richard Burton [q. v. Suppl.] together with his diplomatic ability, gave him great influence with the sultan. He obtained several important concessions from Muley Hassan, among others the establishment of telegraphic communication between Tangier and Gibraltar, which the sultan had refused for the space of twelve years. On 10 Dec. 1890 he started on a special mission to Morocco to obtain from the sultan compensation for the destruction of the factories of the North-West Africa Company by a party of Bedouin Arabs. He was successful in his mission, but died suddenly at Morocco on 25 Feb. 1891. He was buried at Tangier on 8 March. On 21 June 1887 he was created K.C.M.G. He married in 1863 Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Reade. By her he had issue.

[Times, 3, 4, 9, 10, and 14 March 1891 ; Burke's Peerage, 1891.]

E. I. C.

GREENHILL, WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1814–1894), physician and author, born at Stationers' Hall, London, on 1 Jan. 1814, was youngest of the three sons of George Greenhill, treasurer of the Stationers' Company. There was a long-standing association of the family with the company, his grandfather having been master in 1783, and his brother Joseph, after serving as treasurer for about sixty years, being elected master in 1890. Greenhill received his early education at a private school at Edmonton, and thence he went to Rugby in 1828, the year when Dr. Arnold became head-master. At Rugby among his chief school friends were A. H. Clough, W. C. Lake, A. P. Stanley, and C. J. Vaughan. He then belonged to the band of Arnold's attached pupils who have spread the traditions and influence of the school over the world. He was the anonymous 'old pupil,' a letter to whom from Arnold is printed in Dean Stanley's 'Life' (i. 372, ii. 54, 116). In 1832 he left Rugby with an exhibition, and, after unsuccessfully standing for a scholarship at Trinity College, matriculated there as a commoner on 9 June 1832. At Oxford a renewal of friendship with A. P. Stanley increased his interest in the life and studies of the university, which at first appear to have been distasteful to him (Stanley's Life and Letters, i. 125). In 1837 he laid the foundation of his life-long friendship with Benjamin Jowett [q. v. Suppl.] Having determined to take up medicine as a profession he studied at the Radclift'e Infirmary, Oxford, and visited Paris to acquaint himself with hospital practice there, 1836-7. By this means he gained a full and accurate knowledge of the French language. Although, he passed the requisite examinations, Greenhill took no degree in arts, but graduated M.B. in 1839 and M.D. in 1840. He was appointed physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1839, and continued to hold the office until 1851. He then began practice as a physician in Oxford, and lived at 91 High Street. His work in sanitary matters began in 1849, when there was a visitation of cholera at Oxford, and he drew up, for the Ashmolean Society, a series of reports upon the public health and mortality of the city (see Acland, Memoir upon the Cholera at Oxford in 1854)

As a parishioner at Oxford of St. Mary's, Greenhill came into association, soon after his settlement in practice, with the vicar, John Henry Newman [q. v.], who appointed him churchwarden, an office which he held at the time when the latter resigned the living in 1843. His personal intercourse with Newman then ceased, although they corresponded on friendly terms (cf. Letters and Correspondence of Newman, ii. 477). He was a member of Dr. Pusey's theological society (Life of Pusey, i. 337, 410), and was intimate with other leaders in the Oxford movement. He was one of 'the younger liberals' who wished the proctors to exercise their power of veto when the condemnation of Tract No. XC. was proposed in 1845 (Life and Letters of Dean Church, p. 61).