Lonsdale House, Lingfield Road, East Grinstead

History of Lonsdale House

Approximate position

Home of the Handford family:

Walter Walton Handford b 1864 Lucknow India

Isabel Virginia née Thompson b 1856 Buenos Aires

Claude Handford b. 1899 East Grinstead

Walter studied at Trinity College Cambridge and then was appointed curate of St Gile’s Cripplegate. He was later appointed curate in East Grinstead before becoming vicar in 1906.

In 1904 he seems to have been visiting Cambridge with his wife who sends their son a postcard of Trinity College showing the location of his rooms, presumably as an undergraduate.

Water had been involved in a tragic event in April 1879 on the River Ouse at Bedford when a rowing boat of family members sunk near castle Mill at Goldington. Walter’s brother, John Frazer Handford b 1869, was drowned.

Walter died in 1918 from pneumonia at East Grinstead. This is very likely to have been a symptom of Spanish Flu.