Researching Thomas Reed

Occasionally ridiculed as "Czar Reed", he had great influence over the agenda and operations of the House, more so than any previous speaker. He increased the Speaker's power by instituting the "Reed Rules," which limited the ability of the minority party to prevent the establishment of a quorum.

Reed helped pass the Lodge Bill, which sought to protect African American voting rights in the Southern United States, but the bill failed to pass in the Senate and never became law. He opposed the Spanish–American War and resigned from Congress in 1899.

While acting as organist and chapel-master at chapels in London, and also as musical director and performer at West End theatres in the 1830s and 1840s, Reed tried his hand at producing opera. He married Priscilla Horton, a noted singer, actress and dancer, in 1844. By 1851, he was managing opera productions at various theatres in London and on tour. In 1855, Reed and his wife began to present and perform in "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", consisting of brief, small-scale, family-friendly comic operas. In the early and mid-Victorian era, the respectable middle classes regarded the theatre in general as sinful. Therefore, the Reeds shrewdly called their establishment the "Gallery of Illustration" and their productions "entertainments" to emphasize their refined propriety.

In addition to comic classics like The Beggar's Opera, the Reeds usually presented new works by English writers such as F. C. Burnand, W. S. Gilbert, William Brough and Gilbert à Beckett. His composers included Frederic Clay, Arthur Sullivan, George Macfarren and Alfred Cellier, as well as himself. Reed retired in 1871 after an injury, and his son Alfred took over the entertainments with his mother.

He studied in Germany and England, and arrived to Colombia in 1847. In Bogotá he was contracted to build the Colombian National Capitol by the president Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera. He also designed the Panopticon prison which was adapted in 1975 for the Colombian National Museum.

Later he travelled to Ecuador and became the government architect under the presidency of Gabriel García Moreno. In this work he built the house of García Moreno, the Prison García Moreno and some bridges. He also planned the reconstruction of the town of Babahoyo, destroyed by several fires.

He died in Guayaquil in 1878.

He was born in Dublin, the son of Thomas Reed of Dublin, by Eliza, daughter of Colonel Sir F. J. Buchanan.

He entered the army as a cornet in the 12th Light Dragoons in 1813, was promoted lieutenant in 1815, and was with the regiment at the Battle of Waterloo. In 1834 he was made lieutenant-colonel of the 62nd Foot, a position he held for eighteen years. He was made brevet-colonel in 1841 and the following year aide-de-camp to the queen. Two years afterwards he was made a CB

During the First Sikh War his regiment formed part of the force which held Ferozepore under Sir John Hunter Littler. At the Battle of Ferozeshah in 1845 Reed commanded a brigade (including his own regiment) of Littler's division and was ordered to attack the strongest part of the Sikh entrenchments where there was a large number of heavy guns served with grape and canister. The attack was unsuccessful, with heavy losses, and Reed himself was slightly wounded.

In 1852 he gave up the command of the 62nd and went on half-pay, employed as colonel on the staff at Birmingham. Promoted major-general in 1854, he went out the following year as General Officer Commanding the troops in Ceylon until 1856, when he was transferred to a division of the Madras army and soon afterwards to the command of the troops in the Punjab.

When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857 he became provisional commander-in-chief on the death of General Anson from cholera, as the senior officer in the Bengal presidency, until Sir Patrick Grant arrived. On the death of Sir Henry Barnard, Reed assumed command of the field force but the exertions and anxieties of that position were too much for him. He was obliged to give up the responsibility and thereafter saw no further service in the field.

In 1858 he was made colonel of the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, transferring in 1881 to be Colonel of the 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, which was formed when the 44th Regiment was amalgamated in that year with the 56th Foot. He was promoted Lieutenant-General in 1860 and General in 1868.

In 1877 he was placed on the retired list, having had been made K.C.B. in 1865 and G.C.B. in 1875. He died at Romsey, Hampshire on 24 July 1883. In 1835 he had married Elizabeth Jane, daughter of John Clayton of Enfield Old Park, Middlesex.