Lives in Cricket No 21 - Walter Read

7 Chapter One Family Background Walter William Read, known to his contemporaries as ‘WW’ or ‘Walla Walla’, was born in the Surrey town of Reigate on 23 November 1855 and lived there for virtually all his life. The son and grandson of schoolmaster cousin of Reigate’s famed William Caffyn and youngest of six children, one of whom had died in childhood three years before Walter was born, he was an educated man who went on to be one of the best batsmen of his generation. His father, Robert, a native of the town, had been a schoolmaster there from his early days. He too was the son of a schoolmaster, so there was perhaps an inevitability about W W, his elder brother and two elder sisters all being involved in education. The 1841 Census of Population finds Robert living in West Street (unsurprisingly on the west side of town) and probably teaching at James Price’s Boys’ School with eighteen resident pupils. Next door to James Price’s school resides Samuel Allwork, a cooper. Then, after a shoemaker (probably; the handwriting on the Census is not particularly clear) and a blacksmith is the house in which Robert is living with his mother’s cousin, Elizabeth Jelley, ten years his senior, and a fourteen year old female servant. Elizabeth is also a school mistress, probably at one or other of the girls’ schools and later the same year was a witness at Robert’s marriage to another Elizabeth – Elizabeth Allwork, daughter of William Allwork, another cooper 2 , living on the High Street and almost certainly a relative of the Allwork family next door to the school. At the time of the wedding Elizabeth’s residence was the Cross Keys in Gracechurch Street in the City of London, but she had been born in Reigate and moved back there on her marriage to Robert. Nearby is a Girls’ School, run by Sarah Brewer, wife of the 2 The business was established in 1806 and as well as being a cooper, Mr Allwork describes himself in his commercial literature as an ironmonger, basket, sieve and measure maker whose merchandise includes Turnery Ware, Door Mats and Matting, Mops, Brooms and Brushes. He is also an agent for Sim’s Agricultural Instruments.