106 High Street

Revd Robert Wheeler Whittington

The 1956 Kelly’s Directory lists Reverend Robert Wheeler Whittington living at Merton House. His subsequent Will of 1960, confirms that he lived the remainder of his life at the property until his death at the age of 93. Robert had previously lived in London, Derby and then at West Farleigh vicarage, along with his wife Margaret Louise, before finally moving to West Malling during the latter part of his life. The 1939 Register records Robert as a Clerk in Holy Orders.

Born in Bloomsbury, London, Robert was the son of Reverend Richard Whittington (pictured below) who was Prebendary (a member of the clergy – a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral)(1) of St Paul’s Cathedral as well as Governor and Vice-President of the Foundling Hospital in London.

Records show that both Robert and his father were members of the Company of Merchant Taylors (one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of London), a surprising discovery seeing as neither appeared to have any connection with this specific trade. Further investigation was undertaken to try and understand what the link was. As you can imagine, the results of a search using Robert’s father’s name, Richard Whittington, overwhelmingly consisted of references to pantomime hero Dick Whittington, a character who was inspired by a real life Richard Whittington who lived in 14th century London. The likelihood of a connection between West Malling’s Whittington and panto favourite Dick felt remote, so the temptation was to ignore those results whilst trying to filter out anything more relevant. However, inquisitiveness took over in this instance because I was genuinely interested as to who the real Dick Whittington was.

Fourteenth century Whittington was a merchant in luxury fabrics, such as silks and velvets, much of which was sold to royalty and nobility. He subsequently amassed considerable wealth, a significant amount of which he chose to donate, either during his life or in the form of bequests following his death. What was interesting was that the more I learnt about the inspiration of Dick Whittington, the more similarities emerged between him and Robert’s family:

• the most obvious link was, of course, the family name Richard – Robert’s father’s name as well as his brother’s
• 14C Richard donated much of his wealth to social causes such as hospitals, church patronage (including provision for the foundation of a college of secular priests attached to the church) and schools – Robert’s father was directly involved with the Foundling Hospital and both men were directly involved with the church
• they had all lived in London at some point in their lives
• they were all members of ancient London livery companies that dealt with cloth in some form

The growing number of similarities certainly hinted at a possible link between the two families but we know that 14C Richard was childless, so any connection would have been indirect via one of his siblings and that, alongside the fact that there were some 500 years between them, made confirming any hunch virtually impossible. Friends and colleagues were particularly unhelpful as whenever I suggested that an old resident of the High Street was related to a panto hero, their natural response was, ‘Oh no he didn’t’. It took several more hours of research before I finally stumbled across the newspaper article below that allowed me to confidently respond, ‘Oh yes he did!’.

Robert may have been able to lay claim to prestigious ancestry, alongside being a highly respected member of the community as rector of the local church, but that didn’t appear to protect him from falling foul of the law on one occasion in Darley, as the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported…

28 February, 1918
At Matlock yesterday the Rev. Robert Wheeler Whittington the Rector of Darley, was charged with a breach of the Lights Order on the 15th February, and was ordered to pay 5s. 6d. costs. It appeared that a service was being held and the Rector forgot a light in the vestry.
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Maybe it was this wartime misdemeanour that accounted for Robert volunteering as an ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Warden during the second world war!

George Spencer Garland Scaife

West Malling has played host to many notable members of all three of the armed services – a select few of these include one of Nelson’s Captains at Trafalgar, a Brigadier General who held command on the Western Front and the leader of the legendary Dam Busters raid during the Second World War. Amongst such an esteemed group, a retired Captain of Militia hardly stands out from the crowd but resident of Merton House in the 1911 census, Captain George Spencer Garland Scaife, is worthy of note if only due to the interesting circumstances which appear to have led to him living on the High Street.

In 1911, retired Captain Scaife D.S.O. was 43 years old and lived with his wife, Mary, and young son, Spencer. Prior to living in Kent, he had either been stationed overseas on military duty or had lived in his, or his wife’s, home counties of Cornwall and neighbouring Devon. So, what prompted his move to West Malling High Street?

As mentioned above, West Malling has been somewhat of a hot spot for serving, or retired, members of the armed services and it may well have been a professional connection that suggested the town as a suitable retirement location as there is no other obvious family or professional connection. Although we are unable to identify why he chose West Malling as his new home, if we delve a little deeper into Scaife’s life, facts emerge that enable us to surmise why the sudden need to move across country. Following an initially positive military career, including the award of the Distinguished Service Order during the Boer War, ‘in the punitive expedition against Nima and Brass villages in 1895’, he found himself suddenly falling from grace a few years later.

In the Spring of 1901, reports featuring George appeared in newspapers nationwide. The subject of the articles lent itself to headline grabbing titles such as, ‘The Case of Captain Scaife’ or ‘Desertion from the Westmorland Militia’. The following excerpt taken from the South Wales Evening Express is typical of what was being reported…

The trial by Court martial, at Devonport, of Captain George Spencer Scaife, D.S.O., 4th Border Regiment (Westmorland Militia), on charges of desertion at Youghal, and disobedience of orders at Plymouth…In his summing-up Colonel Smith contended that the prisoner’s plea of justification on the ground that he had not received his pay was bad, and he asked the court to consider what would be the effect if a soldier in the field refused to obey orders, or deserted if his pay was a month in arrears in consequence of the negligence of his superior officer of the War Office. Such a plea could only be used in the way of extenuation.
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The Court found Captain Scaife not guilty of desertion, but guilty of absence without leave, and also guilty of disobedience in refusing to accompany an officer to his barracks in Devonport. He was spared further punishment, beyond the humiliation of this sentence hanging over his personal reputation, purely on the grounds of his distinguished service in the field.

