tions and appeals for international arbitration. He thus became an international figure whose name was known everywhere, especially among workmen. In 1889 the Inter-parliamentary Union was formed, and Cremer became British secretary until his death. For his unwearying service in the cause of international arbitration he was awarded by the Swedish government in 1903 the Nobel prize of 8000l., 7000l. of which he handed over in trust to the International 'Arbitration League. For his work in the cause of peace he was made commander of the Norwegian Order of St. Olaf in 1904, and was knighted in 1907. He had received the cross of the legion of honour in 1890.
In politics Cremer was a radical. He was a member of the Reform League from its commencement in 1864, and he always claimed that he proposed 'that it would be for the health of the reformers if they should take an airing in Hyde Park on 23 July 1866,' the suggestion which led to the demolition of the Hyde Park railings. In 1868 he addressed a meeting in Warwick, and accepted an invitation to stand as radical candidate. He was defeated with only 260 votes to his credit. He fought the same constituency in 1874, and found only 183 supporters. Twice he failed in his candidature for the London School Board, in 1870 and 1873; but in 1884 he was elected to the St. Pancras vestry. The reform bill of 1885 increased the representation of London, and Cremer contested the Haggerston division of Shoreditch with success. In the elections of 1886 and 1892 he retained his seat, but was defeated in 1895. He recovered it in spite of the South African war fever in 1900, and kept it till his death. In the controversies which arose inside trade unionism when the labour party came into existence, Cremer stoutly opposed the new independent labour movement and remained with the liberal party.
He died at 11 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, on 22 July 1908, and was buried in Hampstead cemetery after cremation. He was twice married: (1) in 1860, to Charlotte, daughter of J. Wilson of Spalding; she died in August 1876; (2) to Lucy Coombes of Oxford, who died on 8 Aug. 1884. He had no children.
He intended to write his autobiography, but only left some notes behind him. His literary work is confined to the pages of the 'Arbitrator,' a monthly peace journal which he edited from its appearance in 1889. On 7 Dec. 1911 a bust executed by Mr. Paul Montford for the International Arbitration Society was unveiled by Mr. J. W. Lowther, the Speaker, in the library of the House of Commons; the bust is intended ultimately for the Palace of Peace at the Hague.
[Howard Evans, Sir Randal Cremer; his Life and Work, 1911; Sidney Webb's History of Trade Unionism; Dr. Eugene Oswald, Reminiscences of a Busy Life, 1911; The Times, 23 July 1908.]
CRIPPS, WILFRED JOSEPH (1841–1903), writer on plate, was descended from an ancient Cirencester family, members of which took a prominent part in the affairs of the town from the time of Elizabeth, and gained their wealth from the great wool trade of the Cotswolds. His grandfather, Joseph Cripps, sat for Cirencester in parliament, with one short interruption, from 1806 until his death in 1841, when he was succeeded in the representation by his son, William Cripps. The latter, a barrister on the Oxford circuit, became a whip of the Peelite party and a junior lord of the treasury in August 1845, and married his cousin, Mary Anne, daughter of Benjamin Harrison, a descendant of 'Parson Harrison ' who held the living of Cirencester for sixty-three years (1690-1753). Wilfred Joseph Cripps, the eldest surviving issue of this marriage, was born in London on 8 June 1841, and was educated at Kensington grammar school, King's College, London, and Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1863, proceeding M.A. in 1866. He took an active part in the volunteer movement, frequently attending the rifle competitions at Wimbledon. In May 1865 he was called to the bar in the Middle Temple, practising for a few years on the Oxford circuit.
About 1871 or 1872 he began his researches into old English plate, and three or four years later, on the introduction of William Lord Bathurst, Charles Octavius Swinnerton Morgan [q. v.] entrusted Cripps with his notes on the subject, with a view to completing the inquiry. Cripps published in 1878 his scholarly treatise, 'Old English Plate.' The foundations of the research had been laid by Sir A. W. Franks, Morgan, and others, but Cripps gave earlier researches a wider vogue. Nine editions of his manual, which greatly stimulated the demand for antique silver, appeared between 1878 and 1906, and each new edition embodied fresh discoveries. Cripps's labours covered a wide field. In April 1892 he read a paper on the old church plate of Northumberland and Durham before the Society of Antiquaries of New--
