Douglas, SIR HOWARD, Bart., G.C.B.

Douglas, SIR HOWARD, Bart., G.C.B., son of Admiral Sir C. Douglas, was born at Gosport in 1776, and served in Canada (1795) and in two Peninsular campaigns, being present at Corunna. He was successively governor of New Brunswick (1823-29), where he founded the university of Fredericton, of which he was the first chancellor, Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands (1835-40), and M.P. for Liverpool (1842-46). He wrote several treatises accepted as authoritative at the time, among which are An Essay on Military Bridges (1816), which is said to have given Telford the idea of the suspension principle; a treatise on Naval Gunnery (1819; 5th ed. 1860, reproduced in America, France, and Spain); Observations on Carnot's Fortification; a work on the value of the British North American provinces (1831); and Naval Evolutions (1832). He died 9th November 1861. See Life by S. W. Fullom (1862).