PEARL, Cora, assumed name of Emma Elizabeth Crouch (one of the 16 children of Frederick William Nicholls Crouch, b. 31 July 1808, composer of Kathleen Mavourneen, who went to America in 1845). b. Caroline place, East Stonehouse, Devon 23 Feb. 1842; educ. at Boulogne to 1855; seduced by an admirer in London and thenceforth led a life of dissipation under the name of Cora Pearl 1856; went to France with the returning Persigny embassy March 1858; had a series of liaisons with persons connected with the imperial court; large sums of money, diamonds and jewellery passed through her hands; maintained an establishment in the Rue de Chaillot, which was known as Les Petits Tuileries; kept the finest horses and carriages of any one in Paris, crowds assembled daily to see her in the Bois de Boulogne and ladies imitated her dress and manners; appeared for 12 nights at Les Bouffes Parisiens as Cupid in Offenbach’s opera Orphée aux Enfers 1869; refused admission at the Grosvenor hotel, London 1870; converted her Paris residence into an ambulance during the war and spent 25,000 francs on the wounded 1870; a son of Pierre Louis Duval, founder of the Duval restaurants, spent seventeen million francs on her 1870–1, after which she deserted him and he attempted suicide; expelled by the police at various times from France, Baden, Monte Carlo, Nice, Vichy and Rome; blackmailed her acquaintances, to keep their names out of her printed memoirs; often called La lune rousse in allusion to her round face and red hair; her figure in marble was modelled by M. Gallois in 1880. d. of cancer in squalid poverty in a small room in the Rue de Bassano, Paris 8 July 1886. Memoirs de Cora Pearl, Paris (1886); The memoirs of Cora Pearl, London (1886); Folly’s Queens, New York (1882) 23–7; Truth 15 July 1886 pp. 105–6; London Figaro 24 July 1886 p. 6 portrait; Daily News 10 July 1886 p. 5.
PEARS, Steuart Adolphus (7 son of rev. James Pears, head-master of Bath gram. sch.) b. Pirbright, Surrey 20 Nov. 1815; scholar of C. C. coll. Oxf. 1832–6, fellow 1836, dean 1844–6; B.A. 1836, M.A. 1839, B.D. 1846; tutor to lord Goderich 1838–42; sent abroad by the Parker society to search the libraries of Zurich and other places for correspondence relating to the English reformation 1843; fellow and tutor of univ. of Durham 1846–7; assistant master at Harrow 1847–54; head-master of Repton school July 1854, resigned March 1874, raised the school from a local grammar school of fifty boys to a first-grade public school of nearly 300; R. of Childrey, Berkshire 1874 to death; translated from the Latin The correspondence of sir Philip Sidney and H. Languet 1845; author of Sermons 1851; Three lectures on education 1859; Short sermons on the elements of christian truth 1861; Sundays at school, sermons in Repton school chapel 1870; Sermons 1877. d. Childrey rectory 15 Dec. 1875.
PEARS, Sir Thomas Townsend (brother of preceding). b. 9 May 1809; lieut. Madras engineers 17 June 1825; commandant of the Madras sappers and miners 1836; chief engineer with the field force in Karnul 1839; commanding engineer with the army in China under sir Hugh Gough 1841–2, was present at nearly every action; consulting engineer for railways to government of Madras 1851–7; lieut.-col. 20 June 1854, col. 16 Feb. 1856; chief engineer in the public works’ department for Mysore 1857, retired on a pension with honorary rank of M.G. 8 Feb. 1861; military secretary at the India office, London 1861; organised the arrangements for the Abyssinian expedition, retired 1877; C.B. 24 Dec. 1842, K.C.B. 13 June 1871. d. Eton lodge, Upper Richmond road, Putney 7 Oct. 1892. bur. Mortlake cemet. H. M. Vibart’s Madras engineers ii 133 et seq. (1883); J. Ouchterlony’s Chinese war (1844) 47 et seq.; Daily Graphic 12 Oct. 1892 p. 8 portrait.
