About Alfred Tolhurst
Alfred Tolhurst, lawyer, entrepreneur, and local politician arrived in Gravesend around 1850 as a penniless youth aged 16. Eventually he set up his own office, still reflected in Gravesend as the Martin Tolhurst Partnership.
Prominent Town Councillor, owner of the Red Lion Cement Works, and credited with one of the finest legal brains in Kent, his clash with the big guns of cement manufacturing led to a landmark ruling in Contract Law. Catholic converts influenced by Cardinal Manning, Alfred and Sarah had 10 offspring, some with interesting and diverse careers of their own.
After helping to shape local affairs with his vigorous and independent views, he became a member of the Kent County Council, Thames Conservancy, and Metropolitan Water Boards, while also serving as Guardian to the Strood Workhouse. After his death in 1913, his family built the memorial Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Northfleet, recently restored as an important work of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott; and a prominent landmark to an extraordinary local character.
This biography is largely derived from primary sources, family and local information, and illustrated by maps and various (some unique) photographs.
About The Authors
David Peter Tolhurst Esq., descendent of Phillip Tolhurst, Alfred's youngest son, attended Beaumont College, as did many Tolhursts before him. In 1964 he and his father James built and ran a mushroom farm in Egham, Surrey, until 1994. The business still flourishes as storage units under David's sole charge.
During the Second World War bombing raids on London, the prominent tower of the Tolhurst family memorial church at Northfleet was used as a marker by the German planes. Ironically, with the help of the tower David's family were bombed when living on Wimbledon Common. Fortunately they escaped injury.
His interest in the Tolhurst dynasty was a key factor in this project, and his contacts with various branches of the family have been extremely fruitful. Contact with Robert Hiscock, the well known Gravesend local historian, led eventually to the connection with Dr Bill Hudson, born in Gravesend, and whose family lived in Northfleet. As a young GP, in Bournemouth, the latter worked with Dr Dennis Tolhurst, son of Alfred's colourful second son 'Ignatius'.
Attempts to discover Alfred's story, hitherto found only in brief outline locally, led back to the Gravesend Historical Society, and the same source of so much information, namely Robert Hiscock. We are grateful to all who have assisted in this enterprise, especially our esteemed and helpful editor John Lowerson, in the Department of History at Sussex University.
Reader Comments
"I am very indebted to Bill for his generous copy of the Alfred Tolhurst book. It has been a pleasure to read and stimulated much further reading on the ever-amazing Victorians. Bill and his collaborator have had to take on a very wide range of areas of historical inquiry from the Catholic revival to municipal government; from personal family history to church architecture; from the administration of the poor law to the history of cement and the intricacies of commercial law. It is all done with a very great balance, clarity and good judgement. I thought it was quite simply outstanding and parts of it made me quite nostalgic about Gravesend and informed me about an enormous amount that I did not know." - Atis Antonovics