Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/132

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Gillies
112
Gillies

by Frederick day (Strand Theatre, 2 Oct. 1876); 'The Ne'er-do-Weel,' drama (Olympic Theatre, 25 Feb. 1878); 'Foggerty's Fairy,' a fairy comedy (Criterion, 16 Dec. 1881); 'Brantinghame Hall,' drama (St. James's Theatre, 29 Nov. 1888); 'The Brigands,' opera bouffe in three acts, music by Offenbach, adapted from 'Les Brigands' of Meilhac and Halevy (Avenue Theatre, 16 Sept. 1889); 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,' a travesty on 'Hamlet,' in three tableaux (Vaudeville Theatre, 3 June 1891 ); 'Haste to the Wedding,' comic opera, music by George Grossmith (Criterion Theatre, 27 July 1892), a version of E. M. Labiche's 'Un Chapeau de Faille d'Italie,' played at the Court Theatre as 'The Wedding March' on 15 Nov. 1873; 'The Fortune Hunter,' drama (Theatre Royal, Birmingham, 27 Sept. 1897).

Collected editions of Gilbert's dramatic work appeared as 'Original Plays' (4 series, 1874~1911) and 'Origmal Comic Operas' (8 parts, containing 'Sorcerer,' 'H.M.S. Pinafore,' 'Pirates of Penzance,' 'Iolanthe,' 'Patience,' 'Princess Ida,' 'Mikado,' and 'Trial by Jury,' 1890). He also published 'Songs of a Savoyard,' a collection of songs from the Savoy operas, illustrated by Gilbert (1890), and 'Foggerty's Fairy and other Tales' (1890).

[William Schwenck Gilbert, an Autobiography in The Theatre, 2 April 1883, pp. 217 seq.; Edith A. Browne, W. S. Gilbert, 1907; Arthur Lawrence, Life of Sir Arthur Sullivan, 1899; William Archer, English Dramatists of Today; William Archer, Real Conversations; Percy Fitzgerald, The Savoy Opera and the Savoyards; Daily Telegraph, 30 May 1911; The Times, 30 May-2 June, 18 Aug. (will), 1911; John Hollingshead's Gaiety Chronicles, 1898; Kate Field's W. S. Gilbert in Scribner's Monthly, 1879, xviii. 754; Smalley's London Letters, 2 vols., 1890; and his Anglo-American Memories, 1911; The English Aristophanes, art. by Walter Sichel, in Fortnightly Review, 1912; W. Davenport Adams, Diet, of the Drama.]

E. A. P.


GILLIES, DUNCAN (1834–1903), premier of Victoria, Australia, born in January 1834 at Over-Newton, a suburb of Glasgow, was second son of Duncan Gillies, a market gardener of that place, by Margaret his wife. After education at Glasgow High School he began a business career in a counting-house in his native city. He read much in his leisure, chiefly in history.

In 1852 he emigrated to Australia, and landing at Port Phillip, Victoria, proceeded to the Ballarat gold-fields, where for some time he worked as a digger. In 1853-4 he was one of the leaders of the miners in their resistance to the demands of the government, though from the outset he was strongly opposed to the use of violence and took no part in the affair of the Eureka stockade. Becoming known among his fellows as a ready speaker, he was elected a member of the local mining court, and in February 1858 he became a member of the Ballarat mining board, which then superseded that court.

Gillies, who had become a working partner in the Great RepubHc (mining) Company, was returned 'to the Legislative Assembly in 1859 as the miners' representative for Ballarat West, being re-elected in 1861, 1864, 1866, and 1868. He soon became one of the foremost debaters. On 11 May 1868 he took office as president of the board of land and works and commissioner of crown lands and surveys in the unpopular Sladen ministry, and was sworn a member of the executive council. Promptly rejected on seeking re-election, he sought a constituency where his growing antipathy to democracy might find favour. At the next general election, in March 1870, he was returned unopposed for Maryborough.

On 10 June 1872 he joined the Francis ministry as commissioner of railways and roads, and he retained the office when the cabinet was reconstructed under George Briscoe Kerferd in July 1874. He retired on 2 Aug. 1875, but was commissioner of lands and survey and president of the board of land and works and minister of agriculture in the last McCulloch government (25 Oct. 1875-21 May 1877). At the general election of May 1877 Gillies was returned for Rodney, but he was unseated on petition on the ground that undue influence had been exercised by the land department during the contest. He was exonerated from any personal knowledge of this abuse, and was re-elected for the same constituency on 2 Nov. 1877. He was prominent in the opposition to the party led by (Sir) Graham Berry [q. v. Suppl. II].

From 5 March to 3 Aug. 1880 he was commissioner of railways in the Service government, and although a strong conservative and free-trader he took office as commissioner of railways and minister of public instruction in the Service-Berry coalition which ruled the colony from 8 March 1883 to 18 Feb. 1886. When Service and Berry retired on the last date, and the ministry was reconstructed, again on a coalition basis, Gillies became premier and treasurer and Deakin chief