Sir Francis Drake.

The daring spirit of Elizabeth's great admiral, Sir Francis Drake (1540–1596), as revealed by his voyages of discovery and by his success as a naval commander, justifies his starring as the hero of many popular legends. On many occasions he sailed with expeditions to the West Indies, but his greatest achievement was the circumnavigation of the globe. In 1577 he sailed from Plymouth across the Atlantic, along the coast of South America, through the Straits of Magellan, to Valparaiso, across the Pacific to the Indian Archipelago, and around the Cape of Good Hope to England, where he arrived in 1580. He was the first Englishman to sail around the world, and on his return was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

Innumerable Spanish ships suffered his attacks, and for the sake of their spoil many Spanish towns on both the American continents were plundered as was the custom of the age.

In the battle with the Spanish Armada Drake commanded one of the three divisons of the English fleet sent to intercept the invaders. He was continuously in the thick of the fighting, and when victory was achieved he pursued the conquered, ambitiously named “Invincible” Armada of Philip of Spain, to the north of Scotland.

On two occasions he sat in the English Parliament, but the sea was his home and on the sea he died.

Lord Nelson.

Horatio Nelson, Britain's greatest naval hero, was born at Burnham Thorpe Rectory, Norfolk, in 1758. At the early age of twelve he entered the navy as a midshipman and served in an Arctic expedition. For several years he was engaged in the West Indies, but in 1780, on account of ill health, he was compelled to return home.

When Lord Hood attempted to capture Corsica in 1794 Nelson successfully commanded the landing parties of seamen and marines at Bastia and Calvi. It was in the struggle at Calvi that he lost the sight of his right eye. Two years later he was promoted to commodore and was engaged in preventing the coastal trade of France. At the battle of Cape St. Vincent where the combined fleets of Spain and France were defeated, Nelson performed meritorious service, in recognition of which he was made a Knight Bachelor and appointed rear-admiral. While attempting the capture of a treasure ship at Santa Cruz in 1797 Nelson had the misfortune to lose his right arm.

In 1798 he was deputed to attempt the annihilation or capture of the French fleet which had put to sea. He eventually discovered it at anchor in Aboukir Bay, where the famous Battle of the Nile, was fought. page 59 So overwhelming was the defeat of the French that only two of their frigates escaped, and the army of Napoleon was imprisoned amid the sands of Egypt. As the result of this victory Nelson was raised to the peerage as Baron Nelson of the Nile, was granted a pension and was the recipient of rewards from numerous courts of Europe.

When Naples fell to the French in 1799, Nelson restored the city to the Neapolitans and again established civil power. He was then created Duke of Bronte in Sicily.

Early in 1801 he was promoted to viceadmiral and sent in command of an attack on Copenhagen, where the Danish fleet was destroyed. On his return home he was created Viscount Nelson.

His final triumph was defeat of the French fleet at the memorable battle of Trafalgar, on 21st October, 1805, in which the hero himself was mortally wounded. It was prior to this battle that he hoisted the famous signal, “This day England expects every man to do his duty.” With princely honours, and amid the tears of a mourning nation, the famous hero was laid to rest in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa was born on 5th December, 1859, and entered the service of the British Navy when thirteen years of age. He served in the Egyptian War of 1882 after which he passed with honours his examination for a lieutenancy. In 1910–1911 he became Commander of the Atlantic Fleet, and in 1911–1912 was Commander of the Second Home Fleet. During the following two years he occupied the position of second Sea Lord at the Admiralty. On the outbreak of the Great War he was placed in command of the Grand Fleet—perhaps the most responsible position in the world at that time. As Commander of the Grand Fleet during the Battle of Jutland he inflicted such punishment on the German Fleet that the latter never again ventured out to battle on the high seas. Replying to congratulations on the results of the battle he said: “I expected a great deal from the fleet, and it did all that I expected. But for our bad luck in getting misty weather I believe we should have finished the business.”

Viscount Jellicoe subsequently became Governor-General of New Zealand. He discharged the functions of that high office with a democratic understanding which won for him a warm place in the hearts of the people of the Dominion.

