Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/124

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Lockwood
110
Lopes

of the public who follow 'celebrated trials' with an interest that never flags. He took silk in 1882. In politics he was a liberal. His first attempt to get into parliament was at King's Lynn, and was unsuccessful, as also was his first contest at York in November 1883, when, however, he was beaten by twenty-one votes only. At that time he, like the majority of liberal candidates, refused to vote even for an inquiry into home rule for Ireland, but he pledged himself to support household suffrage and elective local government in that country, and for making those pledges he incurred the public censure of Lord Salisbury, who, however, lived to make them both good. In October 1884 he became recorder of Sheffield, and in November 1885 he and his great friend, Mr. Alfred Pease, were returned to the House of Commons for York, which city he continued to represent till his death. From 1885 to 1895 Lockwood led a very busy life both professionally and socially. 'His tall powerful frame, his fine head crowned with picturesque premature white hair, his handsome healthy face, with its sunshine of genial, not vapid good nature, made him notable everywhere. So powerful was this personality that his entrance into a room seemed to change the whole complexion of the company, and I often fancied that he could dispel a London fog by his presence' (see Lord Rosebery's letter in Mr. Birrel's sketch, Sir Frank Lockwood, 1898).

In the House of Commons Lockwood, though he took no active part in debate, was a great figure, and his sketches depicting the occasional humours of that assembly were in much demand. During the vacation of 1894 Lord Rosebery, the premier (to whom Lockwood was warmly attached), offered him the post of solicitor-general, which he accepted, in succession to Sir Robert Reid, who became attorney-general. The election of 1895 restored Lord Salisbury to power, but owing to a difficulty about the scale of his successor's remuneration, Lockwood nominally remained solicitor-general until August 1895, when Mr. (now Sir Robert) Finlay succeeded him. In the vacation of 1896 he accompanied Charles Lord Russell of Killowen [q. v. Suppl.], the lord-chief-justice of England, to the United States of America. About May 1897 his health showed signs of failing, and it gradually declined until his death at his house in Lennox Gardens on Sunday, 19 Dec. 1897, in the fifty-second year of his age. His wife and two children, both daughters, survived him.

Lockwood made no pretensions to be considered a learned lawyer, nor was he accounted a consummate advocate; but his sound sense, ready wit, good feeling, and sympathetic nature, set off as these qualities were by a commanding presence and good voice, placed him in the front ranks of the bar, and easily secured him a large business. Both outside and inside his profession he enjoyed a large and deserved popularity with all sorts and conditions of men. He had all the domestic virtues, and was nowhere more appreciated than in his own home. His death was unexpected and chilled many hearts. A collection from his sketches was publicly exhibited in London after his death for the benefit of the Barristers' Benevolent Association, and some of the sketches have been reproduced in an album, 'The Frank Lockwood Sketch Book,' London, 1898, obl. 4to. His lecture on 'The Law and Lawyers of Pickwick,' published by the Roxburghe Press in 1894, went into a second edition in 1896. There is a memorial window and tablet in York Cathedral.

[Sir Frank Lockwood, a Sketch, 1898, by the present writer.]

A. B-l.

LOPES, HENRY CHARLES, first Baron Ludlow (1828–1899), judge, third son of Sir Ralph Lopes, bart. [see Lopes, Sir Manasseh Masseh, of Maristow, Devon, by Susan Gibbs, eldest daughter of A. Ludlow of Heywood House, Wiltshire, was born at Devonport on 3 Oct. 1828. He was educated at Winchester School and the university of Oxford, where he matriculated from Balliol College on 12 Dec. 1845, and graduated B. A. in 1849. He was admitted on 5 June 1849 student at Lincoln's Inn, but on 26 May 1852 migrated to the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 7 June 1852, and elected bencher on 31 May 1870, and treasurer in 1890. He practised first as a conveyancer and equity draftsman, afterwards as a pleader on the western circuit and at Westminster. He was appointed recorder of Exeter in 1867, and was gazetted Q.C. on 22 June 1869. Returned to parliament for Launceston in the conservative interest on 9 April 1868, he retained the seat until the general election of February 1874, when he rendered signal service to his party by wresting Frome from the liberals. In 1876 he was appointed justice of the high court and knighted (28 Nov.) He sat successively in the common pleas and queen's bench divisions until his advancement in 1885 to the court of appeal (1 Dec.), when he was sworn of the privy council (12 Dec.) He was raised to the peerage, on occasion of the queen's jubilee in 1897 (26 July), as