Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/392

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Vivian
384
Vizetelly

the 10th Madras native infantry, and shortly after accompanied it to Belgaon. In February 1841 he was entrusted with the reduction of Fort Napani, which he captured on the 22nd, and received the thanks of Sir R. Dick, commander-in-chief (general orders dated 19 March 1841), for the judicious arrangements which he had made and the zeal and gallantry with which they were carried into effect. He also received the thanks of the governor in council at Bombay, dated 8 March 1841.

On 15 Oct. 1841 Vivian was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel, and on 5 Jan. 1843 was removed to the 1st Madras European regiment, afterwards the royal Dublin fusiliers. From 1844 to 1847 he was again at home on furlough, and on his return to India, having the reputation of a smart commanding officer, was posted to the command of several native infantry regiments in succession. On 14 Aug. 1849 he was appointed adjutant-general of the Madras army. He was promoted to be brevet colonel on 15 Sept. 1851, and on his resignation of the post of adjutant-general in August 1853, he was complimented in general orders for his services by the commander-in-chief, Madras (29 Aug. 1853).

Vivian returned to England in January 1854, and on 28 Nov. was promoted to be major-general. In 1855 he became a director of the East India Company. On 25 May of that year he was appointed to command the Turkish contingent in the Crimea, with the local rank of lieutenant-general. He organised this force of twenty thousand men, and with it during the winter of 1855–6 occupied the position of Kertch. For his Crimean services Vivian received the thanks of the government, the first class of the Turkish order of the Medjidie, and the Turkish war medal.

On 22 Jan. 1857 Vivian was made a knight commander of the order of the Bath (military division), and on 21 Sept. 1858 was appointed by the crown a member of the newly constituted council of India. On 30 Sept. 1862 he was given the colonelcy of the royal Dublin fusiliers, was promoted to be lieutenant-general on 24 Oct. 1862, and general on 22 Nov. 1870. He was made a knight grand cross of the Bath (military division) on 20 May 1871. He was a deputy-lieutenant for the city of London. He retired from the service on a pension in 1877. He died on 3 May 1887 at his residence at Brighton, Sussex. Vivian married, in 1846, Emma, widow of Captain Gordon of the Madras army. She died only four days before him.

[India Office Records; Despatches; War Office Records; Times, 26 Feb. 1855 and 5 May 1887; Histories of Burmese War, 1824–6, and of the Crimean War, 1854–6; Debrett's Knightage; Vibart's Addiscombe, its Heroes and Men of Note; private sources.]

R. H. V.


VIZETELLY, HENRY (1820–1894), pioneer of the illustrated press, the son and grandson of printers and members of the Stationers' Company, was born in the parish of St. Botolph, London, on 30 July 1820. Prior to the French war the family (which had migrated from Italy at the close of the seventeenth century, with a reputation for supplying the plate-glass for the ‘glass coaches’ then coming into fashion) had spelt the name Vizzetelli. Henry's father, James Henry Vizetelly, who for a time had carried on business at 76 Fleet Street, whence he issued well-known annuals, such as ‘Cruikshank's Comic Almanack’ and the ‘Boy's Own Book,’ died in 1838; Vizetelly's mother was Mary Anne (Vaughan). After education at Clapham, and at Chislehurst under Wyburn, he was apprenticed as a wood-engraver to George William Bonnar [q. v.], a mediocre artist, upon whose death in 1836 he passed under John Orrin Smith [q. v.], and made rapid progress in his art. Among his early efforts with the graver he records some work upon the Etching Club's illustrations of Thomson's ‘Seasons,’ and a fancy portrait of ‘Old Parr’ (with the legend, ‘From a Picture by Sir Peter Paul Reubens’) for the proprietors of ‘Parr's Life Pills.’ From the profits realised by the sale of these pills, Herbert Ingram started the ‘Illustrated London News,’ for which Vizetelly's firm executed a number of engravings, ‘very few of which were derived from authentic sources.’ The success of the venture was so great that in 1843 Henry Vizetelly, in conjunction with his elder brother, James Thomas (1817–1897), and Andrew Spottiswoode, started in rivalry the ‘Pictorial Times;’ the staff included Douglas Jerrold, Mark Lemon, Gilbert à Beckett, and Thackeray, who reviewed ‘Coningsby’ for the new venture, besides other miscellaneous writing at thirty shillings a column. The paper ran successfully for several years. Vizetelly's experience as a practical engraver was of the greatest possible service to all these pioneer ventures. His best work as a wood-engraver was done about 1850, when he executed some beautiful landscape vignettes, after Birket Foster, for an edition of Longfellow's ‘Evangeline.’

In 1852 Vizetelly, who sought from an early date to combine publishing with printing and journalism, issued a half-crown reprint of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin,’ which fell flat at first,