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The Hon. Arthur Wellesley first Duke of Wellington was born in Dublin on 29th April, 1769, and was educated at Eton and at the Angers Military College in France. Before he was eighteen he received his first commission in the 73rd Regiment and rose rapidly to the rank of colonel. In 1808 he was made lieutenant-general and given command of the troops to be sent to the Spanish Peninsula where in the following year he began his long struggle against the armies of Napoleon. In the engagements of this campaign Wellesley won many notable battles and brought the war to a successful termination in 1814. For these services he was created Duke of Wellington. In consequence of Napoleon's escape from Elba, he assumed command of the allied forces, went over to Flanders, and on the 18th June, 1815, brought Napoleon to battle on the field of Waterloo. Although outnumbered in men and guns Wellington succeeded, after one of the most titanic struggles recorded in military history, in bringing that famous battle to a victorious conclusion. He was one of the most brilliant military leaders of which history has any record yet he was a lover of peace. His greatest gift to humanity apart from his military victories, “was the example he set of single-minded devotion to duty with no other object in view but the benefit of mankind and the good government of his country.” The great Duke died in 1852 and was buried with elaborate ceremonial in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Earl Kitchener.

Horatio Herbert Kitchener—Earl Kitchener of Khartum—was born in County Kerry, Ireland, on 24th June, 1850, and was educated at home and in a French school at Villeneuve. He received his first instruction in military science at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich which he entered when eighteen years of age. In 1871 he volunteered for service in the French Army and took part in several engagements of the Franco-Prussian War. Kitchener was appointed, in 1899, as Chief of Staff to Lord Roberts in the South African War, and the results of his organising genius were soon made apparent in the better efficiency of our army. In 1900 he succeeded Lord Roberts as Commander-in-Chief in South Africa and brought the war to a successful conclusion. In 1909 he was promoted to the rank of field-marshal, and made a tour of inspection of the military forces of the Empire. When the Great War broke out in August 1914, Kitchener was appointed Secretary of State for War. His work in this capacity—the creation of “Kitchener's Army”—was not only a tribute to the greatness of his own personality and genius, but it was a service for Britain and her allies which had much to do with their ultimate success in the war. In June 1916 Earl Kitchener left England on a mission to Russia. The cruiser Hampshire on which he sailed struck a mine off the Orkney islands in which disaster the great soldier, statesman and administrator lost his life—a calamity which plunged the whole Empire into sorrow.

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Lord Bacon.

“He sounds a trumpet call to a new and universal effort of free and circumspect intelligence” says a present day critic (The Rt. Hon. J. M. Robertson) of Lord Bacon. Few names stand higher in the intellectual annals of the world than the name of this great Englishman who was born at York House, in the Strand on 22nd January, 1561. At Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was educated, Bacon absorbed the learning of his age with extraordinary facility and became deeply versed in classical literature. After filling with distinction many important positions in the government of his day, he retired to his country seat and devoted himself more seriously to philosophy. It was his great merit to introduce the method of inductive reasoning into science— the method which has been so prolific of fundamental results in the fields of discovery and invention. The life's work of this great Englishman (though marred by charges of bribery proved against him, and which cannot be condoned), has placed not only our Empire but the whole world under a heavy debt of gratitude. “Besides the unparalleled services which science received from him,” says one biographer, “to his original genius one may directly ascribe many, if not most, of those large improvements in the arts of life which have raised this nation to the highest place among the countries of the world.”

Sir Isaac Newton was the scientific genius who revolutionised man's conception of the physical universe. He was born on Christmas Day, 1642, at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire. At the age of eighteen he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he applied himself to the study of mathematics. He was obliged to quit Cambridge when the plague broke out, during which time his researches led him to his first great discoveries—that of the minominal theorem, the differential calculus and the integral calculus. About this time too, Newton conceived the great idea of universal gravitation. The demonstration of the law of universal gravitation was beset with enormous difficulties, but Newton's genius surmounted them all. It is interesting to observe that the great English astronomer Halley (after whom the famous comet is called) was entirely responsible for the completion and publication of Newton's “Principia.” Halley not only read the proofs of the immortal work but paid for its publication out of his own pocket. Newton was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and the most distinguished people of Europe, including Royalty, showered honours upon him. It was Newton who said: “I know not what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me.” He died on 20th March, 1727, and was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey.

