CFHS code : BE132a
Parish : St Bene’t
Inscription : GRAHAM L BOILEAU HUMPHREYS called home Jan 19 1905 aged 18 ALFRED EDWARD HUMPHREYS Priest Aug 17 1922 aged 79 HANNAH AMELIA HUMPHREYS d April 21 1934 aged 90
Monument : Kerb stones
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202504, 0.13626622 – click here for location
Monument
Located under trees and bushes three rows east of the west path, behind the large columns of Rowton and Barker. One kerb stone has fallen. The inscription is legible .
Inscription
GRAHAM L BOILEAU HUMPHREYS called home Jan 19 1905 aged 18
ALFRED EDWARD HUMPHREYS Priest. “Life Eternal”. Aug 17 1922 aged 79
HANNAH AMELIA HUMPHREYS died April 21. 1934 aged 90
“O rest in the Lord”
Relationship: Mother, father and son
Alfred Edward Humphreys (3 July 1843 – 17 August 1922)
Alfred was born in Oswestry and was the son of Charles and Mary Laughharne Humphreys. His father was a surgeon, and died when Alfred was only 3 years old. His mother then moved to Birmingham where he went to King Edwards School. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge in March 1862 (Browne Medal 1864; Davies Scholar 1865; Chancellor’s Classical Medal 1866). He got a BA in 1866, MA in 1869 and was a lecturer in Classics [1869 – 1877). He gained the Senior Opime in the mathematical tripos 1866 and third in the first class Classical tripos (1866) . At Cambridge he was said to be very active in both social and religious work. He was a founder of the Cambridge Youths’ Club – the aim of which was to train Cambridge young men in ‘educational subjects and sports by the Honoursmen and ‘Blues’ of the University, with the result that …[it] became locally famous for the distinction which members achieved in business life and athletics’.
He was ordained in 1875 and was curate of Christ Church Cambridge (1875-1877), Vicar of St Matthews Cambridge (1877-1887), Rector of Fakenham (1887-1907) and finally Vicar of St Michael and All Angels in Willesden (1907-1922) as well as Honorary Canon of Norwich (1901-1922). In Cambridge he was said to be ‘extraordinarily successful in getting around him brilliant young men of the University as curates and teachers with the result that his church and schools became crowded’.
In 1890 he was living in Hempton and the Kelly’s Directory of that year describes ‘The vicarage, worth £30 a year is in the patronage of the Crown and incumbency of the Rev Alfred Edward Humphreys MA who is also rector of Fakenham and who has a good residence of plain Tudor architecture built in 1858 at a cost of £800′.
After moving to Stonebridge, Willesden it was said ‘both the Canon and his lady have been energetic in religious, social and benevolent enterprise. His erudition and geniality made the Canon a pleasant conversationalist and peculiarly fitted him for labours amongst the rising generation, in whom he took great interest’. Alfred was a keen cyclist and rower and the Kensington Post reported ‘in athletics he was deeply interested and the various guilds and brigades now instituted in association with social work found a stalwart friend in him’.
He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in August 1922 and described as being found ‘dressed in rowing shorts in a ditch by the side of the canal at Alperton, Wembley where it was habit to row every morning’. He was found by two boys on the towing path, who raised the alarm. The doctor diagnosed a ‘cerebral hemorrhage’, and taken home for more treatment, but died less than 48 hours later. Newspapers reported that a cycling accident a few years previous had caused ‘a long and serious illness’, so he had changed to rowing every afternoon, despite being 79 years old. He went out on a ‘light skiff’ and had had a seizure whilst rowing, had made his way to the bank and crawled out of the boat before falling unconscious. It is thought he had been lying on the bank for an hour or two before being found.
In Fakenham his death was marked with the church bells ‘tolling with muffled strokes the late Canon Humphreys’s age’.
Hannah Amelia Humphreys (nee Boileau) (1844 – 21 April 1934)
Hannah was the daughter of Thomas Ebenezer (1796-1853) and his third wife Elizabeth Hannah (née Morford) (1817-1890). She was born in Chennai in 1844, where her father was a judge with the East India Company. Thomas died when she was 9 years old and the family returned to Eastbourne. She married Alfred Humphreys in 1883 in Cambridge and they had one son: Graham (1886-1905).
She was a vicar’s wife and lived in Cambridge, then Fakenham and finally Willesden. Alfred died in 1922 when she was 78 years. She died aged 90 years old in 1934 at 21 Edith Road, Ramsgate Kent and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery on 24 April. The funeral service was held at St. Matthew’s Church.
Hannah’s younger sister Alice Upton Boileau (1849-1942) married Alfred’s elder brother Charles William Humphreys (1840 – 1921) in September 1886.
Graham Laugharne Boileau Humphreys (1886 – 19 January 1905)
Graham was the son of Alfred and Hannah Humphreys. He was born in St Matthews Parish, Cambridge, but grew up in Fakenham where his father was the Canon. He died aged 18 years old in Norfolk. The funeral took place at Fakenham Parish Church, led by his father. Afterwards the coffin was taken by train to Cambridge. As the procession passed through Fakenham towards the station ‘the principal windows of the shops and private houses were shaded’.
His parents’ bodies were returned to Cambridge after their deaths to be buried with their only son.
Source:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen