Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Boase, George Clement
BOASE, GEORGE CLEMENT (1829–1897), bibliographer, born at Chapel Street, Penzance, on 20 Oct. 1829, was the second son of John Josias Arthur Boase and younger brother of Charles William Boase [q. v. Suppl.] He was educated at Regent House academy and the grammar school at Penzance, and for a short time in 1844 at Bellevue House academy, Penryn. From that year to 1846 he was in a local bank at Penzance, from 1847 to 1850 he was with Nehemiah Griffiths, ship and insurance broker, at 2 White Hart Court, Lombard Street, London, and from 1850 to 1854 he was a clerk with Ransom & Co., bankers, at 1 Pall Mall East,
Boase sailed for Australia on 29 April 1854, and was at first corrector of the press on the 'Age' newspaper of Melbourne, then gold-digger at Simpson's Ranges, and next in a general store. During 1855–64 he was tutor with the Darchy family on the Murrumbidgee river, New South Wales, and on Lachlan river, and was also correspondent of the 'Sydney Morning Herald.' In 1864 he returned to England, and managed the business of Whitehead & Co., provision merchants, from 1865 to 1874, when he retired into private life and occupied himself in biographical and antiquarian literature. During these years of leisure he lived successively at 15 Queen Anne's Gate and at 36 James Street (now 28 Buckingham Gate), where he collected a unique library illustrative of the biography of the nineteenth century. He died at 13 Granville Park, Lewisham, on 1 Oct. 1897, and was buried at Ladywell cemetery on 5 Oct.
Boase was the joint author, with Mr. W. P. Courtney, of the 'Bibliotheca Cornubiensis' (1874–82, 3 vols.), and the sole author of a kindred volume, entitled 'Collectanea Cornubiensia' (1890). With his brothers he compiled the several editions of 'The Families of Boase or Bowes,' and helped in the compilation of the works on Exeter College by his brother, Charles William, and the 'Modern English Biography' of his youngest brother, Frederic. He compiled with Mr. W. P. Courtney, for Professor Skeat, the Cornish portion of the 'bibliographical list of the works in the various dialects of English' {English Dialect Soc. 1877), and he assisted the Rev. John Ingle Dredge in his tracts on Devonshire bibliography. He was a frequent contributor to 'Notes and Queries' and the 'Western Antiquary.' He supplied 723 memoirs to the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' the last appearing in vol. lix.
[Times, 5 Oct. 1897; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xii. 301-2 (1897); Account of Boase Family; personal knowledge.]