on 9 Dec. 1905, when he gave 2100 guineas for an example by P. de Koninck. Chief among his private purchases was the Colonna or Ripaldi Raphael, which had been on loan at the South Kensington Museum for many years, after being offered to the nation, and refused, for 40,000l. It was then in a dirty and repainted condition. In his private diary, under date 15 June 1896, Martin Colnaghi recorded the purchase of this picture from the earl of Ashburnham for 17,000l., whilst a further 500l. was paid as commission to an intermediary (see also The Times, 27 July 1896). He disposed of it to Mr. C. Sedelmeyer of Paris, who sold it to Mr. John Pierpont Morgan, of New York, not, as generally stated, for 100,000l. but for 80,000l. (two million francs). Among other private purchases was the beautiful Hoppner group of the Frankland sisters, for which he paid Lady Frankland 8000l. He frequently lent pictures to the Old Masters at Burlington House from 1885 and to other exhibitions. He was a member of the Printsellers' Association from 1879, but published only a few engravings.
Martin Colnaghi outlived all his brothers and sisters. He died at the Marlborough Galleries, Pall Mall, on 27 June 1908, and was buried hi the family grave at Highgate. He bequeathed a number of pictures to the National Gallery (The Times, 15 July 1908, and Connoisseur, October 1908, pp. 126-7), and, subject to his widow's life interest, left the whole of the residue of his fortune, amounting to about 80,000l., to the trustees of the National Gallery for the purchase of pictures, annually or otherwise, at their discretion, such pictures to be grouped and known as the Martin Colnaghi Bequest (The Times, 5 Aug. 1908). In his will he is described as of Pall Mall and Arkley Cottage, Chipping Barnet, Hertfordshire.
He was married three times: (1) to Sarah Nash; (2) to Elizabeth Maxwell Howard, who died in 1888; (3) in 1889 to Amy, daughter of George Smith, the artist, but left no children.
His portrait was painted by R. L. Alldridge, by J. C. Horsley, R.A., by his father-in-law, George Smith, and by G. Marchetti. The first portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1870, and the second, which was exhibited at the same place in 1889, was presented by Colnaghi's widow to the National Gallery. A bust in marble was sculptured by Adams-Acton. Colnaghi's stock of pictures was sold at Robinson Fisher & Co.'s in six portions from 22 Oct. 1908 to 7 Jan. 1909, and realised upwards of 15,000l.
[The Times, 29 June 1908; Redford's Art Sales, ii. p. xxix, reproducing plate of a picture sale at Christie's from Graphic, 10 Sept. 1887, including figure of Colnaghi; Art Journal, 1896, p. 126, with portrait from photograph; information kindly supplied by Mrs. Martin Colnaghi; personal knowledge.]
COLOMB, Sir JOHN CHARLES READY (1838–1909), writer on imperial defence, born in the Isle of Man on 1 May 1838, was fourth son of General George Thomas Colomb (d. 1874) by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Abraham Bradley King, first baronet. Vice-admiral Philip Howard Colomb [q. v. Suppl. I] was his elder brother.
John Colomb was educated privately. He entered the royal marines in June 1854, and after a year of probation at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, was promoted to a lieutenancy in the R.M. artillery in August 1855. He retired with the rank of captain in August 1869. He was afterwards adjutant of the Cork artillery militia till May 1872. His mixed naval and military service, creditable but undistinguished, turned his mind to the consideration of our needs as the centre of a vast and far-spreading empire, and enabled him to realise, with a force then little understood, how the navy was the connecting chain of the whole. As early as 1867 he published an anonymous pamphlet on 'The Protection of our Commerce and Distribution of our Naval Forces'; and from the date of his retirement (1869) onwards he devoted himself largely to the attempt to induce the public to study these questions seriously and imperially. By addresses and papers at the Royal United Service Institution and Royal Colonial Institute, by pamphlets and by occasional volumes, he never ceased from his task, publishing in 'The Times' (17 April 1909), a month before his death, a long letter addressed to the chairman of the parliamentary labour party. He has been spoken of as the originator and apostle of 'the Blue Water School,' whose doctrines, in fact, travesty or parody his teaching. Contrary to those doctrines, he urged throughout the necessity of military preparation, and of an army for garrison at home, for field defence, and for expeditions; but he insisted as strongly that, in the face of a navy of sufficient strength, properly organised, any attempt to invade these islands must be on a very limited
