relating to India' (parliamentary paper, 1869), 'Coal Economy' (1872), and 'A Century of Famines, 1770-1870' (1877).
In 1877 Danvers was transferred as assistant secretary to the revenue department of the India office, and was in January 1884 made registrar and superintendent of records. Marked efficiency in this capacity led to his being sent to Lisbon in 1891 to study records of Portuguese rule in the East. His report, based on research in the Torre do Tombo archives and the public libraries in Lisbon and Evora, was published in 1892. There followed his 'History of the Portuguese in India' (2 vols. 1894). This, his most ambitious work, was marred by want of perspective and incomplete reference to authorities. In 1893-5 Danvers studied at the Hague records of Dutch power in the East, but published nothing on the subject. He retired from the India office in July 1898.
Danvers read papers before the Society of Arts on 'Agriculture in India' (1878), 'Famines in India' (1886), and 'The India Office Records' (1889). The first and third of these papers gained the society's silver medal. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1880, subsequently served on its council, and read papers before it on 'Agriculture in Essex' (1897; Stat. Soc. Journal, lx. 251-69) and 'A Review of Indian Statistics' (1901; ib. lxiv. 31-65).
He died on 17 May 1906 at Broad Oaks, Addlestone, Surrey, and was buried at All Saints' Church, Benhilton.
Danvers married in 1860, at Hove, Louisa (b. 2 Nov. 1837), daughter of Elias Mocatta. She died at Sutton, Surrey, on 29 May 1909, and was buried beside her husband. There was issue three sons and five daughters.
Danvers also wrote:
- 'The Covenant of Jacob's Heritage,' 1877.
- 'Bengal, its Chiefs, Agents and Governors,' 1888.
- 'The Second Borgian Map,' 1889.
- 'Israel Redivivus,' 1905 (an endeavour to identify the ten tribes with the English people).
He edited 'Memorials of Old Haileybury College' (1894), and wrote introductions to 'Letters received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East' (1896); 'List of Factory Records of the late East India Company' (1897); and 'List of Marine Records of the late East India Company ' (1897).
[The Times, 21 May 1906; the Engineer, 25 May 1906; Soc. of Arts Journal, 1906; India Office List, 1905; private information.]
DARBYSHIRE, ALFRED (1839–1908), architect, son of William Darbyshire, manager of a dyeworks, by his wife Mary Bancroft, and nephew of George Bradshaw [q. v.], originator of the railway guide, was born at 8 Peru Street, Salford, on 20 June 1839. Of an old Quaker stock, he went to Quaker schools, first to that of Charles Cumber at Manchester, then to Ackworth school near Pontefract (1851–4), and finally to Dr. Satterthwaite's school at Alderley, Cheshire. After serving his articles in the office of Peter B. Alley, architect, Manchester, he began at the ago of twenty-three to practise for himself, and was elected associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1864 (fellow in 1870, and vice-president, 1902–5). His first commission was to carry out additions at Lyme Hall, Cheshire. Among other buildings he designed the Pendleton town hall, Alston Hall, near Preston, St. Cyprian's and St. Ignatius' churches, Salford, and he enlarged Galtee Castle, co. Cork. His reputation, however, was chiefly that of a theatrical architect. In Manchester he built the Comedy Theatre (afterwards called the Gaiety) and the Palace of Varieties, and carried out alterations at the Theatre Royal and the Prince's. He also designed a theatre at Rawtenstall and one at Exeter. In London he altered and decorated the Lyceum Theatre for (Sir) Henry Irving in 1878. For some years much of his time was occupied in designing and modelling on artistic plans temporary exhibitions, including a military bazaar at Manchester in 1884, a great Shakespearean show in the Royal Albert Hall, London, in the same year, and the Old Manchester section of the Royal Jubilee exhibition at Manchester in 1887.
Darbyshire had a strong leaning towards the stage, and was an amateur actor and a friend of actors. Charles Calvert [q. v.] received material artistic aid from him in the production of his Shakespearean revivals at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester (1864–74), and he was on intimate terms with (Sir) Henry Irving from about 1864 onwards. Irving was at that date a stock actor at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, and when he took leave of Lancashire in 1865, Darbyshire played the part of Polonius to his Hamlet. In the Calvert memorial performances at Manchester in October 1879 he was instrumental in obtaining the assistance of Tom Taylor, Herman Merivale, Lewis Wingfield, and Helen Faucit, who gave her last performance of Rosalind, Darbyshire acting the part of Jacques.
