Person    | Male  Born 31/7/1843  Died 4/8/1909

Alfred Wilson

Categories: Religion

Alfred Wilson

The founding vicar of St Michael & All Angels Church in Bedford Park in 1887. On his wife's page we list their 3 sons, lost serving their country.

Whilst researching their son, Harold, our colleague Andrew Behan, discovered that he was baptised by his own father, Alfred, who was a Clerk in Holy Orders, at St Michael and All Angels Church. This would have been in the first St Michael & All Angels church which was a temporary iron structure in a market garden on Chiswick High Road, facing the top of Chiswick Lane and inaugurated in 1876. The family were living at 2 Woodstock Road, Bedford Park, Chiswick and they were still here at the time of the 1881 census.

Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man: Alfred Wilson was born on 31 July 1843 in St Martin in the Fields, Westminster, the younger son of George Wilson and Sophia Alice Wilson, née Pennington. His father was a Wholesale Stationer. He was baptised on 6 September 1843 in the church of St Martin in the Fields. The 1851 census shows him living at 'The Lawns', Balham, with his widowed mother who was living off an annuity and his two older sisters.

On 13 January 1876 he married Fanny Cobbe at the St John the Evangelist Church, Hammersmith. He was by this time a Clerk in Holy Orders. Together they had five sons born between 1877 and 1888. He became the first incumbent of St Michael's and all Angels Church when it was inaugurated in 1876, a temporary iron structure in a market garden on Chiswick High Road facing the top of Chiswick Lane. He soon started fund-raising for the present permanent church and the foundation stone was laid by his wife on 31 May 1879. It was consecrated by the Bishop of London on 17 April 1880.

On the day of its consecration, a letter addressed to the Bishop of London was printed in the Acton, Chiswick & Turnham Green Gazette, accusing Reverend Wilson of “Popish and Pagan mummeries”. Signed by Henry Smith, churchwarden of Chiswick, it listed his supposed transgressions: marching in procession round the church, prostrating himself before the consecrated elements, making the sign of the cross when giving the elements to the people and singing the Agnus Dei. The controversy raged for months in the paper, which sent its own reporter who observed that the service was very “high” and reminiscent of a Roman Catholic Church.

The 1881 census shows them living at 2 Woodstock Road, Bedford Park, Chiswick and the 1891 census at The Vicarage of St Michael's and All Angels Church, Priory Gardens, Chiswick. The 1901 census shows him still at this address. He died on 4 August 1909 at St Thomas Home, St Thomas Hospital, Lambeth and probate records show that his normal residence had been 8 Abingdon Gardens, Kensington. Probate was granted to his widow and two sons, C.E.A. Wilson, surgeon and A.C. Wilson, solicitor. His estate totalled £44,315-19-10d.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Alfred Wilson

Commemorated ati

St Michael & All Angels Church - additions foundation stone

The church designed by Norman Shaw, was built in 1879. This foundation stone ...

Read More

Other Subjects

Francois Rabelais

Francois Rabelais

Writer and physician. Born France, between 1483 and 1494, but probably November 1494. Became a monk and studied Latin and Greek, then left to study medicine. Died Paris.

Person, Literature, Medicine, Politics & Administration, Religion, France

1 memorial
Holy Trinity Church Brook Green

Holy Trinity Church Brook Green

Designed by William Wardell, its foundation stone was laid by Cardinal Wiseman in 1851. The need for the church grew from the indigenous Catholic population being boosted by Irish immigration in th...

Building, Religion

1 memorial
Joseph Hughes

Joseph Hughes

Baptist minister. Born Hand Court, Holborn. Closely associated with Samuel Stennett's Little Wild Street chapel. With their help he established a chapel in Battersea in June 1797 where he was pasto...

Person, Religion

1 memorial
Rt. Revd. Bishop R. W. Stannard

Rt. Revd. Bishop R. W. Stannard

Master of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners in 1973.

Person, Religion

1 memorial
Mervyn Stockwood

Mervyn Stockwood

Anglican bishop. Born Arthur Mervyn Stockwood in Bridgend, Wales. He was ordained as a deacon in 1936 and a priest in 1937. Appointed Bishop of Southwark in 1959.

Person, Religion, Wales

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Rosehaugh

Rosehaugh

E1, Vallance Road, 176-178

The drawing is surely by Mel Calman but we can find nothing to connect him with this development.

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Waterloo churches / Commissioners' churches

Waterloo churches / Commissioners' churches

Following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo a Commission was set up to build churches as a means of giving thanks and commemorating the victory. The churches are also known as Milli...

Concept, Property, Religion

1 memorial