PEARSALL, Robert Lucas (son of Richard Pearsall). b. Clifton 14 March 1795; barrister L.I. 1 June 1821, went the western circuit 4 years; contributed to Blackwood’s and other magazines; wrote a cantata Saul and the witch of Endor 1808; studied music at Mayence 1825–9, and at Carlsruhe, Munich and Vienna 1830–6; a member of Bristol madrigal society 1837; sold Willsbridge house, Gloucs. 1837; purchased castle of Wartensee on the lake of Constance 1837, resided there to his death; received into the R.C. church and became known as R. L. de Pearsall; composed many settings of psalms, madrigals, a requiem, etc.; composer of Great God of love, an eight part madrigal 1840; The hardy Norseman’s house of yore 1840; O, who will o’er the downs so free 1853; The bishop of Mentz, a four part song 1863; 24 Choral songs 1864; Sir Patrick Spens, a ballad dialogue in ten parts 1880; The sacred compositions of R. L. de Pearsall 1880; Lay a garland, a madrigal 1883; his name is attached to upwards of 80 musical compositions 1840–83; published translations in English verse of Faust and Wilhelm Tell. d. Wartensee castle 5 Aug. 1856. G.M. Oct. 1856 pp. 511–2; Musical Times 1882 p. 376; Grove’s Dict. of music ii 678 (1880).
PEARSALL, Thomas J. (son of a sword maker, Birmingham). b. at the Apple tree and Mitre 30 Cursitor st. Chancery lane, London 10 Feb. 1805; assistant to Michael Faraday at Royal institution, London some years, resigned 1832; keeper of the museum of the Philosophical soc. at Hull 1832; sec. to Birkbeck institution, Southampton buildings, Chancery lane, London; wrote on Electricity in Royal Institution journal 1831, and On crystals from the sea-coast of Africa in Report of British association 1853. d. London May 1883. Catalogue of Scientific papers iv 794 (1870).
PEARSE, George. b. 1797; assist. surgeon Madras medical establishment 1824, and surgeon 25 March 1837; sec. to the medical board of the presidency 1837–48; superintendent surgeon Mysore division 1851; principal inspector general of hospitals, Madras 11 July 1859, retired from the service 20 April 1861; hon. physician to her majesty Sept. 1861 to death. d. Cheltenham 28 March 1885. Times 2 April 1885 p. 7.
PEARSE, George. b. Hatherleigh, near Okehampton, Devon 1852; solicitor at Hatherleigh 1874 to death; ensign 18th Devonshire volunteers 11 Oct. 1870; major fourth battalion of Devonshire regiment 10 Jany. 1877 to death; won queen’s prize Wimbledon 1875, and tied for the final 1890; one of the British team in U.S. America to meet the American National guard, and made highest aggregate score. d. Uplands, Okehampton 4 Jany. 1894.
PEARSE, John. b. 17 May 1780; entered R.N. 1793; present at siege of Copenhagen 1807; commanded Wickham revenue cutter on Irish coast 1817–20; commander 27 May 1825; contributed to United service journal 1842 and 1843; author of Papers on naval architecture, Plymouth 1835. d. 1864. O’Byrne’s Naval biog. (1849) 882.
PEARSE, Richard Bulkeley (son of B. Pearse of Munkham, Woodford). b. 1830; entered navy 14 March 1842; mate of the Resolute in the Arctic expedition 1850–1; severely frost-bitten and eventually lost a leg for which granted pension of £150 in 1864; Pearse inlet on the west coast of Bathurst Island was named after him; served as flag lieutenant in the Baltic during the Russian war 1854–5; commanded the Acorn during Chinese war 1858–60; captain 15 April 1862, retired 1 April 1870; retired admiral 19 June 1888; F.R.G.S. d. 9 Hyde park st. London 19 Nov. 1895. Times 22 Nov. 1895 p. 10.
PEARSE, Thomas. b. 1797; educ. St. John’s coll. Camb., B.A. 1819, M.A. 1822; V. of Westoning, Beds. 20 June 1823 to death, 68 years; V. of Harlington, Beds. 1826–54; author of An address, the substance of two sermons in the parish church of Westoning 1848. d. Westoning 14 June 1891.