Alfred Markby

Alfred Markby was another of the late Victorian philanthropists that gave money to support All Saints’. Along with Robert Fenwick, he bought the land on which the church was to sit and helped pay for the purchase and construction of the ‘Iron Church’. He died on January 19th 1892, shortly before the church was consecrated.

We know very little about Markby other than the fact that he was resident in Copse Hill and the senior partner of “Markby, Wilde and Johnson” (Solicitors of 9, Lincoln’s Inn). He was one-time treasurer of the South Wimbledon Church Extension Fund and clearly one who gave generously, both of time and money, to All Saints’ in its formative years.  His influence and importance in Wimbledon were likely to have been prodigious for his memorial, which comprises the east end of the north aisle of All Saints’, bears a list of subscribers that reads like a “Who’s Who” of Wimbledon in the 1890’s.  Amongst the signatories we find Lady Bazaglette (the wife of London’s Chief Engineer), John Murray (the Publisher), Sir Henry Peek (M.P. for Surrey), Francis Penrose (Surveyor of the Fabric of S. Paul’s Cathedral), Sir William Preece (Chief Engineer of the Post Office and author of books on the new telephone – his house was the first in the area to have electric light), and a wide and varied selection of local businessmen and clergy.  The illuminated scroll on which their names are recorded speaks thus of Alfred Markby:- “One of the first to realise the needs of this church, he was also one of its most zealous supporters, and both by his wise counsel and by his liberality contributed largely to the success of the work.”  His greatest tragedy was that he did not live to see the work completed and share in its Consecration.