William Evelyn St Lawrence Finny M.D., M.Ch., B.A.O., J.P., F.S.A. (1864-1952), was a physician, local politician (Mayor of Kingston upon Thames seven times) and historian, author of 'All Saints, Kingston upon Thames (1930)'. [1]
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William Evelyn St Lawrence Finny M.D., M.Ch., B.A.O., J.P., F.S.A. (1864-1952), was a physician, local politician (Mayor of Kingston upon Thames seven times) and historian, author of 'All Saints, Kingston upon Thames (1930)'. [1]
He was born in Gotham, Nottinghamshire, 1 September 1864 of Irish ancestry. [2] His father, Henry Maturin Finny, a curate in the Church of England at Gotham, died in 1865 and his mother, Agnes Amelia (née Leslie) returned to Ireland. [3] In 1873 he was elected for the Clergy Orphan School at Canterbury. [4] He was educated at St Columba's College, Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin, [5] graduating in 1887 as M.B. and M.Ch with B.A.O. in 1891. In 1891 he was appointed surgeon and agent by the Admiralty at their sick quarters at Baldoyle, Howth and Sutton. [6]
By 1891 was a GP in Kingston. [7] He was elected a member of the Obstetrical Society of London in 1892. [8] He became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1897. [9] He was awarded a degree in 1911 by Queen's University Belfast. [10] [11]
William became a Barrister-at-Law and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple but did not practise. [12]
In Kingston, he was a member of the council from 1897, a magistrate from 1905, and Alderman from 1910. He was Mayor of Kingston seven times between 1898 and 1927. He was mayor for the 700th anniversary of the granting of the charter of Incorporation in 1899. [13] He was mayor when the by-pass was opened in 1924; a memorial window was installed in the Town Hall, now the Market House, to commemorate the Millenary of the accession to the throne in A.D. 924 of King Athelstan, [14] now in the museum. [15] He was largely responsible for Kingston being made a "royal borough" by George V in 1927 [16] . [17] He also designed the other stained-glass windows formerly in the old Town Hall, including celebrating the 700th anniversary of the first charter, and the confirmation of the Royal Borough. [18] He paid to restore the statue of Queen Anne in the market place.
He was a member of Surrey County Council and also of the Metropolitan Water Board. When he died on 10 October 1952 he was also High Steward of the borough and had been made an honorary Freeman of the Borough of Kingston upon Thames in 1944. [19] [1]
He was elected a Fellow of Society of Antiquaries of London in 1930 and was an authority on the history of Kingston. [20] He had also been master of the Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers and Freeman of the City of London. [21]
He married Rosa Clements in 1898; [22] [23] [24] she died in 1919 and he married Emily Grace Samuel in 1920. [25] He lived at Kingston Hill, at "Tamesa" and "Kenlis", and died at 41, Liverpool Road, Kingston Hill. [26]
His ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey in the Dark Cloister in the grave of Thomas Finny (d 1776). [27] There is a memorial inscribed slab in All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames. [28]
Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as the place where some Saxon kings were crowned.
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is a borough in southwest London. The main town is Kingston upon Thames and it includes Chessington, Malden Rushett, New Malden, Surbiton and Tolworth. It is the oldest of the four royal boroughs in England. The others are Windsor and Maidenhead, the site of Windsor Castle, and the London boroughs of Greenwich, and Kensington and Chelsea. The local authority is Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council.
Norbiton is an area within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London. It lies approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Kingston upon Thames town centre, and 11 miles (17.7 km) from Charing Cross. Its main landmarks include Kingston Hospital, Kingsmeadow football stadium, Kingston Cemetery and St Peter's Anglican parish church which serves the area.
Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has been in Greater London. Surbiton comprises four of the RBK's wards: Alexandra, Berrylands, St. Mark's, and Surbiton Hill.
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames 9.9 miles (15.9 km) southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the borough council's administrative headquarters are located in the area.
