Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dilke, Charles Wentworth (1810-1869)
DILKE, Sir CHARLES WENTWORTH (1810–1869), the son of Charles Wentworth Dilke [q. v.], was born in 1810. He was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, taking his degree in 1834. He became connected with the Royal Horticultural Society, and, along with Professor Lindley, founded the ‘Gardener's Chronicle.’ He was also an active member of the Society of Arts, and was for several years chairman of its council. He was among the first to propose the International Exhibition of 1851, and, as one of the executive committee, he worked with more zeal and persistence than any one else to bring the project to a successful issue. In 1853 he went to New York as an English commissioner to the Industrial Exhibition, and in 1855 he visited Paris on a similar errand. He was one of the five royal commissioners for the exhibition of 1862, and was made a baronet in the same year. He sat as a liberal for Wallingford in the parliament of 1865, but lost his seat at the general election of 1868. At this time his health was failing, and having gone to Russia as English commissioner at a Horticultural Exhibition, he died on 10 May 1869 at St. Petersburg.
[Times, 12 May 1869; Athenæum, 15 May 1869.]