Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Bowring, Edgar Alfred
BOWRING, Edgar Alfred, C.B., a younger son of the late Sir John Bowring, born in 1826, and educated at University College, London; entered the civil service in the Board of Trade in 1841, and filled in succession the post of private secretary to the Earl of Clarendon, to Earl Granville, and to Lord Stanley of Alderley. He was appointed Précis Writer and Librarian to that department in 1850, and Registrar in 1853, but retired from the service on the abolition of his office at the end of 1863. He acted as Secretary to the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851, and held that appointment until his election as M.P. for Exeter at the general election of 1868. His services were so highly appreciated by the late Prince Consort, the President of the Commission, that, immediately after H.R.H.'s decease, her Majesty was pleased to nominate Mr. Bowring a Companion of the Order of the Bath, civil division. Mr. Bowring lost his seat for Exeter at the general election of Feb. 1874. He is the author of an English poetical version of "The Book of Psalms," English versions of the poetical works of Schiller, Goethe, and Heine, and (jointly with Lord Hobart) of a reply to the "Sophisms of Free Trade," by Mr. Justice Byles. Besides having been a frequent contributor to periodical literature, he is understood to have translated two small volumes of German hymns, selected by the Queen, and privately printed for her Majesty's use, one volume on the death of the Duchess of Kent, and the other on that of Prince Albert.