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Henry Boyd Wallis of Graylands: an old Africa hand
In October 1908 the local paper
reported a couple of events, totally unconnected.
Firstly the Rev. H. Copley Moyle, one-time curate of
St. Mark's - but now no longer in Horsham - delivered
a resounding lecture on the evils of drink at a
meeting in the Albion Hall; (there were many such at
the time). Secondly J.G. Millais, 'well known hunter
and author', son of the even more famous artist, and
owner of Compton's Brow, regaled the paper with tales
of his recent adventures in Alaska, when in a four
month trek through the wilderness he observed the
wildlife there and killed a good few animals,
including moose, caribou and grizzly bear.
Two very different sets of experience, but both in
their way typical of the time – the temperance
evangelist on the one hand, and the Victorian big game
hunter on the other. Presumably their paths never
crossed..... But there was one further event reported
that October, and that was the funeral of Henry Boyd
Wallis, a man who had spent many years in Africa
before retiring to Sussex, and who had turned his hand
to many things in his time, including mining and
soldiery. Since 1894 he had lived at Graylands, up by
Langhurst, and he had apparently gained a reputation
locally as a raconteur, quick to regale whoever cared
to listen with tales of his African experiences. So
given the choice of either an evening in the Albion
Hall on a hard wooden bench, or a fireside chat, glass
in hand, with another well-travelled man at Compton's
Brow, it is not difficult to work out where Boyd
Wallis's preferences would have lain (or mine, for
that matter).
He was the son of John Wallis, of Orsett in Essex, who
I think was a baker, and was born there on the 27th
August 1840. An earlier sibling, Clara May, had been
born about 1832. Clearly a youngster with an
adventurous spirit, he left these shores for Natal in
1861, at the age of twenty-one. He took up farming in
the Orange Free State, and in a twenty year period in
Africa packed much else in as well. He played an
active part in the Basuto War (there was a succession
of such wars, and Boyd Wallis was probably in the
third, in 1867 – like the others a territorial dispute
between black tribesmen and white farmers), and he
also saw service as an officer in the Kimberley Light
Horse. This latter connection stemmed from the fact
that he was also an early pioneer of diamond mining,
and was one of the first to open up the Kimberley
diamond mines in the Cape Colony. So he was a man with
a finger in many colonial pies, and no doubt made a
substantial fortune from his mining enterprises in
particular.
He was, inevitably, a man of influence as well, and it
was said that 'few men knew more than he did about the
inner workings of South African affairs'. He brushed
up against all the men of power, and 'knew Cecil
Rhodes and other celebrities who loomed large in the
life of that continent'.
It was Cecil Rhodes who gained a controlling interest
in the early mines, and who formed De Beers
Consolidated Mines Ltd, named after two Dutch brothers
on whose land diamonds were discovered in the early
1870s. But the story began in 1866, when 15-year-old
Erasmus Jacobs found the first of these magic
transparent stones on his father's farm on the Orange
River. That triggered the start of the great rush, and
in the next twenty years that part of Africa accounted
for no less than 95% of the world's supply - and Henry
Boyd Wallis, it seems, was in the thick of it.
He married Edith Grice, a girl from his home county of
Essex. She was the daughter of of John Grice of
Asheldham Hall, near Malden, and the marriage produced
no less than five sons (Harry, Duncan and Gordon were
three) and four daughters. His second son at least
seemed to share his father's love for travel, and went
out to Vancouver, where he married, but his eldest
daughter stayed closer to home, and married a local
Horsham solicitor, Maurice Dewing, while another of
the girls married a certain H.L. Havers from Angmering.
Another son, Duncan, a 2nd Lieutenant in the Connaught
Rangers, was killed in the Great War.
In July 1881 he returned to England, when he was still
a relatively young man aged forty-one. What prompted
this move is not clear. Perhaps his business interests
went wrong (but this does seem a little unlikely, as
his worth must have still been substantial), perhaps
he had more business opportunities to explore over
here, or maybe the move was prompted by ill-health,
from which he seemed to suffer in later life. At any
rate he first lived in London, and later in Wimbledon.
But perhaps seeking the greater quiet of the
countryside (and it must have been pretty quiet up at
Graylands in those days), he bought the house in 1894,
and added to the estate around it.
His spell in the Horsham area was to last some
fourteen years, and he died suddenly of heart failure
on the 24th October 1908, at the age of 67. He had,
apparently, been elected to the office of High Sheriff
of the county, but had been unable to take up the post
due to ill-health. He did not appear to have held any
other local positions, but he had been a strong
supporter of his local church at Warnham. His other
interests were reflected in his membership of various
clubs and associations: the Conservative and Unionist
Association, the Constitutional Club, the Navy League,
and a Fellowship of the Royal Colonial Institute.
But the most interesting thing about him, at least to
Horsham locals, seems to have been his love of a good
yarn. He impressed all and sundry by the fact that he
had 'no mean conversational powers', and -
unsurprisingly, given his stint in Africa – he 'had a
boundless store of interesting reminiscences'. He must
have been great fun to have shared an evening with,
with all those tales of fighting the Boers and (just
as exciting) the cut-and-thrust of the diamond mines.
His funeral was at Warnham Church, and the service,
which was 'fully choral', was one that did full
justice to his position in life. The coffin was of
polished oak with brass fittings, and there was a good
crowd on the day, including the Vicar of Horsham and
leading local names such as Vernon, Chasemore and
Blunt. All but one of his children were there (it was
a sudden death and no doubt his son from Canada could
not make it), and three brothers also attended. There
were flowers aplenty as well, with one wreath from
Graylands' 'indoor' servants, another from the
'outdoor' staff, and a third from the servants at 'The
Gables', which was presumably another family home.
I drove down Pondtail Road recently to take another
look at the house - but it was no easy task. The old
road up to Langhurst seemed to have disappeared
completely (cut through, I should have realised, by
the new by-pass), and for a while I completely lost my
sense of geography. As with all the fringes of
Horsham, there are now many houses where there used to
be just a few empty fields, but on top of that the
local road system to Langhurst had been been
completely altered since I was last down there – which
was, I have to say, a long time ago. Eventually I
managed to puzzle it out, and got to the house. I last
remember it as the pleasantly-located offices of the
Sussex and Dorking and later (from 1971) the Redland
Brick Company, but it is now home to an assortment of
businesses.
Boyd Wallis's wife lived on in the house after his
death, and among others, it was later held under the
name of E. Monsen, and then Maurice Whitehouse - who
was, of course, the man behind the Sussex and Dorking
Brick Company, whose Warnham works was located just
across the road. |