Kingston Vale with Kingston Hill is a district in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in south-west London. It is a residential area between Richmond Park, the much smaller Putney Vale, Wimbledon Common, Coombe/Coombe Hill and the Norbiton part of the very old borough. The main road is the A308 which is a through route for traffic passing to and from Kingston Hill to the A3 trunk road. Many of the branch roads are cul-de-sacs. It includes, toward the east and in the Vale, the only part of Kingston which drains eastward, that is, into Beverley Brook. The hill expanse, shared with Coombe and a golf course, has a hotel, some tall blocks overlooking Kingston, the edge of Kingston Hospital, the main campus of Kingston University London and faint remnants of dense woodland.
Long Ditton is a residential suburb in the borough of Elmbridge, Surrey, England on the boundary with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London. In medieval times it was a village, occupying a narrow strip of land. Neighbouring settlements include Hinchley Wood, Thames Ditton and Surbiton.
Ham is a suburban district in Richmond, south-west London. It has meadows adjoining the River Thames where the Thames Path National Trail also runs. Most of Ham is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, chiefly, within the ward of Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside; the rest is in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The district has modest convenience shops and amenities, including a petrol station and several pubs, but its commerce is subsidiary to the nearby regional-level economic centre of Kingston upon Thames.
Surbiton was a local government district in northeast Surrey, United Kingdom, from 1855 to 1965.
Sir John Whittaker Ellis, 1st Baronet was Lord Mayor of London for 1881–82, in which year he was made a baronet. Two years later he was elected and re-elected Conservative Member of Parliament for eight years, not seeking further re-election. A very prosperous banking executive, estate agent and auctioneer among his legacies was a fire station at Byfleet, Surrey; he sat on the boards of various hospitals and his wife was also engaged in charities.
Canbury Gardens is a public space in the Canbury district of Kingston upon Thames, along the Lower Ham Road, covering 14½ acres area between the road and the towpath along the River Thames, downstream from Kingston Railway Bridge.
All Saints Church is the historic parish church of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London, and is set between the ancient Market Place and the main shopping centre. It forms part of the Diocese of Southwark and with the church of St John, and St John the Divine, it forms a team of Anglican churches serving residents, businesses, schools and Kingston University. The church is the only Grade I listed building in Kingston.
Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council, which styles itself Kingston Council, is the local authority for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Liberal Democrat majority control since 2018. It is based at Kingston upon Thames Guildhall.
St Andrew's Church, Ham, is a Grade II listed Church of England church on Church Road, Ham Common in Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Richmond Cemetery is a cemetery on Lower Grove Road in Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. The cemetery opened in 1786 on a plot of land granted by an Act of Parliament the previous year. The cemetery has been expanded several times and now occupies a 15-acre (6-hectare) site which, prior to the expansion of London, was a rural area of Surrey. It is bounded to the east by Richmond Park and to the north by East Sheen Cemetery, with which it is now contiguous and whose chapel is used for services by both cemeteries. Richmond cemetery originally contained two chapels—one Anglican and one Nonconformist—both built in the Gothic revival style, but both are now privately owned and the Nonconformist chapel today falls outside the cemetery walls after a redrawing of its boundaries.
Kingston upon Thames War Memorial, in the Memorial Garden on Union Street, Kingston upon Thames, London, commemorates the men of the town who died in the First World War. After 1945, the memorial was updated to recognise casualties from the Second World War. The memorial was commissioned by the town council and was designed by the British sculptor Richard Reginald Goulden. The memorial includes a bronze statue of a nude warrior, carrying a flaming cross and wielding a sword with which he defends two children from a serpent, erected on a granite plinth, with bronze plaques listing the names of the dead. Goulden designed a number of such allegorical memorials, including others at Crompton, Greater Manchester, and Redhill, Surrey. The Kingston memorial was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1983. This was revised upwards in 2016 to Grade II*, denoting a building or structure of particular importance.
Sir Charles Burt a solicitor and local politician in Richmond, Surrey. He was elected to the first Surrey County Council in 1889 and was Mayor of Richmond in 1892–93. He campaigned for the preservation of several important local open spaces, assisting in the purchase of Marble Hill House and in protecting the view from Richmond Hill.