In light of this sudden fall from grace, it is somewhat unsurprising that the next census following this incident finds Scaife living in Kent – a suitable distance from his family home – a decision probably influenced by the fact that his father appears to have occupied the affections of his friends, family and the wider community. Captain Scaife’s father was Henry Neale Scaife whose distinguished naval career included serving as clerk on the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert, working through the ranks to become paymaster to the Royal Navy and secretary to the Commodore. If that wasn’t enough, he was also held in high regard for his gallantry, having rescued no fewer than three people from drowning at different times in his career. The Bishop of Crediton would later dedicate a memorial window in Paignton parish church to Henry and his wife, Mary Jane, commenting that ‘the Scaife window would commemorate one who showed an influence far and wide, and especially in the Royal Navy, where such characters are loved’.

If we also consider that during this period George’s brother, Henry Browse Scaife’s military career was taking a decidedly more positive path, culminating in the command of the Royal Sussex Regiment 1st Battalion in India from 1907-1911(2), it looks as though George’s decision to up sticks and move to West Malling may well have been a tactical retreat to avoid damage to his parents and wider family.

Fortuitously for George, as it would enable the black mark against his military record to be overlooked, the world was soon plunged into a period of history when military experience became an invaluable commodity. The onset of WWI appears to have led to his previous misdemeanours being brushed under the carpet as records show him once again being reinstated to the position of Captain in the Devonshire Regiment throughout the war.

Before we draw Captain Scaife’s story to a close, we should quickly elaborate as to who, or what, the militia were.

The Militia of the United Kingdom was first formed in response to the shortage of manpower being experienced by the British Army at the beginning of the 19th century. However, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the necessity for a Militia was no longer considered necessary – a decision that would quickly be reversed when the Militia Act of 1852 revived its existence in response to a period of further international tensions. With recruits being paid for their 56 days of initial training as well as the annual 21-28 days of additional training that was required for every subsequent year of service, it is obvious to see why this was a popular form of additional income, especially for those in poorly paid jobs such as agricultural labourers. (3)

And finally, we should probably note how the 1911 census lists another occupant at Merton House apart from George’s family – a 27 year old lady by the name of Lilian Slade who was a listed as a monthly nurse, a profession I had never come across previously and was therefore interested to discover more. Simply put, a monthly nurse was a woman who looked after the mother and her baby during the postnatal period so, with the newly born Spencer Scaife listed as under one month, Lilian had obviously been employed to temporarily support George’s wife Mary at this time.

West Malling Savings Bank

The first saving banks in England were founded on moral and social principles, aimed at encouraging the working classes to undertake long-term saving in order to protect themselves during times of relative hardship, such as old age or as a result of illness. By giving all levels of society access to products and services that would enable them to regularly save money, it would help avoid a reliance on poor relief whilst also having the added benefits of distracting people from immoral pastimes and allowing them to take an active part in society.

The 1871 census describes John Viner (former draper of the town) as a Savings Bank Agent and Volume 34 of the Parliamentary Papers, dated 1863, lists him as the Bank’s Actuary, working alongside John N Dudlow, (Tudor House) who was Treasurer. Although both men took a small annual wage from the Bank, much of its governance was voluntary, a common occurrence with local savings banks, made possible by the fact that they were usually formed by the elite classes. We know that the President of West Malling Savings Bank was J W Stratford, almost certainly local aristocrat John Wingfield Stratford of Addington House.

Parliamentary Papers(4) list the Bank’s founding date as 1816. It is not known if any research has been undertaken into the business or even if any of the original records still survive but if they do, they would surely reveal a considerable amount of information about the make-up and behaviour of the Town’s population during this period.

What we discovered, however, is that in 1863 the total amount owing to depositors was £22,354 1s 8d (the equivalent of over £2.1m today)(4). We do not know when the bank closed but the popularity of savings banks across the country dropped during the second half of the 19C, partly due to the introduction of the Post Office Savings Bank but also because of the growing amount of financial regulation that had been introduced during the course of the century which became burdensome to a largely volunteer workforce. As a result, few remained by the end of the 19C and those that did were mainly in towns and cities with larger populations.

The following newspaper advertisement from 1849 calls on depositors to produce their deposit books so that they could be checked against the Bank’s records, presumably an example of the administration that was required in order to comply with the regulation that was placed upon the Bank’s trustees.

WEST MALLING SAVINGS’ BANK
TO DEPOSITORS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That two of the Trustees of the above Savings’ Bank will attend at the Assembly Rooms, in West Malling, on Monday, the 7th, and Tuesday, the 8th days of January next, from Two to Four o’clock in the afternoon, when and where the depositors are required to produce their deposit books, that they may be examined with the ledgers of the Savings’ Bank, to ascertain their correctness.
JOHN VINER, Actuary.
West Malling, 21st Dec., 1849.
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