Villiers
Villiers names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Villiers CHARLES PELHAM, an English statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHARLES PELHAM, an English statesman; born Jan. 3, 1802; was graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1824; called to the bar in 1827; and elected to Parliament as a Free Trade Liberal in 1834. He represented his constituency for 63 years. In 1838, at the head of 38 Free Traders in Parliament, he led the movement for an investigation of the Corn I Laws; in 1840 moved their repeal, and continued to 15 agitate the question year after year till the repeal act was finally passed in 1846. He was elected chairman of the th Committee on Public Houses in 1853; opposed vested rights in licenses; brought forward in Parliament the question of postal reform; and was president of the Poor Law Board in 1859-1866. While holding the last office he was instrumental in the passage of the bill making unions chargeable for all the poor within their districts. He died in London, England, Jan. 16, 1898.
Villiers FREDERIC, an English war correspondent and artist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FREDERIC, an English war correspondent and artist, born in London, in 1852. He was educated in France and studied art at the British Museum, the South Kensington schools, and the Royal Academy. His work as a war artist and correspondent began in 1876 in Serbia, and since then he has acted in a similar capacity for various publications in practically every war of any importance. He has also at various times represented publications as an artist and correspondent at important political events, such as the coronations of Czar Alexander III., Nicholas II., etc. He has also traveled and lectured extensively in many countries. Some of his paintings at various times have been exhibited at the Royal Academy and in other places, and he was the recipient of many war medals and other decorations. His publications include "Pictures of Many Wars" (1902); "Port Arthur" (1905); "Peaceful Personalities and Warriors Bold" (1907); etc.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both are settled biographies, and the accounts still stand. Collier's, writing in 1921, notes that Charles Pelham Villiers "represented his constituency for 63 years" — Wolverhampton, from 1835 until his death in 1898 — and that remains the longest unbroken service by any member of the House of Commons, unbeaten in the century since. Frederic Villiers is described in the present tense as still travelling and lecturing, but he died on 3 April 1921, the very year the entry appeared; his own memoir, published in 1920, closed a career that had begun in Serbia in 1876. Villiers is now remembered less for his sketches than for hauling a hand-cranked cinematograph camera to the wars of the late 1890s, an early attempt at filming battle whose footage has not survived.
Written for this edition, 2026.