Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sandford, Daniel Keyte
SANDFORD, Sir DANIEL KEYTE (1798–1838), professor of Greek in the university of Glasgow, born at Edinburgh on 3 Feb. 1798, was second son of Daniel Sandford [q. v.], bishop of Edinburgh, and brother of John Sandford [q. v.] After a distinguished career at the high school of Edinburgh, in 1817 he was entered at Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating 23 Jan., and graduating B.A. in 1820 with a first class in literis humanioribus, M.A. in 1825, and D.C.L. in 1833. In 1821 he gained the chancellor's prize for an essay on the ‘Study of Modern History.’ In September 1821, in defiance of the test law—he was an episcopalian—he was appointed to succeed Professor Young in the Greek chair of Glasgow University, and, ‘although only twenty-three years of age, he succeeded by skill and enthusiasm in awakening a love for Greek literature far beyond the bounds of his university.’ During the agitation about the ‘catholic claims’ he hurried to Oxford in 1829 to vote for Sir Robert Peel, and was rewarded with a knighthood on 27 Oct. 1830. At the time of the Reform Bill he abandoned Greek for politics, and made many brilliant speeches in the bill's favour at public meetings. On the passing of the bill he contested Glasgow city unsuccessfully in 1832; but in 1834 he was elected M.P. for Paisley. His appearances in the House of Commons were failures, his rhetoric, which had won admiration at the university, exciting only derision there. ‘His politics were not self-consistent; he was a disciple of Hume in finance, and of Goulburn in antipathy to Jewish claims.’ In 1835 he resigned his seat and returned to Glasgow, where he died of typhus fever, after a week's illness, on 4 Feb. 1838. He was buried at Rothesay.
Sandford married, in 1823, Henrietta Cecilia, only daughter of John Charnock. She died on 12 Feb. 1878. He had three sons and seven daughters. All the sons distinguished themselves. The eldest, Francis Richard John, lord Sandford of Sandford [q. v.], is separately noticed. The second was Sir Herbert Bruce (see infra), and the third, Daniel Fox, LL.D. (b. 1831), was bishop of Tasmania in 1883, and assistant bishop in the diocese of Durham in 1889.
Sandford wrote numerous Greek translations and brilliant papers in ‘Blackwood’ and articles in the ‘Edinburgh Review.’ He was a colleague of Thomas Thomson, M.D., and Allan Cunningham in the editorship of the ‘Popular Encyclopædia.’ Besides ‘Greek Rules and Exercises’ and ‘Exercises from Greek Authors,’ written for the use of his class, and ‘Introduction to the Writing of Greek’ (1826, Edinburgh, 8vo), Sandford translated ‘The Greek Grammar of Frederick Thiersch’ (1830, Edinburgh, 8vo), and reprinted from the ‘Popular Encyclopædia’ an essay ‘On the Rise and Progress of Literature,’ 1848, Edinburgh, 8vo.
Sir Herbert Bruce Sandford (1826–1892), colonel, the second son, was born on 13 Aug. 1826. He received his early education at the same school as his elder brother Francis, entered Addiscombe in 1842, and received a commission in the Bombay artillery in 1844, of which he became colonel in 1865. He proceeded to India, and was appointed (9 April 1848) assistant resident at Satara and first assistant commissioner there (1 May 1849). During the Indian mutiny his services were of great value. He was a special commissioner for the suppression of the mutinies (1857–8), and became the close associate and lifelong friend of Sir Bartle Frere. In 1860–1 he acted as special income-tax commissioner at Satara. Returning to England in 1861, he was closely associated with the International Exhibition of 1862, English commissioner for the International Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1875, for that at Melbourne in 1881, and for that at Adelaide in 1887. His services on all these occasions won for him high opinions both in England and in the colonies, and he was created K.C.M.G. in 1877. He was assistant director of the South Kensington Museum in 1877–8. He died on 21 Jan. 1892. He married his cousin Sara Agnes, third daughter of James Edward Leslie of Leslie Hill.
[Gent. Mag. 1838, i. 543; Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary; Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Official Ret. Members of Parl.; Chambers's Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Allibone's Dictionary; Burke's Landed Gentry.]