Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Palgrave, Reginald Francis Douce
PALGRAVE, Sir REGINALD FRANCIS DOUCE (1829–1904), clerk of the House of Commons, fourth son of Sir Francis Palgrave [q. v.], was born at Westminster on 28 June 1829. He entered Charterhouse school in 1841 and left in 1845. He was articled to Messrs. Bailey, Janson & Richardson, solicitors, of Basinghall Street, was admitted solicitor in May 1851, and entered the office of Messrs. Sharpe & Field. All his spare time he employed in sketching and sculpture. Through the influence of Sir Robert Harry Inglis [q. v.] and other friends of his father he was appointed to a clerkship in the House of Commons in 1853. From 1866 to 1868 he was examiner of petitions for private bills; he became second clerk assistant in 1868, clerk assistant in 1870, and from 1886 until his retirement in 1900 was clerk of the House of Commons. In 1887 he was made C.B., and in 1892 K.C.B. He was exact and careful in his official work, was thoroughly familiar with the practice and procedure of the House, and gave interesting evidence before various select committees, especially before that of 1894 on the vacating of a seat by accession to a peerage (Lord Coleridge's case). He was responsible for the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th (1886-96) editions of the 'Rules, Orders, and Forms of Procedure of the House of Commons,' first prepared by his predecessor in office. Sir Thomas Erslane May, Lord Farnborough [q. v.], and jointly with Air. Alfred Bonham Carter for the 10th and much enlarged (1893) edition of May's 'Practical Treatise on the Law, &c., of Parliament.' Samuel Rawson Gardiner [q. v. Suppl. II], in the preface to his 'Fall of the Monarchy of Charles I,' speaks of Palgrave's 'great knowledge of the documents of the time' and of the valuable help which he gave him in revising that work. He was deeply interested in the local antiquities of Westminster and indicated some famous sites.
Palgrave, who before 1870 lived first at Reigate, and then for a short time at Hampstead, had from 1870 to 1900 an official residence in the Palace of Westminster; after his retirement he resided at East Mount, Salisbury. For many years after 1870 he spent his summer vacations at a house built for him at Swanage, Dorset. He had much artistic taste, inherited probably from his maternal grandfather, Dawson Turner [q. v.], and to the end of his life practised water-colour sketching, at which he was fairly proficient, and he was for an amateur an exceptionally skillful modeller in low relief. Officially neutral in politics, he was personally a strong conservative; he was a decided churchman and was churchwarden of St. Martin's, Salisbury; he was generally popular and was an excellent talker, especially on artistic subjects. He died at his residence, Salisbury, on 13 July 1904, and was buried in the cemetery there. He married in 1857 Grace, daughter of Richard Battley [q. v.], who died at East Mount, Salisbury, on 17 July 1905, and had one son, Augustin Gifford (d. 1910), an electrical engineer, and five daughters. A village cross at Swanage has been erected to the memory of Sir Reginald and Lady Palgrave by members of their family.
Palgrave published: 1. A 'Handbook to Reigate and the adjoining Parishes,' Dorking, 1860; out of print; an excellent little guide-book, especially as regards architecture, with engravings, some of them from his own drawings. 2. 'The House of Commons, Illustrations of its History and Practice,' 1869; revised edit. 1878. 3. 'The Chairman's Handbook, Suggestions and Rules for the Conduct of Chairmen of Public and other Meetings,' 1877; 13th edit. 1900. A most useful book, based on long experience at the table of the House of Commons. 4. 'Oliver Cromwell, the Protector,' 1890 (new edition 1903), a strange book, which represents Cromwell as the 'catspaw' of the major-generals, a discredited trickster, and the fomenter of plots which enabled him to crush his enemies by unjust executions. He wrote letters in the 'Athenæum,' 22 Jan. and 5 and 26 Feb. 1881, on the date of the warrant for the execution of Charles I, which S. R. Gardiner criticised adversely (History of the Great Civil War, iii. 584–5 n).
[Private information; information received from and through Sir Courtenay P. Ilbert, K.C.B]