1865. He qualified as gunnery lieutenant in 1867, and was appointed first lieutenant on H.M.S. Excellent on 22 Sept. 1869. While holding this appointment he worked out with Naval Engineer Newman what are claimed to have been the first designs of hydraulic mountings for heavy naval ordnance. He also engaged in literary work of a technical character, contributing to 'Engineering' and service journals. On 31 Dec. 1876 he was made commander, and on 1 May 1877 was appointed, on account of his linguistic attainments, second naval attache to the maritime courts of Europe. He also acted as naval adviser to the British representatives at the Berlin Congress of 1878. On 22 Sept. 1882 the sloop Phoenix, under his command, foundered off Prince Edward Island. No lives, however, were lost. Grenfell retired with the rank of captain on 2 Dec. 1887.
Grenfell was afterwards for many years associated with the experimental work of Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. He was the first to direct the Admiralty's attention to the night-sighting of guns; and about 1891, on the introduction of the incandescent electric lamp, he invented his 'self-illuminating night sights for naval ordnance.' The invention was for fifteen years attached to all heavy guns in the British navy, and was adopted by some foreign navies. Grenfell was also one of the first to suggest the use of sight-scales marked in large plain figures for naval guns, and advocated, though without success, the adoption of a telescopic light for day use. He also worked out the arrangement subsequently adopted for quick-firing field artillery, by which the changes of angle between the line of sight and the axis of the bore which are required when firing at a moving target can be effected without altering the line of sight.
In April 1877 Grenfell read before the Institution of Naval Architects an able paper advocating the trial of Grüson's chilled cast-iron armour in England, and in 1887 he published 'Grüson's Chilled Cast-iron Armour' (translated from the German of Julius von Schutz). He helped to form the Navy League, and served at one time on its executive committee. He died at Alverstoke, Hampshire, on 13 Sept. 1906.
[The Times, 26 Sept. 1906; Engineering, 28 Sept. 1906; Capt. H. Garbett, Naval Gunnery, 1897; C. Orde Brown, Armour and Its Attacks by Artillery, 1893; Clowes, History of the Royal Navy, vol. 7, 1903; the Navy List, Jan. 1888.]
GREY, Mrs. MARIA GEORGINA, whose maiden name was Shirreff (1816–1906), promoter of women's education, born on 7 March 1816, was younger daughter of Admiral William Henry Shirreff by his wife Elizabeth Anne, daughter of the Hon. David Murray; Emily Shirreff [q. v.] was her elder sister. In youth Maria was constantly abroad, and became an accomplished linguist. In later years, until she was prevented by ill-health, she went every winter to Rome. She early interested herself in the condition of women's education and position. On 7 Jan. 1841 she married her first cousin, William Thomas Grey (1807-1864), nephew of the second Earl Grey [q. v.] Her husband, who was a wine merchant in London, died on 13 March 1864. There were no children of the marriage.
Mrs. Grey collaborated with her sister. Miss Shirreff, in 'Passion and Principle' (1841), and in 'Thoughts on Self-Culture' (1850), but after her husband's death in 1864 concentrated her attention on women's education.
When the Report of the Schools Inquiry Commission of 1870 revealed the unsatisfactory condition of the education of girls in this country, Mrs. Grey read a paper at the Social Science Congress at Leeds, October 1871, advocating the establishment throughout England of large day schools for girls with boarding-houses in connection. For that purpose she formed in 1872 the 'National Union for the Higher Education of Women.' A mercantile company was created under the style of 'The Girls' Public Day School Company,' which provided the funds needed to give practical effect to the purposes of the union. Until 1879 Mrs. Grey was organising secretary of the union, which was dissolved in 1884. In 1906 the company was converted into a trust, which now (1912) has thirty-three schools and over 7000 pupils.
In order to ensure a supply of competent teachers for these new girls' schools, Mrs. Grey founded a training college for women teachers in secondary schools, of which again she acted as honorary organising secretary. The college was opened in 1878, with four students, in premises lent by William Rogers [q. v.], rector of Bishopsgate. After a removal in 1885, the college was installed in 1892 in its present quarters at Brondesbury, and became known as the Maria Grey Training College. Mrs. Grey throughout helped the college by donations of money and by unceasing effort to interest others in the work.
Mrs. Grey, who was an admirably persuasive speaker, was at the same time
