Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Edwin James Pearson

13/02/1842 –10/05/1906

Churchwarden of St Peter's and Fellow of the Royal Society

Relatives

Emily Margaret Pearson (376) — wife

Mabel Anne Pearson — daughter

Irene Margaret Pearson — daughter

• Robin McMorran

Edwin James Pearson was born in Spitalfields, London, on 13 February 1842, a son of Sir Edwin Pearson (1802-1883) and Alicia Anne Hewitt (1812-1895, daughter of James Hewitt, Viscount Lifford), both resident in Wimbledon. Edwin James was one of possibly eight children. Among his siblings were:

• Arthur Ashley Pearson (b.1847) of Hillside Wimbledon, a clerk in the Colonial Office, m Margaret Hyde of Quarry Bank, Wilmslow, Cheshire
• Alice Maude Pearson , m Rev Charles Stuart Parker Darroch, Rector of Medstead, Hants
• Emily Georgiana Pearson
• Edith Anne Pearson

Edwin James was educated at Harrow School. After leaving school, he joined the Board of Trade and remained there until his early retirement in late 1884. At the Board, he was travelled internationally, attending an International Railway Congress at Rome, and advising the Cape Colony Government in South Africa on recording statistics. In 1866-67, his work at Statistical Department of the Board of Trade gathered vital agricultural statistics which helped to combat a cattle plague. After a reorganisation at the Board of Trade, Pearson retired in 1884.

In 1868 Edwin James married Emily Margaret Valpy, daughter of Richard Valpy of Champneys. They lived at Millfield House, a large mansion off Gravel Path in Berkhamsted. The house has since been demolished, but the driveway to this house is a now suburban street called Millfield.

Pearson was deeply involved in local Berkhamsted affairs; Kelly’s Directory of 1890 lists Edwin James as a County Magistrate for Dacorum. He was also appointed a lieutenant of the 2nd Royal Surrey Militia in 1864, served as a Hertfordshire County Councillor. He was also a member of the County Education Committee, and one of the Governors of Berkhamsted School. He was also a keen Freemason, and was for many years President of the Berkhamsted Cricket Club.

It appears that Pearson was acquainted with his near neighbour, Edward Mawley (plot 373), who lived as Rosebank on Gravel Path. The two men shared an interest in the science of meteorology and became active in the Royal Meteorological Society. In 1895 Pearson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Edwin James served as a churchwarden of St Peter’s Church from 1891 until his death in 1906, alongside Alfred Lucas, Thomas Penny (plot 387) and George Chilton (plot 224).

Historian Richard Norris records that, prior to the 1960s re-ordering of St Peter’s, a memorial inscription was laid in the marble panelling around the sanctuary of the church:

“In memory of Sir Edwin Pearson Kt and Hon Alicia Pearson. Placed here by their son Edwin James Pearson churchwarden 1895.”

Upon his death in 1906, a marble reredos was erected in the St Katherine Chapel of St Peter’s Church depicting the Nativity of Christ. Carved in the late medieval style, it is actually a copy of part of the high altar screen of Winchester Cathedral.

Irene Margaret Pearson

c.1873 –15/01/1922

Daughter of churchwarden and meteorologist Edwin James Pearson and Emily Margaret Valpy

Relatives

Edwin James Pearson — father

Emily Margaret Pearson (376) — mother

Mabel Anne Pearson — sister

Irene Margaret Pearson — sister

Irene Margaret Pearson was born in Putney, Surrey, the daughter of churchwarden and meteorologist Edwin James Pearson and Emily Margaret Valpy, daughter of Richard Valpy of Champneys. Irene’s sister was Mabel Anne Pearson (1869–1957).