Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/484

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Lewis
464
Lidderdale

Welsh. The exercise of such discretion on his part was upheld in the law courts (Law Reports, 20 Q.B.D. 460; 58 Law Times, 812).

The bishop died at Llandaff on 24 Jan. 1905, and was buried at Llanddewi Velfrey. He preserved his physical vigour till near the end. A life-size gilt-bronze statue, in ecclesiastical robes, by (Sir) W. Goscombe John, R.A., was erected in the cathedral, being unveiled on behalf of the subscribers by Viscount Tredegar on 17 Dec. 1908. A portrait in the Palace, Llandaff, by Mr. A. S. Cope, R.A., was presented on the twenty-first anniversary of his accession to the see (3 Nov. 1904).

In April 1847, while a curate at Denchworth, Lewis married Georgiana King, daughter of Major John Lewis of the Hon. East India Company. She died at Llandaff on 24 Feb. 1895. Their only child, Arthur Griffith Poyer Lewis (1848–1909), educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, where he rowed in the university boatrace of 1870, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 17 Nov. 1873, and joined the South Wales circuit. He was registrar to the diocese of Llandaff from January 1885 to April 1898, secretary to the bishop from 1897 to 1908, and chancellor of the dioceses of Llandaff and St. David's (1908–9). He was also recorder of Carmarthen (1890–1905), stipendiary magistrate for Pontypridd from July 1905, and chairman of the quarter sessions of Haverfordwest from 1907 and of Carmarthenshire from 1908 (Foster's Men at the Bar; Who's Who, 1909; Western Mail, 6 May 1909).

[South Wales Daily News and Western Mail (Cardiff) of 25 Jan. 1905 and a Welsh article in Y Geninen (Carnarvon) for January 1906 by the Dean of Bangor give the fullest and most reliable account of Bishop Lewis. See also articles by Mr. J. E. Ollivant in the Llandaff diocesan magazine for March 1905 and in Guardian 1 Feb. 1905; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Distinguished Churchmen (1902), by Charles H. Dant. The primary authorities for the bishop's episcopal work are the reports of the Llandaff Diocesan Conference from 1884 on (notably that for 1904, containing his own review of the progress made), and his visitation charges (both published at Cardiff), and also, from March 1899 on, the Llandaff diocesan magazine, each number of which gives inter alia a list of the public engagements fulfilled by the bishop in the preceding quarter. A summarised account of Dr. Lewis's episcopacy was given by his successor (Dr. Hughes) to the Welsh Church Commission on 11 June 1908 (Minutes of Evidence, book iii. pp. 511 et seq.]

D. Ll. T.


LIDDERDALE, WILLIAM (1832–1902), governor of the Bank of England, born at St. Petersburg on 16 July 1832, was second of the six sons of John Lidderdale, a Russia merchant, by his wife Ann Morgan. When ten years old he was brought to England, and after education at a private school at Birkenhead he began his commercial career in 1847 in the office of Heath and Co., Russia merchants of Liverpool. He next became cashier to Rathbone Bros, and Co. of Liverpool, representing that firm in New York from 1857 to 1863. Becoming a partner in 1864, he started the Rathbones' London house, and his business ability quickly brought him to the front rank of London merchants. He became a director of the Bank of England in 1870, deputy-governor in 1887, and governor in 1889.

During Lidderdale's deputy-governorship effect was given by the bank to the reduction of the interest on the national debt, in accordance with the National Debt Conversion Act passed in 1888, by George Joachim Goschen [q. v. Suppl. II], the chancellor of the exchequer. During his second year of office as governor Lidderdale was faced by the gravest responsibility. The money market had been for some months in an unsettled state owing to the large drain of gold to foreign parts, especially to South America. On Friday, 7 Nov. 1890, the bank rate was suddenly raised to 6 per cent. On the following day Lidderdale was informed that the great accepting house of Baring Bros. was in need of assistance being called upon to meet certain commitments in respect of the Buenos Ayres harbour and water works. Their liabilities were 22,000,000l., against which were liquid assets immediately available of 15,000,000l., whilst the personal estates of the partners were valued at about 11,000,000l. Lidderdale immediately consulted not only his fellow directors but the leading bankers and merchants. By the following Wednesday afternoon he had purchased 1,500,000l. of gold from Russia and borrowed 3,000,000l. from France. On Thursday, 14 Nov., Messrs. Baring laid a statement of their affairs before the directors; on Friday Lidderdale placed the British government in full possession of the facts of the coming emergency and of the steps taken and proposed to be taken to meet it. On the same afternoon a guarantee fund was opened at the bank, and by noon the next day a subscription of 16,000,000l. had been secured, and he was