Walter Liberty Vernon (1846-1914)

From Historical Hastings


Vernon was articled to the London based architect W.G.Habershon in 1862. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and South Kensington School of Art. On completing his articles he worked for Habershon and Pite taking charge of their branch office in Wales in 1869. It was in Wales that he met his wife, Margaret Ann Jones, in 1870.

Arriving in Hastings later the same year[1], he formed a partnership, Moran and Vernon[2], which would appear to have traded from 69 Warrior Square[3].

He and his wife had their first daughter, Margaret at Quarry Crescent on September the 10th 1871[4]. By December of 1872[5], he was the hon. secretary of the Hastings and St Leonards Historical and Philosophical Society, becoming a vice-president by 1880[6]. Associated with this, he was one of the petitioners for the formation of a museum in the town[7] and was known as a keen supporter of the temperance movement[8].

By 1881, he was residing at Clytha House[9], listed as being number 5 of a row of houses adjoining Gensing Gardens, London Road (possibly Clyde Road), he was listed as having two daughters and a son. He was one of a number of subscribers who petitioned the Mayor for the formation of a Municipal School of Art. By 1882, he and his family had moved to The Hurst in Hoadswood Road where another son was born in the same year. Vernon’s association with the Robertson Street Congregational Church predates his design of the church institute at Priory Street. Vernon and his wife were listed as members of the Robertson Street Congregational Church from 1870.

In 1880, Vernon opened an office in London at 26 Great George Street in Westminster. In 1882 he spent a year in Malta following medical advice concerning his asthma. He emigrated to Australia on medical advice in 1883 where he continued a successful career. He built up a large and successful practice in Sydney and was appointed State Architect in 1899[10].

Vernon was also active in the political sphere, being a staunch Liberal and sitting as a councillor for the St Mary Magdalen ward[11].




Children


Children of: Walter Liberty Vernon and Margaret Ann Jones (1848-1919)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Margaret E. Vernon (1872-1946)

 •

Olive Maud Vernon (1874-1925)

 •

Hugh Venables Vernon(1877–1935)

 •

Geoffrey Hampden Vernon (1882-1946)

 •

Before he emigrated to Australia in September of 1883[11][12], he designed a number of prominent buildings around the town, and was instrumental in placing the White Rock Bandstand; his last project in the town was to secure the purchase by John Reeves of twenty acres of land at Bulverhythe for housing - the land having sufficient space for 500 houses[13] - from the Papilon family[11]. Whilst in Sydney, he took command of the Sydney Lancers, and returned with his troops in 1897 to take part in the Jubilee procession in London on the 22nd of June of that year[14]

Designs

Notes

There is a single reference to Vernon at Trinity Street.

References & Notes

  1. UK Census return 1871
  2. a b British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 8 January 1870 Pg. 0003
  3. British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 8 January 1870 Pg. 0003
  4. British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 16 September 1871 Pg. 0002
  5. British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 14 December 1872 Pg. 0002
  6. British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 30 October 1880 Pg. 0005
  7. British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 3 May 1890 Pg. 0005
  8. British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 3 January 1880 Pg. 0003
  9. 1881 Census
  10. British Newspaper Archive Evening Mail 23 January 1914 Pg. 0008
  11. a b c British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 15 September 1883 Pg. 0006
  12. New South Wales Government Gazette 1892
  13. 1850-1899 – The Hastings Chronicle, accessdate: 20 December 2020
  14. British Newspaper Archive Hastings & St. Leonards Observer 12 June 1897 Pg. 0005
  15. East Sussex County Council Archive The Keep DH/C/6/1/1903
  16. East Sussex County Council Archive The Keep DH/C/6/1/2022
  17. East Sussex County Council Archive The Keep DH/C/6/1/1901