Folkestone
Express 20-5-1933
Obituary
We record, with deep regret, the death of Mr. Frederick
Ralph, of Beaulieu, Bouverie Road West, Folkestone, who passed away suddenly at
Manor Court Nursing Home on Saturday last, in his 80th year.
Mr. Ralph had been in bad health for a long time;
indeed, he had not been able to leave his house for more than eight months, yet
maintained his accustomed keen interest in affairs.
Mr. Ralph was born in 1854 opposite old Newgate Prison
(now demolished), and he could remember the tolling of the Great Bell of St.
Paul`s when the Prince Consort died in 1861, and, as a boy, witnessed the last public
execution which took place at Newgate in 1868 or 1869. After occupying various
posts in London (he was for a few months in the Temple), he migrated to
Hastings, where he met and married his wife, who predeceased him by exactly
five years. At Hastings he became a member of the Royal Naval Volunteers, and
in carrying out his duties as manager to Messrs. Norton and Townsend he
personally supervised, when a heavy sea was running, the loading of the wines
on board Lord Brassey`s yacht “The Sunbeam”. From Hastings Mr. Ralph went to
Maidstone, where he became proprietor of the Queen`s Head Hotel. Here he
organised the first regatta to be held on the Medway.
Leaving Maidstone, Mr. Ralph came to Folkestone over 50
years ago, and bought the Rose Hotel (now no more) in Rendezvous Street. The
hotel was, in those days, the recognised rendezvous of the principal citizens;
the large hotels further west were not built. As time went on his business
interests in Folkestone developed steadily. He was closely associated with the
formation of the Pleasure Gardens Theatre Company, and, at his death, he was
the senior member of the Board. He was always happy to remember that the late
Lord Radnor personally invited him to join the Directorate. He took the
greatest interest in theatrical affairs and knew many stage celebrities. For a
short time Mr. Ralph was connected with the Victoria Pier. For many years he
was Chairman of the Queen`s Hotel, resigning this position only recently owing
to failing health. He formed the Folkestone Billposting Company, which
developed branches at Dover and Hastings, this business being afterwards
amalgamated with Messrs. Partington, Kent, Limited, of which company he was
Chairman at the time of his death. He was also Chairman of the Burlington, and
for some years was Chairman of the Grand, afterwards remaining as Director.
About 30 years ago, Mr. Ralph formed the Leas Pavilion
Company and took a continuously active interest in this business to the last.
He was for some years on the Board of the Folkestone Gas Company, and likewise
held Directorships in Messrs. D. Baker and Co Ltd., and the Silver Spring
Mineral Water Company.
Mr. Ralph was always keenly interested in sport, and in
his younger days was a natural athlete, being, in particular, a lightweight
boxer of considerable merit, while many will also recall his great skill as a
billiards player.
As a businessman Mr. Ralph had foresight and courage.
He took endless pains to make anything he was connected with a success, and was
outstanding for his high standard of commercial probity. It would not be too
much to say that he was far more concerned with other people`s interests, if he
felt responsible for them, than he was even for his own. However, his judgement
was rarely at fault, and his business ventures were almost uniformly
successful.
He was a man of very considerable personality, one with
a finely developed sense of humour, and he had an amazing collection of
anecdotes, with great powers as a mimic.
His greatest virtues were his sense of justice and his
generosity. Throughout his long life he performed kindnesses both small and
great, and it is no more than his due to say his passing will be widely
regretted. He felt the death of his wife very keenly, and during the last few
years he was sorely tried by his inability to lead as active a life as
formerly. Nevertheless, his interest in affairs remained unimpaired to the
last.
He leaves a son and daughter, Mr. F.H.M. Ralph and Miss
Violet Ralph, to mourn their loss.
The funeral took place on Wednesday at the Cheriton
Road Cemetery.
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| Photo from Folkestone Herald |
Folkestone Herald
13-1-1945
Obituary
The death of Mr. James Henry Kent, of “The Retreat”,
Trimworth Road, Folkestone, which occurred on Tuesday, has caused widespread
feeling of deep regret in Folkestone and the neighbourhood. Mr. Kent, who was
69, had suffered from a cold for about two months, but last weekend it was
expected that a few days` rest would result in a complete recovery. He was
admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital on Thursday, but he failed to respond
to treatment and died from pneumonia and heart failure.
Mr. Kent, a native of Liverpool, had had business and
municipal interests in this district for a period of well over 30 years. When a
young man he joined the Merchant Navy, which he left at the age of 29 to marry
Miss Annie Elizabeth Lord, whose home was near Abingdon, Berkshire. He
afterwards entered the licensed trade, and for short periods held the licences
of the Prince Albert, at Sydenham, and the Queen`s Hotel, Abingdon.
