Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/422

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Kingston
402
Kingston

from Gladstone a commissionership of woods and forests, from -which he retired in 1895, on reaching the age of sixty-five. He became paymaster-general of the royal household on King Edward VII's accession. He was made K.C.B. (civil) on 2 July 1899 and G.C.V.O. on 9 Nov. 1902. He was also a member of council of the Prince of Wales (from 1886), and receiver-general of the Duchy of Cornwall (from 1888).

Kingscote died at Worth Park, Sussex, on 22 Sept. 1908; he married (1) on 15 March 1851 Caroline, daughter of Colonel George Wyndham, first Lord Leconfield (she died in 1852, leaving no issue); (2) on 5 Feb. 1856 Lady Emily Marie Curzon, third daughter of Richard William Penn, first Earl Howe (1836-1910), by whom he had one son and two daughters. A portrait in oils, done by A. de Brie in 1908, belongs to the son. A cartoon by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' (1880). Kingscote was a recognised authority on agriculture. He joined the Royal Agricultural Society in 1854, and was elected a member of the council in 1863, only finally retiring in November 1906. He was chairman of the finance committee for thirty-one years (1875-1906), and was president of the society at Bristol in 1878. When the Royal Agricultural Society met at Cambridge in 1894, Kingscote was made an hon. LL.D. He was chairman of the governors of the Royal Veterinary College, and an active member of the council of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, of the Smithfield Club, Shorthorn Society, Hunters' Improvement Society, and numerous other agricultural organisations. He was also a member of the two royal commissions on agriculture of 1879 and 1893. In personal appearance he was tall, slim, and upright, with an aristocratic face and the aquiline nose of the Somersets, which he inherited from his mother. His courteous bearing and his kindly and tactful manners were of the old school.

[Memoir by the present writer in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1908, vol. 69 (with photogravure reproduction of his portrait in oils).]

E. C.


KINGSTON, CHARLES CAMERON (1850–1908), Australian statesman, born at Adelaide, South Australia, on 22 Oct. 1850, was the younger son of Sir George Strickland Kingston, who accompanied Colonel Light, the first surveyor-general of the colony, to South Australia in 1850, and was elected in April 1857 first speaker of the House of Assembly, holding the office in all for eighteen years; he was knighted by patent on 30 April 1870, and died on 26 Nov. 1881. Kingston's mother, his father's second wife, Ludovina Rosa Catherine da Silva Cameron, was of Portuguese descent on her mother's side; her father, Lieut.-colonel Charles Cameron of the 3rd regiment (the Buffs), served with distinction in the American and Peninsular wars.

After education at the Adelaide Educational Institution, Kingston was early in 1868 articled to the law in the office of Mr. (now Chief Justice Sir Samuel James) Way, and was admitted to the colonial bar in 1873, remaining with Mr. Way till the latter was appointed chief justice in 1876. Kingston then, commenced practice as a barrister and solicitor on his own account. He quickly acquired a leading practice, and was very successful in the criminal courts. In 1889 he was made Q.C. He was first returned to the house of representatives of South Austraha on 8 April 1881, as member for West Adelaide, which he continued to represent until 7 Feb. 1900. Entering parliament as a liberal, he soon developed into an advanced radical, identifying himself closely with social reform in the interest of the working classes, and helping to secure the franchise for women, factory legislation, and the establishment of a state bank.

He first held office as attorney-general in the second ministry (16 June 1884–16 June 1885) of (Sir) John Colton [q. v. Suppl. II] and he held the same office in Mr. Thomas Playford's first ministry (11 June 1887-27 June 1889). On the fall of Playford's government he became a prominent member in opposition to the Cockburn ministry. On 16 Jan. 1892 he joined the second Playford administration as chief secretary, and acted as premier during Playford's absence in India from January to May 1892. On 16 June 1893, on the appointment of Playford as agent-general in London, he became premier and attorney-general, and his government remained in power until 1 Dec. 1899, a notable fact in the history of the colony; no former ministry had held office for more than three years.

Kingston had few equals in Australia as a parliamentary draftsman. While a member of the Colton government he drafted the bill for the imposition of land and income taxes. He also prepared and carried the employers' liability bill and a measure to amend the laws of inheritance. Whilst a member of the Playford govern--