PONSONBY, Emily Charlotte Mary (3 dau. of 4 earl of Bessborough 1781–1847). b. Margaret st. London 17 Feb. 1817; author of the following novels, most of them originally published anonymously, The discipline of life, 3 vols. 1848. 2 ed. 1848; Pride and irresolution, 3 vols. 1850, a new series of the former book; Clare abbey, or the trials of youth, 2 vols. 1851; Mary Gray and other tales and verses 1852; Edward Willoughby, a tale, 2 vols. 1854; The young lord, 2 vols. 1856; Sunday readings 1857; The two brothers, 3 vols. 1858; A mother’s trial 1859; Katherine and her sisters 1861, 2 ed. 1863; Mary Lyndsay, 3 vols. 1863; Violet Osborne, 3 vols. 1865; Sir Owen Fairfax, 3 vols. 1866; A story of two cousins 1868; Nora, 3 vols. 1870; Oliver Beaumont and lord Latimer, 3 vols. 1873. d. 3 Feb. 1877. D. J. O’Donoghue’s Poets of Ireland, part iii, p. 206 (1892).
PONSONBY, Frederick John (3 son of sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby 1783–1837). b. 21 March 1837; educ. Harrow 1850–5, and Merton coll. Oxf., B.A. 1861, M.A. 1862; champion tennis player at Oxford; C. of St. Giles, Reading 1862–7; chaplain of Hampton court palace 1867–8; R. of Brington, Northants 1868–77; V. of St. Mary Magdalen, Munster sq. London 1877 to death; rural dean of St. Pancras 1877; a member of the English church union; took a great interest in devotional retreats. d. 3 Cambridge place, Regent’s park, London 3 Feb. 1894. Church portrait journal v 41 (1884) portrait; I.L.N. 10 Feb. 1894 p. 163 portrait; Daily Graphic 8 Feb. 1894 p. 4 portrait.
PONSONBY, Sir Henry Frederick (eld. son of sir Frederic Cavendish Ponsonby, major general 1783–1837). b. Corfu 10 Dec. 1825; ensign 49 foot 27 Dec. 1842; lieut. grenadier guards 16 Feb. 1844, major 27 Dec. 1864, placed on h.p. 9 April 1870; A.D.C. to lords Clarendon and St. Germans, lord lieutenants of Ireland 1847–58; served in Crimean war 1855–6; L.G. 1 Oct. 1877; placed on retired list with hon. rank of general 1 July 1880; equerry to prince Albert 1856–61; private secretary and extra equerry to the queen 8 April 1870 to May 1895, and keeper of the privy purse 8 Oct. 1878 to May 1895; C.B. 26 Aug. 1872, K.C.B. 12 March 1879, G.C.B. 21 June 1887; P.C. 20 April 1880; a hard worker and a faithful servant in the service of the queen. d. East Cowes, Isle of Wight 21 Nov. 1895. bur. Whippingham. St. James’s Budget 29 Nov. 1895 p. 5 portrait; Strand mag. Dec. 1892 p. 588, 5 portraits; Times 22 Nov. 1895 p. 7; Graphic 30 Nov. 1895 p. 672 portrait; I.L.N. 30 Nov. 1895 p. 671 portrait.
PONSONBY, Richard (3 son of 1 baron Ponsonby 1744–1806). b. Dublin 1772; dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin 3 July 1817, installed 8 July; bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora 1828; translated to Derry patent dated 21 Sept. 1831, enthroned 2 Oct., the bishopric of Raphoe was united to Derry in pursuance of the Church temporalities act Sept. 1834; president of Church education society; author of A sermon 1834. d. the Palace, Derry 27 Oct. 1853. G.M. xl 630 (1853).
