Willis commanded the southern military district with headquarters at Portsmouth for five years from 1 May 1884, and retired from the service on 11 Nov. 1890. In July of this year he was appointed colonel of the Devonshire regiment, and in October honorary colonel of the 2nd Hants volunteer artillery. He unsuccessfully contested Portsmouth as a parliamentary candidate in the conservative interest in 1892. Decorated with a G.C.B. on 25 May 1895, in 1897 he was transferred to the colonelcy of his old regiment, the Middlesex. He was a grand officer of the legion of honour, and a Knight of justice of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, and was in receipt of a distinguished service pension. He died after a long illness at his residence, Seabank, Bournemouth, on 29 Nov. 1900.
Willis married, first, in 1856, Eliza (d. 1867), daughter of George Gould Morgan, M.P., of Brickendonbury, Hertfordshire; and, secondly, in 1874, Ada Mary, daughter of Sir John Neeld, first baronet, who survived him.
[War Office Records; Army Lists; Despatches; Who's Who, 1900; Times, 30 Nov. 1900; Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea; Maurice's Military History of the Campaign of 1882 in Egypt; Royle's Egyptian Campaigns, 1882-5.]
WIMPERIS, EDMUND MORISON (1835–1900), water-colour painter, eldest son of Edmund Richard Wimperis, cashier of Messrs. Walker, Parker, & Co.'s lead works at Chester, and Marv Morison, was born at Flocker's Brook, Chester, on 6 Feb. 1835. He came early in life to London, and was trained as a wood-engraver and draughtsman on wood under Myles Birket Foster [q. v. Suppl.] He did much for the 'Illustrated London News' and other periodicals and books. He was an indifferent figure draughtsman, and confined himself to landscape when he adopted painting as his profession. He was a member of the Society of British Artists from 1870 to 1874. He began in 1866 to contribute to the Institute of Painters in Water-colours the pretty landscapes in the manner of Birket Foster or of David Cox in his tamer moods, by which he is chiefly known. They are neat and finished, but somewhat characterless and old-fashioned in technique. In later life he also painted in oils. Wimperis was elected an associate of the institute in 1873, a full member on 3 May 1875, and vice-president on 1 April 1895. He took an active part in the affairs of the institute, and in those of the Artists' Benevolent Fund.
He was married on 11 April 1863 to Anne Harry, daughter of Thomas Edmonds of Penzance, and left a family of two sons and two daughters at his death, which tool place at Southbourne, Christchurch, Hampshire, on 25 Dec. 1900.
[Times. 28 Dec. 1900; Athenæum, 5 Jan 1901; private information.]
WODEHOUSE, Sir PHILIP EDMOND (1811–1887), colonial governor, born on 26 Feb. 1811, was the eldest child of Edmond Wodehouse (1784-1855) of Sennow Lodge, Norfolk, by his wife and first cousin, Lucy (d. 21 June 1829), daughter of Philip Wodehouse (1745-1811), prebendary of Norwich. The Earl of Kimberley is his second cousin Wodehouse obtained a writership in the Ceylon civil service in May 1828, and became assistant colonial secretary and clerk of the executive and legislative councils in October 1833. In 1840 he was appointed assistant judge at Kandi, and in 1843 government agent for the western province. In 1851 he was nominated superintendent of British Honduras, where he directed his attention to financial and fiscal reform, and on 23 March 1854 he arrived at Georgetown as governor of British Guiana. His administration was signalised by two serious negro riots, the second occasioned by the imposition of a head tax. On 25 July 1857 the governor and his suite were pelted by a large mob of negroes, and several persons injured. In 1858 he was employed on a special mission to Venezuela. On 28 Oct. 1861 he succeeded Sir George Grey [q.v. Suppl.] as governor of the Cape of Good Hope and high commissioner in South Africa, offices which he held until 1870. He arrived at Cape Town on 15 Jan. 1862, and was almost immediately occupied in arbitrating between the Orange Free State and the Basuto chief, Moshesh. Wodehouse did not regard the government of the Orange Free State with much favour. In October 1864, however, on the request of the president, Sir Johannes Henricus Brand [q. v. Suppl.], he determined the boundary line between the Basutos and Free State in favour of the latter. Moshesh acquiesced in the decision, but in the following year took advantage of another pretext to declare war on the Free State. Wodehouse, on 27 June 1865, issued a proclamation of neutrality, and on 12 March 1868, after the natives had been worsted, he declared the Basutos British subjects, at the request of Moshesh, and ordered the cessation of hostilities. After long negotiations he succeeded on 12 Feb. 1869 in coming to an agreement with the Free State, by which they received some cessions of territory
