the land. The head of the family was until 1878 treated by the British Government as governor as well as landowner.
George, the grandson of the first settler, was, like the rest of his brothers, sent to Scotland for education. In 1862, when studying engineering at Glasgow, he was recalled to the Cocos Islands to help in re-establishing the then somewhat decadent fortunes of the family there. In 1872 he succeeded to his father's interests in the Cocos Islands and married Inin, a Malayan who, like her mother-in-law, S'pia Dupong, was of high rank and resolute temper. Clunies-Ross resembled his grandfather in strength of character, business capacity, and attractiveness of personality. By the introduction into the islands of modern machinery and of scientific methods, by planting coconut palms where these had before been chiefly self-planted, and by devising new markets for the produce, he not merely restored the family fortunes but transformed the industry, on which these depended, from the moderate state of prosperity which the favourable natural conditions had hitherto allowed into a well-paying concern. Under George Clunies-Ross's rule the authority implied in the governorship of the islands was definitely transferred, by letters patent, first (in 1878) to the governor of Ceylon and next (in 1886) to the governor of the Straits Settlements still, of course, without detriment to the family's ownership of the land. A further change took place in 1903, when the islands were actually annexed to the Straits Settlements and incorporated as part of the settlement of Singapore. But none of these administrative changes in any way affected George Clunies-Ross's interest as owner of the land. Meanwhile he steadily pursued his business and improved his island estates. From time to time he was in England, attending to his affairs and to the education of his children.
He died at Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight, on 7 July 1910, and was buried in Bon-church churchyard. His property, which was considerable even outside that in the Cocos Islands, was devised to his wife and his family of four sons and five daughters; but his eldest son, John Sydney, was recognised as, by primogeniture, 'chief' of the island estate.
[The Times, 8 July 1910; H. B. Guppy's The Cocos-Keeling Islands, Scottish Geog. Soc., v. 1889; H. O. Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, 1884; Law Reports, and public records.]
CLUTTON, HENRY HUGH (1850–1909), surgeon, born on 12 July 1850 at Saffron Walden, was third son of Ralph Clutton, B.D., vicar of that parish. He was educated at Marlborough college from 1864 to 1866, but left prematurely on account of ill-health. He entered Clare College, Cambridge, in 1869, and graduated B.A. in 1873, proceeding M.A. and M.B. in 1879 and M.C. in 1897. He entered St. Thomas's Hospital in 1872, and was appointed resident assistant surgeon in 1876, assistant surgeon in 1878, and full surgeon in 1891. Whilst assistant surgeon he had charge of the department for diseases of the ear. He was surgeon to the Victoria Hospital for Children at Chelsea from 1887 to 1893.
At the Royal College of Surgeons of England he was admitted a member in 1875 and a fellow in 1876; he served on the council from 1902 until his death, and sat on the senate of the University of London as representative of the college. He was also consulting surgeon at Osborne, and in 1905 was president of the Clinical Society.
Clutton died at his house, 2 Portland Place, after a long illness, on 9 Nov. 1909, and was buried in Brompton cemetery. He married in 1896 Margaret Alice, third daughter of Canon Young, rector of Whitnash, Warwickshire, and left one daughter.
Clutton was imbued with the modern spirit which bases surgery on pathology and not merely on anatomy. Diseases of the bones and joints more especially interested him, and he was one of the earliest surgeons to recognise the importance of the active treatment of middle-ear disease. His powers as a clinical teacher were of the highest order. Not only had he a wide knowledge of surgical literature but his practical and original mind lent to his teaching a rare vivacity. He disregarded tradition, unless it could justify itself on its merits. His health and his active devotion to St. Thomas's Hospital and medical school prevented him from writing much. But he published an important paper in the ‘Lancet’ (1886, i. 516), describing an affection of the knee occurring in children who are the subjects of congenital syphilis. His description was generally accepted, the condition becoming known as ‘Clutton's joints.’
He wrote on ‘Disease of Bones’ in Treves' ‘System of Surgery’ (1895), and he was co-editor of the St. Thomas's Hospital Reports, 1885.