He came to Folkestone several years before the outbreak of
the last war and, apart from his other business activities, he quickly took a
prominent interest in cinema undertakings. He was managing director of the
first cinema built in Hythe, the old Hythe Picture Palace, which was opened in
1911, and was the forerunner of the much more up-to-date Grove Cinema, in
Portland Road. He made similar interests in Maidstone, Reading and Banbury.
His career on Folkestone Town Council started more than 30
years ago when, in the summer of 1912, he was elected a member for the East
Ward. His association, however, was quickly broken, and it was not until
November, 1927, that he returned to the Corporation as a member for the
Morehall Ward, in which he had important business interests. He was unopposed,
filling the seat vacated by the late Councillor S. Kingsnorth. He was
re-elected in 1930 and 1933, and then when the whole of the Council retired in
1934, prior to the Revision of the Boundaries Election, he went back again,
serving until 1938, when he decided to retire from Municipal life. In July,
1941, however, he was persuaded again to offer his services and he was co-opted
to the East Ward. Last summer he resigned his seat, a decision which in many
quarters met with much regret. For a long period he was Chairman of the Parks
Committee, and he was associated with a number of improvements carried out by
the department in the pre-war years. The late Councillor Kent was one of the
most progressive members of the Corporation and, coupled with his sound
business judgement, this made him one of the most valuable members of the
municipal body.
In 1927 he sold to the Corporation for £1,500 the licence of
the old Rose Hotel, Rendezvous Street, which he had purchased, and despite
strong opposition the licence was transferred in March of that year to the Leas
Cliff Hall. Later on he played a big part in obtaining the transfer of a
licence to the East Cliff Pavilion.
At the election of Mayor last year he made an outspoken protest
against the re-election year after year of one man to the Mayoralty.
For many years he was proprietor of the Morehall Wine
Stores, an off licence business, and in March, 1939, after several previous
unsuccessful applications he was granted an on licence for the premises, the
conversion of which was held up by the outbreak of war.
Mr. Kent was a man of varied activities, of which sporting
pastimes formed a considerable part. In Berkshire he was well-known as a keen
huntsman and shot. He was a skilful bowls player, and for many years had been a
member of the Folkestone Bowls Club and other clubs. As an angler he took part
in many of the Folkestone Sea Angling festivals, and also, on a number of
occasions, visited Ireland for fishing holidays. He was greatly interested in
cricket and had been associated with the Folkestone Cricket Festival in pre-war
days, as well as with the County fixtures played on the Sports Ground.
At one time he was a member of the Folkestone Rotary Club.
He was a Freemason, being a member of the Temple Lodge of Freemasons, No. 558,
Folkestone.
Mr. Kent suffered a severe and tragic loss in the summer of
1934, when his wife died during the annual outing of the staff of the Grove
Cinema. Mrs. Kent collapsed during the homeward journey and died at New.
Romney. There are no children.
The funeral will take place today. The interment will be
preceded by a service at Folkestone Parish Church at 11 a.m.
Folkestone Gazette
16-9-1953
Local News
The days when goats and donkeys roamed the streets of Folkestone, and
sea water (3d. a pail cold and 5d. hot) was delivered to hotels in the west end
of the town, are recalled by the retirement of one of the town's oldest
businessmen, 80-year-old Mr. Alfred Clement Lake, of Cheriton Road, Folkestone.
Since the last war Mr.
Lake and his wife, Trixie, have run the Criterion Hotel and Restaurant in Cheriton
Road, but on September 23rd their business comes under the auctioneer’s
hammer. “People are hard to please these days,” said
Mr. Lake, recalling an August Bank Holiday before 1914-18 war when he sold
over 700 bottles of mineral water at his tea chalet adjoining the Warren Halt
Station. Now Mr. Lake is going to take a well-earned
rest after 70 years of working 12 and more hours a day. “Hard work
never killed anybody”, says Trixie, who despite her 70 years is as sprightly
as ever. “I am already looking for another job.
Perhaps somebody would like a good cook. That is the sort of work that would
suit me”.
Mr. Lake started his
working life as a farmer's boy in the days when cattle roamed through the
Warren. His employer was the late Mr. Edwin Burbidge, who farmed near the No.
3 Martello Tower on East Cliff, where he kept pigs. Farmer
Burbidge’s bullocks and cows grazed on either side of the railway line through
the Warren. And young Alfie Lake used to help drive them home to the cowsheds
which once stood on the site now occupied by the Savoy Cinema. Next door, where
a picture dealer now has premises, stood a shop where Mr. Burbidge sold milk.