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On handing over the statute of Charles Darwin to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales as representative of the British Museum on 9th June, 1885, Professor Huxley spoke on behalf of the Memorial Committee of the Royal Society as follows:—“Your Royal Highness,— It is now three years since the announcement of the death of our famous countryman, Charles Darwin, gave rise to a manifestation of public feeling, not only in these realms, but throughout the civilised world, which, if I mistake not, is without precedent in the modest annals of Scientific biography……”

Like Newton before him, it was Darwin's privilege to discover a great law of Nature. After twenty years of laborious work he found that “Selection was the keystone of man's success in making useful races of animals and plants.” Charles Darwin was born at Shrewsbury on 12th February, 1809. Natural history was the chief interest of his life, and he dropped every other subject to study it. He published, in 1859, the results of his labours in the “Origin of Species,” a book which created an immense sensation throughout the world of science. In 1871 was published his “Descent of Man,” in which work he produced an array of evidence for the evolution of man himself. The enormous advances made in every branch of science during the past sixty years owe much to the influence of Darwin's work. He died on 19th April, 1882, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Adam Smith.

Adam Smith was one of the world's great pioneers in the field of economics and the celebrated author of the “Inquiry into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations.” This epoch-making work appeared in 1776, and was immediately translated into nearly every European language. In this work Adam Smith gave the world the first expression of the true principle of taxation as follows:—

The subjects of every State ought to contribute towards the support of the Government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities, that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the State.

Adam Smith was born on 5th June, 1723, and was educated at Kircaldy Burgh School, also at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. In 1751 he became Professor of Logic at Glasgow University, becoming in the following year, the Professor of Moral Philosophy. From 1760 to 1762 he was dean of the Faculty, and in the latter year also was appointed Vice-Rector of the University. He subsequently acted for three years as tutor to the young Duke of Bucclcuch. He was admitted to the Royal Society in 1767 and later was appointed Commissioner of Customs, and Lord Rector of Glasgow University. The work of the famous economist has had a far-reaching influence on economic thought. He died in 1790.

The name and life's work of George Stephenson the inventor of the steam locomotive and the founder of railways needs little mention to the readers of the “New Zealand Railways Magazine.” Born in 1781 the son of a fireman at Wylam, near Newcastle, Stephenson received very little education. In early life he was sent to work on a farm where he earned twelve shillings per week.

Stephenson's first locomotive was tried out in 1814 with results that fulfilled his best expectations. The great engineer's next mechanical triumph was to build his famous “Rocket” and to give a practical demonstration to the England of a hundred years ago of the immense possibilities of railway transportation. The “Rocket” in 1825 drew its appointed load of passengers over the Stockton and Darlington railway to the shouts and cheers of the multitude. Stephenson's success was complete. He had enriched the world with an idea of extraordinary utility; the era of railways had commenced, enabling man to simplify his existence and to spread civilisation, commerce and culture throughout the world. Stephenson occupied the highest positions in connection with the development of Britain's early railways, and was the first president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He died at Chesterfield in 1879.

Lord Kelvin.

Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) was one of the Empire's most celebrated physicists. He was born at Belfast in 1824, and was educated at Glasgow University where he early distinguished himself for his knowledge of mathematics and physical science. His career of discovery dates from his appointment to the chair of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University in 1846. Of his famous contributions to science may be mentioned the formulation of the two great laws of thermodynamics, the theory of electric oscillations (which forms the basis of wireless telegraphy), his invention of the mirror galvanometer, his improvement of the mariners' compass and his achievement in laying the Atlantic cable. He was knighted in 1866. Lord Kelvin was President of the British Association in 1871, President of the Royal Society in 1890–4, and also a Copley medallist of the Royal Society. He was Professor of Physics in Glasgow University for more than half a century. Raised to the peerage in 1892, he received the Order of Merit and was made a Privy Councillor in 1902, and became Chancellor of Glasgow University in 1904. Lord Kelvin had an extraordinarily fertile brain. His scientific labours have been of great value to mankind, and have earned for him an enduring place amongst the immortals. He was buried on December 23rd, 1907, in Westminster Abbey.