PONTON, Mungo (only son of John Ponton, farmer). b. Balgreen, near Edinburgh 23 Nov. 1802; admitted writer to the signet 8 Dec. 1825; a founder of National bank of Scotland 21 March 1825, secretary 1825–46; communicated to the Society of arts for Scotland 29 May 1839 a simple method of preparing paper for photographic drawing in which the use of any salt of silver is dispensed with, in this paper he announced the discovery that the action of sunlight renders bichromate of potassium insoluble, a discovery which forms the basis of nearly all the photo-mechanical processes now in use; F.R.S. Edinb. 1834; author of The sanctuary, its lessons and worship 1849; The material universe, its vastness and durability 1863; Earthquakes and volcanoes 1868, 2 ed. 1888; The beginning, its when and its how 1871; Glimpses of the future life 1873; Songs of the soul 1877; The freedom of the truth 1878. d. Clifton 3 Aug. 1880. H. B. Pritchard’s Year book of photography for 1882, portrait; Photographic News 20 Aug. 1880 pp. 402–3.
PONTON, Thomas (son of Thomas Ponton of Battersea, Surrey). b. 1781; educ. Eton and Brasenose coll. Oxf., created M.A. 28 March 1800; barrister L.I. 26 April 1804; a governor of Christ’s hospital; one of the founders of the Roxburghe club 1812, and edited for it La Morte d’ Arthur 1819. d. 4 Hill st. Berkeley sq. London 13 April 1853. G.M. xli 92 (1854).
POOK, Edmund Walter (son of Ebenezer Whitcher Pook of 2 London st. Greenwich, bookseller and stationer). b. 1850; a singer; tried at central criminal court 13 July 1871 for murder of Jane Maria Clousen, a servant to his father, who was found nearly dead in Kidbrook lane, near Eltham, Kent 26 April and d. in Guy’s hospital 30 April 1871, aged 17; he d. Salisbury st. London 23 April 1882. A.R. (1871) 229–34; Central criminal court session paper, minutes of evidence lxxiv 245–309 (1871); The Eltham tragedy reviewed by C. [i.e. Newton Crosland] 1871, 4 ed. 1871; A report of the speeches at the Blackheath meeting on the Pook v. Farrah libel case 1871.
POOLE, Annie. A singer at concerts in Bristol; appeared at theatre royal, Bristol as Jessy in the Crimson scarf Sept. 1876; played Patience in Sullivan’s Henry VIII at Manchester and Liverpool; was seen as Cinderella at Glasgow; played Madame Vere de Vere in Tantalus at Folly theatre 14 Oct. 1878; played Jelly in W. S. Gilbert’s Princess Toto at Opera Comique 15 Oct. 1881; was seen in many provincial pantomimes at Bristol, etc.; m. Russell Craufurd, actor. d. St. Saviour’s hospital, Osnaburgh st. Regent’s park, London 15 Jany. 1885. bur. Brompton cemet. Illust. sp. and dr. news xii 121, 151 (1879) portrait.
POOLE, Arthur William (son of Thomas Francis Poole). b. Shrewsbury 6 Aug. 1852; educ. Shrewsbury school and Worcester coll. Oxf., B.A. 1873, M.A. 1876, D.D. 1883; C. of St. Aldate’s, Oxford 1876; master of the high school at Masulipatam, Madras 1878–81; a missionary at Telugu in South India 1881–3; missionary bishop of Japan May 1883 to 1885, consecrated in the chapel, Lambeth palace 18 Oct. 1883; spent winter of 1884–5 in California. d. at his father’s residence, Fairfield, Shrewsbury 14 July 1885. Times 20 July 1885 p. 6.
POOLE, Edward Stanley (elder son of rev. Edward Richard Poole, barrister and book collector, and of Sophia Poole 1804–91). b. 1830; chief clerk of the science and art department, London 1857 to death; an Arabic scholar; wrote many articles for W. Smith’s Dictionary of the bible, 4 vols. 1868; contributed to 8th ed. of Encyclopædia Britannica; edited Edward Wm. Lane’s Thousand and one nights, new ed. 3 vols. 1859, another ed. 1883, and his Account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians 1860, 2 ed. 1871. d. St. Nicholas road, Upper Tooting, Surrey 12 March 1867.