Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/104

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Garrett
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Garrod

(i.e. British) side, for, while warmly supporting Rhodes and the policy of Lord (then Sir Alfred) Milner, he showed great tact in dealing with the susceptibilities of his Dutch opponents. Indeed the policy which he always advocated, that of a United South Africa, absolutely autonomous in its own affairs, but remaining part of the British empire, is now an established fact, readily accepted by men of all parties. Garrett's important contribution to that result constitutes his chief title to remembrance. But the enormous physical strain was too much for his frail constitution. In the summer of 1899 his health broke down permanently. Obliged to leave South Africa, in an advanced stage of consumption, just before the outbreak of the war, he spent the next two or three years in sanatoria, first on the Continent and then in England, still hoping against hope that he might be able to return to an active political career. He had already in January 1900 resigned the editorship of the 'Cape Times,' and in 1902 he also gave up his seat in the house of assembly. He still from time to time, when his health permitted the exertion, wrote short articles and poems of exceptional merit, which are of permanent value, notably his brilliant 'Character Sketch' of Cecil Rhodes, published directly after Rhodes's death in the 'Contemporary Review' of June 1902, which is by far the most lifelike and best balanced picture of that great personality. Of much interest likewise are some of his memorial verses: 'The Last Trek,' written on the occasion of President Kruger's funeral progress from Cape Town to Pretoria (Spectator, 10 Dec. 1904), 'In Memoriam F. W. R.' (Frank Rhodes), (Westminster Gazette, 27 Oct. 1905), and 'A Millionaire's Epitaph' [​Alfred Beit, q. v. Suppl. II], (ibid. 20 July 1906). In March 1903 Garrett, then a hopeless invalid, was married to Miss Ellen Marriage, whose acquaintance he had made, as a fellow patient, at the sanatorium at Wiston, in Essex. Miss Marriage had been completely restored to health, and it was doubtless due to her care and devotion that Garrett's life was prolonged for another four years—years of great happiness, despite his complete physical prostration. In June 1904 Mr. and Mrs. Garrett settled in a cottage, Wiverton Acre, near Plympton, Devonshire. Garrett died there on 10 May 1907, and was buried at Brixton, Devonshire. To the last he occasionally wrote, chiefly on South Africa. Within a month of his death he contributed to the 'Standard' (12 April) an article on 'The Boer in the Saddle,' which showed no loss of his old brilliancy and force, although the effort involved in writing it was nearly fatal.

Besides the works mentioned Garrett published 'The Story of an African Crisis' (1897), and he contributed a chapter, 'Rhodes and Milner,' to 'The Empire and the Century' (1905). The Garrett Colonial Library, which was founded by colonial admirers in his memory, was opened at the Cambridge Union Society on 23 May 1911. A pencil portrait by Sir Edward Poynter is in the possession of his widow.

[An excellent Life by (Sir) E. T. Cook (1909) contains many extracts from his letters, a good photographic portrait, and, in the Appendix, some of his best fugitive pieces in prose and verse.]

M.


GARROD, Sir ALFRED BARING (1819–1907), physician, born at Ipswich on 13 May 1819, was second child and only son of the five children of Robert Garrod of that town, by his wife, Sarah Enew Clamp. He was educated at the Ipswich grammar school, and after being apprenticed to Mr. Charles Hammond, surgeon to the East Suffolk Hospital, pursued his medical course at University College Hospital, where he graduated M.B. in 1842, and M.D. London in 1843, gaining the gold medal in medicine at both examinations. In 1847 Garrod was appointed assistant physician to University College Hospital, where he became physician and professor of therapeutics and clinical medicine in 1851. In the latter year he became a licentiate (corresponding to the present member), and in 1856 a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, where he was Gulstonian lecturer in 1857, and lecturer on materia medica in 1864. He was elected F.R.S. in 1858. Having resigned his posts at University College Hospital he was in 1863 elected physician to King's College Hospital and professor of materia medica and therapeutics in King's College; on his retirement in 1874 he was elected consulting physician. At the Royal College of Physicians he was Lumleian lecturer in 1883, the first recipient of the Moxon medal in 1891, censor (1874–5, 1887), and vice-president in 1888. Knighted in 1887, he in 1890 became physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and was an honorary member of the Verein für innere Medicin in Berlin.

Garrod, a follower of Prout and Bence Jones, devoted himself to chemical investigation of the problems of disease. His name will always be known in con-