treat all public men with equality and fairness, and to be severe without being vindictive. Thus, he was always careful to make the politician, not the man, appear ridiculous, and the laugh raised is almost invariably good-natured. It is a remarkable fact that Tenniel never used models or nature for any of his drawings. In his portraits he was an idealist rather than a realist, since they were never taken from the life. His allegorical figures are notable for their beauty and statuesque qualities; his beasts, in which he especially delighted, for their dignity. All his designs are characterized by earnestness and directness, and his best work has great simplicity.
In addition to his drawings for Punch Tenniel did a certain amount of work as a book-illustrator. His illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), and Alice Through the Looking-Glass (1872) are famous. [See Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge.] He also illustrated, among other works, Lalla Rookh (1861), The Ingoldsby Legends (1864), and Punch's Pocket-Book (1876).
In private life Tenniel was genial and of an equable temper. Through an exceptionally long life, in which he came into contact with all sorts and conditions of men, it is safe to say that he never made an enemy, while few men have had more friends.
There is a portrait of Tenniel by Frank Holl in the National Portrait Gallery.
[The Times, 27 February 1914; Supplement to Punch, 4 March 1914; Cosmo Monkhouse, The Life and Works of Sir John Tenniel in The Art Annual, 1901; M. H. Spielmann, History of Punch, 1895; personal knowledge.]
THOMAS, DAVID ALFRED, first Viscount Rhondda (1856–1918), statesman, colliery proprietor, and financier, was one of seventeen children born to Samuel Thomas and his second wife, Rachel Joseph. Twelve of these children died in infancy; David was the third of those who survived. He was born at Ysgyborwen, close to Aberdare, 26 March 1856. His father welcomed the news of his birth with the exclamation, ‘Well, I see nothing for him but the workhouse’. This father was a remarkable man who had advanced his fortunes as a grocer in Merthyr Tydfil by dabbling in colliery speculations. Tight-fisted and despotic in the family circle, he was courageous to the point of daring in matters of business. He would sell sixpenny-worth of apples from his garden, would read the newspaper holding a candle in his hand, and would burn the garments of his young wife to punish her for extravagance: nevertheless he was ready to risk the savings of a hard and thrifty life whenever a speculation presented itself which promised fortune. At the time of his son's birth so desperate was his financial condition that had his bank known the true condition of his affairs he would have been ruined.
David Thomas was sent to a private school at Clifton, where he won two scholarships at Cambridge, one for Jesus College and another for Caius. He chose the second and went up to Cambridge in 1876, taking his B.A. degree four years later. He was slight and delicate, but notable for high spirits, a love of games, and a natural brilliance in mathematics. At Cambridge he learnt no more mathematics than he had easily acquired at school, and gave up almost all his time to rowing, boxing, and swimming. His scholarship, in consequence, was taken away from him. This love of games distinguished his character to the end of his life, giving him a certain charm of boyishness which quickly won for him the confidence and affection of men in all stations of life, from the great financial magnates of America to the most truculent of labour leaders in the South Wales coal-field. It is characteristic of him that he was still birds'-nesting as a Cabinet minister. In the year 1882 he married Sybil Margaret, daughter of George Augustus Haig, of Pen Ithon, Radnorshire, by whom he had one child, Margaret, afterwards Viscountess Rhondda. He became associated at this time with the Cambrian collieries in the Rhondda Valley. His skill in handling men and his ability in financial matters soon made him a power in South Wales, and he was returned, unopposed, as a Gladstonian liberal for Merthyr Tydfil in 1888. The elections of 1892, 1895, and 1900 found him in each case at the top of the poll, but he was ignored by the leaders of his party, even to the point of never once being asked to sit on a committee. Still at the top of the poll in 1906, and still ignored by his leaders, Thomas decided in 1910 to give himself up to business, relinquishing all the dreams he had sincerely cherished of rendering his country distinguished political service. The reason for his failure to make an impression on the House of Commons was said, falsely perhaps, to be that he was hard to get on with: a real bar to his political fortunes was the dullness of his speeches. In 1915 he was asked by
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