They were the days of the old Prince Albert Hotel
before it was modernised. Not only did young Alfred Lake have to drive the cows and bullocks to
the Warren and to a meadow, known as Jenkins field on the site of Segrave Road,
but he had to look after farmer Burbidge’s many donkeys and goats.
In the summer the donkeys
hauled bathchairs up the Road of Remembrance from a stand adjoining the old
toll house at the foot of the hill.
Small open carriages,
drawn by one or two goats, were popular with children who were taken for rides
along the sea front. Quite frequently the goats and the donkeys
strayed from their stables into Rendezvous Street. The police (there were only
five in Folkestone 70 years ago) often called on Mr. Burbidge to round up the
straying animals, although they did not constitute a real danger because there
was so little vehicular traffic in those days.
Very often the goats would stroll as far as The
Rose Hotel on the site of Messrs. Burton’s shop. There some of the practical
jokers of the day would ply the animals with beer until they were drunk. “One day”, said Mr. Lake, “they were
not content just to get one of the old goats drunk. They painted it all the
colours of the rainbow and then turned it loose to find its way back to our yard. Another favourite
visiting place for the goats was the corn factor’s shop on the opposite side
of the street. They had many a free meal before the indignant shopkeeper drove
them away”.
Mr. Lake well remembers
as a boy delivering milk to the notorious Warren Inn, where drinking out of
hours was a special attraction, especially on a Sunday morning. “There were three large rooms at the
inn”, said Mr. Lake, “and from an early hour they were crowded with people who
walked miles for a drink. There was also a tea garden adjoining the premises”. The inn was closed over 60 years ago.
In the yard in Rendezvous Street Mr. Burbidge
installed several big coppers in which he used to boil sea water. “We used to draw the water from the
inner harbour”, said Mr. Lake, “carry it in big barrels on two wheels drawn by
donkeys to our premises and boil it. Then we would set out for the west end of
the town to fulfil orders from visitors and residents who liked to take sea
water baths. Cold water sold at 3d. a pail and hot sea water at 5d. “When Mr. Burbidge gave up the sea
water business it was taken over by the proprietors of the Bathing
Establishment, who used an elaborate cart for their sea water round”.
True to the old story, the farmer’s boy married the farmer’s daughter
but the first Mrs. Lake died in 1916. Before then Mr. Burbidge had moved to
premises in Beach Street where he had a milk shop and continued to run his
farm. He died a few years before the outbreak of war in 1914 and Mr. Lake
carried on the business. For several years before the First World War he had a
tea chalet close to the Warren Halt Station. In those days the Warren was a
favourite spot with picnic parties. “People used to bring all their own food,
tea, sugar and milk”, he said. “I used to supply the hot water, cups, saucers
and plates. I always had milk on sale at 8d. a quart because so very often the
visitors would slip on the steep paths and spill the milk they were carrying in
their baskets. The Warren was a far prettier spot in those days than it is
today”, mused Mr. Lake. “I knew every inch of the twisting paths, and so did my
pack-poniesmwhich carried supplies to the chalet. I often rode one of the ponies
from the Warren Halt to the farm on East Cliff in five minutes. They knew every
twist and turn of the undulating paths and could travel very fast”.
The outbreak of the 1914-18 war brought an end to
the cattle grazing on the chalky slopes of the cliffs between Folkestone and
Dover, although Mr. Lake well remembers the landslip at Eagle’s Nest when a
complete house slid down the cliff. One of his cows was slightly injured by
falling chalk. The War also brought an end to Mr. Lake`s catering activities at
the Warren Halt. In 1920 Mr. Lake married again. His bride was Miss Trixie Rush
and it was not long before they were back in business beneath the tall white
cliffs, this time at the Warren Tea Chalet, built by the Corporation after the
Warren had been given to the town by Lord Radnor. They were there for three
years, and then followed similar ventures on East Cliff. They had a small tea
hut on the site of the East Cliff Pavilion and another at the Roman remains.
For nine years before the outbreak of war in 1939 they carried on a business at
the Zig-Zag Cafe on the Marine Promenade, but the coming of war saw them
catering for thousands of troops and sailors at a cafe in Tontine Street. Nine years ago they took over the
Criterion Resturant in Cheriton Road. When the East Cliff Pavilion was opened it was Mrs.
Lake who organised the first whist drive and dance at the new building. To this day Trixie is well known in
Folkestone as a whist drive M.C. Every week she runs a drive at Oxford House
for the East Ward Conservative Association, of which she is Chairman, and for
the past two years she has organised whist drives for the Catholic Church. Mrs. Lake also takes a great interest
in the Guildhall Over 60 Club of which she is Chairman.
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