Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/172

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Rathbone
162
Rattigan

the county till 1885, and from 1885 for North Carnarvonshire. He followed Gladstone on the home rule question. In 1895 Rathbone retired from parliament. He was deputy-lieutenant for Lancashire.

In the foundation of the University College of Liverpool (opened in Jan. 1882) he was greatly interested; with his two brothers he founded a King Alfred chair of modern literature and English language; he was president of the college from 1892. He was also very active in the movement for establishing the University College of North Wales (opened Oct. 1884), of which he was president from 1891. He was actively concerned in the Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889. Liverpool gave him the freedom of the city on 21 Oct. 1891. In May 1895 he was made LL.D. by Victoria University.

Straightforwardness and pertinacity, with entire unselfishness, were leading features in Rathbone's character. With little of the bonhomie and none of the humour of his large-hearted father, seeming indeed to be a dry man, he had a tenderness of disposition which found expression rather in act than in word. Principled against indiscriminate giving, he was constantly liable to be overcome by personal appeal. A convinced unitarian in theology, he carried many traces of his Quaker antecedents. His manner of life was simple. He died at Greenbank, Liverpool, on 6 March 1902, and was buried in Toxteth cemetery. He married (1) on 6 Sept. 1847, Lucretia Wainwright (d. 27 May 1859), eldest daughter of Samuel Gair of Liverpool, by whom he had four sons, of whom two survived him, and one daughter; (2) in 1862, Emily Acheson (his second cousin), daughter of Acheson Lyle of Londonderry, who survived him with her two sons and two daughters.

Rathbone published:

  1. 'Social Duties … Organisation of … Works of Benevolence and Public Utility,' 1867.
  2. 'Local Government and Taxation,' 1875.
  3. 'Local Government and Taxation,' 1883 (reprinted from the 'Nineteenth Century')
  4. 'Protection and Communism … Effects of the American Tariff on Wages,' 1884.
  5. 'Reform in Parliamentary Business,' 1884.
  6. 'Sketch of the History and Progress of District Nursing,' 1890.

His bust, by Charles Allen, was presented to University College, Liverpool. Another bust, by Hargreaves Bond, was presented (1889) to the Liverpool Reform Club. A bronze statue by (Sir) George Frampton, R.A., was erected by public subscription in St. John's Gardens, Liverpool.

[The Times, 7 March 1902; Christian Life, 7, 12, and 29 March 1902; Memorials of Agnes E. Jones, 1871; Eleanor F. Rathbone's William Rathbone; a Memoir, 1905 (portrait); information from the Rev. J. Collins Odgers; personal recollection.]

A. G.

RATTIGAN, Sir WILLIAM HENRY (1842–1904), Anglo-Indian jurist, born at Delhi on 4 Sept. 1842, was youngest son of Bartholomew Rattigan, who left his home, Athy, co. Kildare, at an early age and entered the ordnance department of the East India Company. Educated at the high school, Agra, he entered the 'uncovenanted' service of government in youth as extra assistant commissioner in the Punjab, acting for a short time as judge of the small causes court at Delhi. But being dissatisfied with his prospects he resigned, contrary to the wishes of his family, in order to study law. Enrolled as a pleader of the Punjab Chief Court on its establishment in 1866, he built up an extensive practice, first in partnership with Mr. Scarlett, and then on his own account.

Coming to England, he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 3 Nov. 1871, and was called to the bar there on 7 June 1873, also studying at King's College, London. Returning to Lahore, he speedily rose to be head of his profession there. He was for many years government advocate, and in 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1886, for varying short periods, he acted as a judge of the chief court. In Nov. 1886 he resigned his acting judgeship so as to continue his practice without further interruption. A linguist of unusual ability, Rattigan mastered in all five European languages, several Indian vernaculars, and Persian. German he studied assiduously, and he translated the second volume of Savigny's 'System of Roman Law—Jural Relations' (1883). In 1885 he took the degree of D.L., with first-class honours, at Gottingen.

In February 1887 Rattigan became vice-chancellor of the Punjab University, then on the verge of bankruptcy. He succeeded in regenerating the institution, and was reappointed biennially, retaining the vice-chancellorship till April 1895. He was made a D.L. of the university in Jan. 1896, and LL.D. of Glasgow in 1901. In 1891 he accepted the presidentship of the Khalsa College committee, and by his energy and influence overcame dissension among the Sikhs, with the result