Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/40

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Greathed
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Greatorex

commanded by his brother Edward. As they approached the edge of the ditch he fell severely wounded through the arm and lower part of the chest. On recovering from his wounds he joined in December, as field engineer, the column under Colonel Seaton, which marched down the Doab, and he took part in the engagements of Gungeree, Pattialee, and Mynpoory. His next services were rendered as directing engineer of the attack on Lucknow, under Colonel R. Napier (afterwards first Lord Napier of Magdala), where he again distinguished himself. On the capture of Lucknow he returned to his railway duties. His services in the mutiny were rewarded by a brevet majority and a C.B. In 1860 he accompanied Sir Robert Napier as extra aide-de-camp to China, was present at the battle of Senho, at the capture of the Taku forts on the Peiho, and took part in the campaign until the capture of Pekin, when he was made the bearer of despatches home. He arrived in England at the end of 1860, was made a brevet lieutenant-colonel on 15 Feb. for his services in China, and in March was appointed to succeed his friend lieutenant-colonel (now Sir Henry) Norman as assistant military secretary at the Horse Guards. That post he held for four years. In 1863 he married Alice, daughter of the Rev. Archer Clive of Whitfield, near Hereford. In 1867, after serving for a short time at Plymouth and on the Severn defences, he returned to India, and was appointed head of the irrigation department in the northwest provinces. In 1872, when at home on furlough, he read a paper before the Institute of Civil Engineers on 'The Irrigation Works of the North-West Provinces,' for which the council awarded him the Telford medal and premium of books. On his return to India he continued his irrigation duties, and two great works, the Agra canal from the Jumna, and the Lower Ganges canal, are monuments of his labours. He commanded the royal engineers assembled at the camp of Delhi at the reception of the Prince of Wales in December 1875 and January 1876, and this was the last active duty he performed. In 1875 he had been ill from overwork, and his malady increasing he left India in July 1876. He lived as an invalid over two years longer, during which he was promoted major-general. He died on 29 Dec. 1878. He had a good service pension assigned to him in 1876. He had been honourably mentioned in eighteen despatches, in ten general orders, in a memorandum by the lieutenant-governor of the north-west provinces, and in a minute by Lord Canning, viceroy of India. He received a medal and three clasps for the Punjab campaign, a medal and three clasps for the mutiny, and a medal and two clasps for China.

[Corps Records; Private Memoir.]

R. H. V.

GREATHEED, BERTIE (1759–1826), dramatist, born on 19 Oct. 1759 (Gent. Mag. 1759, p. 497), was the son of Samuel Greatheed (1710-1765) of Guy's Cliffe, near Warwick, by his wife Lady Mary Bertie, daughter of Peregrine, second duke of Ancaster. When residing in Florence he became a member of the society called 'Gli Oziosi' and a contributor to their privately printed collection of fugitive pieces entitled 'The Arno Miscellany,' 8vo, Florence, 1784. The following year he contributed to 'The Florence Miscellany,' 8vo, Florence, 1785, a collection of poems by the 'Della-Cruscans,' for which he was termed by Gifford the Reuben of that school in the 'Baviad' and 'Mæviad.' A blankverse tragedy by him called 'The Regent' was brought out at Drury Lane Theatre on 1 April 1788, but, though supported by John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, was withdrawn after trying the public patience for some nine nights (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, vi. 477-8). The epilogue was furnished by Mrs. Piozzi. The author afterwards published it with a dedication to Mrs. Siddons, who had once been an attendant upon his mother, and was his frequent guest at Guy's Cliffe. The play is less foolish than might be supposed; though Manuel, the hero, requests Gomez to 'go to the puddled market-place, and there dissect his heart upon the public shambles.' Greatheed died at Guy's Cliffe on 16 Jan. 1826, aged 66 (Gent. Mag. 1826, pt. i. pp. 367-8). His only son, Bertie, who died at Vicenza in Italy on 8 Oct. 1804, aged 23 (ib. 1804, pt. ii. pp. 1073, 1236), was an amateur artist of some talent. The younger Greatheed had married in France, and his only daughter became, on 20 March 1823, the wife of Lord Charles Percy, son of the Earl of Beverley.

[Baker's Biographia Dramatica, 1812, i. 296, iii. 197.]

G. G.

GREATOREX, RALPH (d. 1712?), mathematical instrument maker, is mentioned in Aubrey's 'Lives' (ii. 473) as a great friend of Oughtred the mathematician. He is also briefly referred to in Aubrey's 'Natural History of Wilts' (ed. Britton, p. 41), and in the 'Macclesfield Correspondence' (i. 82). Evelyn met Greatorex on 8 May 1656 (Diary, i. 314), and saw his 'excellent invention to quench fire.' His name appears in Pepys's 'Diary.' On 11 Oct. 1660, when several engines were shown at work in St. James's Park, 'above all the rest,' says Pepys, 'I liked that