Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/201

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Rhodes
191
Rhodes

was done. In a word he was ’daemonic,' and the impression of greatness which he made on his subordinates is reflected in the view now taken of him by his countrymen. His life, however rightly or wrongly conducted in detail, is seen to have been steadily devoted to impersonal and public service and a cause which was really the greater friendliness of mankind. Rhodes was over six feet high, enormously broad and deep chested, with a fair complexion, deep blue eyes, and light brown waving hair, which grew white in his later years. In his blood there was a Norse strain, and he had the look of a viking. His head was huge and the brow massive, and was compared erroneously to Napoleon's. The likeness was imperial but recalled rather the Roman empire than the French. Rhodes is best represented in I sculpture in the statue by John Tweed I at Bulawayo (unveiled 7 July 1904). A bust by Henry Pegram, A.R.A., is at 'Grahamstown (7 Nov. 1904), a statue by the same sculptor at Cape Town ( 1909), and a colossal equestrian statue by Wilham Hamo Thomycroft, R.A., at Kimberley (1907). On 5 July 1912 Earl Grey dedicated to the public an elaborate monument to Rhodes outside Cape Town on the Groote Schuur slopes of Table Mountain, consisting of a columned Doric portico approached by a long flight of steps lined on each side by four horns of the Egyptian type from the chisel of John McAllan Swan; at the foot of the steps is the statue of 'Physical Energy' by George Frederick Watts, who originally presented it to Lord Grey for erection at Groote Schuui. An unfurnished painting by Watts was presented to the National Portrait Gallery by the executors of the artist in 1905. Another portrait by Sir Hubert von Herkomer is in the Kimberley Club; a replica belongs to Lord Rosebery. A third by A. Tennyson Cole is in Oriel College Common room. A fourth by Sir Luke Flides was left unfinished. Of several miniatures painted of him, none is so good as a photograph taken by Messrs. Downey in 1898, before the fine contour of his face was blunted by disease.

[No 'standard' or adequate biography of Rhodes has yet appeared. Sir Thomas Fuller's Cecil Rhodes: a Monograph and a Reminiscence (1910) is the most considerable study of the man and his career, and is a balanced and informed appreciation. The Life by Sir Lewis Michell, Rhodes's banker and one of his trustees (2 vols. 1910), though painstaking, does not exhaust the authorities accessible, and is not authorised by the Rhodes trustees. Cecil Rhodes's Private Life, by his private secretary, Philip Jourdan (1911), written by one of several young colonists — a Dutchman in this case — who acted for Rhodes in that capacity, abounds in intimate personal observation. Cecil Rhodes, his Pohtical Life and Speeches, by Vindex, i.e. the Rev. F. Verschoyle (1900), is the chief account of Rhodes' s public career yet published, consisting largely of his speeches from 1881 to 1900 with an explanatory thread of narrative. Cecil Rhodes, by Imperialist (1897), is a popular account of his career up to the Jameson Raid, and has a chapter by Sir Starr (then Dr.) Jameson. Cecil Rhodes, by Howard Hensman (2 vols. 1911), is of a fugitive and popular type. See also With Rhodes in Mashonaland, by D. C. De Waal (Cape Town, Juta, 1895); article on Rhodes in The Empire and the Century, London, 1905, by Edmund Garrett, the best short impression; Lord Milner and South Africa, by E. B. Iwan Müller (Heinemann, 1902), also written from personal observation; Sir Percival Lawrence's On Circuit in Kaffirland; Rights and Wrongs of the Transvaal War, by E. T. Cook (1902); Sir Charles Dilke's Problems of Greater Britain (1890); English and South African papers of 27 March 1902 and of 16 and 17 April 1902; address at the grave in the Matoppos by the bishop of Mashonaland, and the archbishop of Cape Town's sermon. Cape Town Cathedral, 30 March 1902; Scholz and Hornbeck's Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarships, 1907. This article is further based on personal knowledge and association and on private information from Rhodes's brothers and sisters, from Sir Starr Jameson, and many other of Rhodes's associates.]

C. W. B.


RHODES, FRANCIS WILLIAM (1851–1905), colonel, elder brother of Cecil John Rhodes [see above], born on 9 April 1851 at Bishop Stortford, entered Eton in 1865, where he was in the army class and in the cricket elevens of 1869 and 1870. After passing through Sandhurst he was gazetted lieutenant of the 1st royal dragoons in April 1873. He saw service in the Sudan as a member of the staff in 1884, and was present at the battles of El Teb and Tamai. He was mentioned in despatches, received the medal with clasp and bronze star, and was promoted captain in Oct. 1884. He accompanied the Nile expedition in 1884-5 for the relief of Khartoum as aide-de-camp to Sir Herbert Stewart [q. v.], and distinguished himself at the battles of Abu Klea and El Gubat, where his horse was shot under him. He was mentioned in despatches, and received two clasps and the brevet of major and lieutenant-colonel (Sept. 1885). Stewart described Rhodes as the best A.D.C. a general could have.