# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Lawes, Charles Bennet

​LAWES (afterwards LAWES-WITTE-WRONGE), Sir CHARLES BENNET, second baronet (1843–1911), sculptor and athlete, born at Teignmouth on 3 Oct. 1843, was only son of Sir John Bennet Lawes, first baronet [q. v. Suppl. I], of Rothamsted, Hertfordshire, by his wife Caroline, daughter of Andrew Fountaine of Narford Hall, Norfolk. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Lawes was placed in the third class of the natural sciences tripos in 1865, and graduated B.A. next year. Of splendid physique, he excelled in athletics both at school and college. At Eton he won the first prize for the 10 yards, hurdle race, quarter-mile, mile, steeplechase, sculls, and pair oars. At Cambridge he was the chief amateur athlete of his period. He won the half-mile race, the mile (1864), and the two miles (1865) at the university sports; the mile (1864 and 1865) at the inter-university athletic meeting, and the one mile amateur championship at the meeting of the Amateur Athletic Club in 1865. He won the Cambridge sculls in 1862, the diamond sculls at Henley in 1863, and the Wingfield sculls, also at Henley, in 1865. In the last year he was also amateur champion oarsman, and stroked the losing Cambridge eight in the university boatrace. In 1898, at the age of fifty-five, he took up speed cycling, and at one time kept a pacing team at the Crystal Palace, where in 1899 he scored a twenty-five miles amateur record of fifty-one minutes, fifteen and four-fifths.
After leaving Cambridge he made sculpture his profession, and long rented a studio at Chelsea. He began his training in London under J. H. Foley, R.A., and in 1869 he studied under Professor Hagen at Berlin. Between 1872 and 1908 he exhibited twelve works at the Royal Academy, including 'Girl at the Stream,' 'Daphne,' and 'The Panther.' A few other examples of his art appeared at the Royal Society of British Artists and elsewhere. His figures and portraits showed real ability, though his success was not quite equal to his ambition. In later life he ​expended much labour upon a colossal group of 'The Punishment of Dirce'; it was exhibited in 1911 at the International Fine Arts Exhibition at Rome which was assisted in arranging the British sculpture. It was set up in 1912 in the grounds at Rothamsted. A smaller bronze replica is in the Tate Gallery. He was the first president of the Incorporated Society of British Sculptors, which was founded in 1904.
In 1882 Richard Claude Belt, a sculptor of some repute, brought an action against Lawes for alleged libels in 'Vanity Fair' for 20 August 1881, and elsewhere. Lawes accused Belt of the fraudulent imposture of putting forward under his name sculpture executed by other persons. The case (Belt v. Lawes), which excited immense attention, was opened before Baron Huddleston on 21 June 1882, and occupied the court for forty-three sittings. Leading artists were called as witnesses on each side. Finally on 28 Dec. 1882 the jury decided in Belt's favour, and awarded him 5000l. damages. The case was the last heard at the old law courts at Westminster. After an appeal the verdict was upheld in March 1884. On 31 Aug. 1900 Lawes, on the death of his father, succeeded to the baronetcy and the Rothamsted property. He became chairman of the Lawes Agricultural Trust and vice-chairman of the incorporated society for extending the Rothamsted experiments in agricultural science, in which he was keenly interested. On 18 April 1902 he assumed by royal licence the additional surname of Wittewronge, after a kinsman, Thomas Wittewronge (d. 1763), from whom his family had derived the estate of Rothamsted. He died at Rothamsted on 6 Oct. 1911 after an operation for appendicitis, and was cremated at Golder's Green. He married on 8 April 1869 Marie Amelie Rose, daughter of Charles George Fountaine, and had an only son, John Bennet Fountaine, who succeeded to the baronetcy. At Rothamsted there is a life-size marble statue of Lawes-Wittewronge, executed by J. H. Foley, R.A., in 1870, as well as a portrait in oils painted by Frank Salisbury in 1905. A memorial portrait was placed in the pavilion at Fenner's, Cambridge, in July 1912. A cartoon appeared in 'Vanity Fair' for 12 May 1883.
[The Times, June, Nov., and Dec. (esp. 29 Dec., leading art.) 1882, 22 Dec. 1883, 18 March 1884, 4 April and 7 Oct. 1911, 23 Jan. 1912; Burke's Peerage, 1912; Graves, Dict. of Artists and Royal Acad. Exhibitors; Cats. of Royal Acad. and British section of Rome Exhibition; private information.]
B. S. L.