Subject

Vicar of the church of St. Mary, The Boltons, Kensington. He served at the church between 1868 and 1909. Little more is known of him, except that under his tenure he rearranged the layout inside the church.

Our colleague Andrew Behan took the "little is known" as a challenge, and found much more: The Reverend William Thomas Du Boulay, MA, was born on 14 January 1832 in Weymouth, Dorset, the second child and eldest son of the twelve children of Thomas Du Boulay (1804-1872) and Harriet Du Boulay née Drake-Brockman (1805-1877). The Sandgate Society have a history of the family with reference to its time at ‘West Lawn’, Sandgate, Kent. His father was described on various census returns as a Justice of the Peace and a Landed Proprietor living on Dividends. He was baptised on 19 February 1832 in Melcombe Regis, Weymouth, Dorset. The 1841 census shows him living with his parents, five siblings and six servants in Sandgate, Folkestone, Kent. The 1851 informs that he was living with both his parents, seven siblings and eight servants at 5 Moray Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. His occupation was recorded as a Student of Divinity and he was attending Edinburgh University. On 2 July 1851 he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in 1855.

In 1856 he was ordained as a deacon and the following year as a priest in Ely, Cambridgeshire. He was also the curate of Shillington, Bedfordshire, from 1856 to 1859. He was the curate of Pluckley from 1859 to 1861 and the 1861 census shows him living with the rector, a cook a housemaid and a footman at The Rectory, The Street, Pluckley, Ashford, Kent. On 6 November 1861 he married Margaret Cort Wood (1833-1905) at St Mary's Church, Prestwich, Lancashire. From 1861 to 1868 he was the curate of Kensington and in 1865 he gained his Master of Arts degree. From 1868 to 1909 he was the vicar of St Mary The Boltons, South Kensington. Electoral registers from 1879 to 1889 show him living at 27 The Boltons, South Kensington and this is confirmed in the 1881 census that shows him there with his wife and four domestic servants.

Electoral registers for 1891 and 1893 show him at 18 Gilston Road, South Kensington and the 1891 census records him there with his wife, his nephew (Theodore J. Robinson), his niece (Caroline May Travers) and three domestic servants. Electoral registers from 1889 to 1908 show him at St. Mary's Vicarage, 18 Gilston Road, South Kensington and this is again confirmed by the 1901 census that shows him there with his wife, his nephew and his nephew's wife and their son, together with a cook, a parlour-maid, a housemaid and a nurse. His wife died in 1905 and by the time of the 1911 census he was living with another nephew, Hugh Graham Aldous, his wife, their three sons, a cook, a housekeeper, a parlour-maid and a housemaid at 34 Brechin Place, South Kensington.

He died, aged 89 years, on 18 July 1921 at Hopton Hall, Hopton Street, Great Yarmouth, Suffolk, the home of his nephew Hugh Graham Aldous, who was granted probate of his estate that totalled £2,788-18s-0d. He was buried on 21 July 1921 in Brompton Cemetery, Fulham Road, London, SW10 9UG.