DE VERE, Sir STEPHEN EDWARD, fourth baronet (1812–1904), translator of Horace, and elder brother of the above, was born at Curragh Chase, Adare, co. Limerick, on 26 July 1812. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and shared through life the literary tastes of his family. After reading at Lincoln's Inn, he was called to the Irish bar in 1836. His life was dedicated to the service of his fellow-countrymen, and he worked hard for the relief of the distress during the Irish famine. He believed emigration to be the only panacea, and encouraged the young men to go out to Canada. Hearing of the terrible sufferings of the emigrants on the voyage, in May 1847 he went himself as a steerage passenger to Canada. The emigrant ships were sailing vessels, and the voyage took six weeks or more. He returned to England in the autumn of 1848. His letter describing the voyage was read in the House of Lords by Lord Grey, with the result that the Passengers Act was amended, and proper accommodation provided for emigrants. His admiration of the Irish catholic peasants led him to embrace the Roman catholic religion, and his reception into that church took place during his visit to Canada in 1848.
De Vere was member of parliament for Limerick (1854–9). He was a liberal, but, though opposed to home rule, approved Gladstone's Land Act. He succeeded his brother Vere as fourth baronet in 1880. He died unmarried on 10 Nov. 1904 at Foynes, co. Limerick, an island in the river Shannon, and was buried there, by the door of the Roman catholic church, which was built mainly by his exertions. A fountain was erected in the village during his lifetime to commemorate his work in the district. His kindness to his tenants was remarkable; they were suffered to help themselves to wood from the park, and even, it is said, to the deer. The baronetcy became extinct at his death.
De Vere published 'Translations from Horace' in 1886, together with some original verse. The renderings of Horace are vigorous and are often finely turned, but he expands freely. He wrote also a few pamphlets, including 'Is the Hierarchy an Aggression?' in 1851 (two edits.).
[The Times, 11 Nov. 1904; Wilfrid Ward, Aubrey de Vere, pp. 183-4; Aubrey de Vere, Recollections, 1897, pp. 252-4; private information.]
DEVONSHIRE, eighth Duke of. [See Cavendish, Spencer Compton, 1833–1908.]
DE WINTON, Sir FRANCIS WALTER (1835–1901), major-general and South African administrator, born at Pittsford, Northamptonshire, on 21 June 1835, was second son of Walter de Winton (1809-1840), of Maesllwch Castle, Radnorshire, whose surname was changed from Wilkins to De Winton by royal licence in 1839. His mother was Julia Cecilia, second daughter of Richard John Collinson, rector of Gateshead.
Educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he entered the royal artillery as second lieutenant on 11 April 1854. Serving in the Crimean war, he was present at the siege and fall of Sevastopol, and received the medal with one clasp, Turkish medal, and the legion d'honneur, 5th class. Becoming captain in 1861, he acted as A.D.C. to Sir W. Fenwick Williams [q. v.] when commanding the forces in British North America, and was again on his staff when he was lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867 and when he was governor of Gibraltar in 1870-5. From 1877 to 1878 De Winton was military attaché at Constantinople, and from 1878 to 1883 he was secretary to the marquis of Lorne (afterwards ninth duke of Argyll) when governor-general of Canada. Promoted lieut.-colonel in 1880, he became brevet-colonel in 1884, and was made C.M.G. in 1882 and K.C.M.G. in Feb. 1884.
In 1885 (he was appointed administrator-general of the Congo under the Belgian government, just before it was raised to the rank of a state. He held this office only until 1886, when he was created a commander of the Order of Leopold. In 1887 he acted as secretary of the Emin Pasha relief committee, and assisted (Sir) H. M. Stanley [q. v. Suppl. II] in his preparations for the relief expedition (H. M. Stanley, In Darkest Africa, i. 40). Subsequently Sir Francis, who became a substantive colonel in 1887, commanded the expedition against the Yonnies on the West Coast of Africa. Robarrie, the strong-hold of the insurgents, was captured on 21 Nov. 1887, and the rebellion suppressed. For his services De Winton was made a C.B. in March 1888, receiving the medal and clasp, and on his return home he was appointed assistant quartermaster-general at headquarters. The end of 1889, however, found him once more in Africa. Repeated requests had been made by the King of Swaziland that his country should be taken under the protection of the British government, owing to the aggressive attitude of the Boers, but the government had declined to interfere. Left to them--
