Story

William Walter Houfe was born in Huddersfield in 1866 to Henry Houfe, a Draper, who was born about 1819 near Harrogate, of farming folk, and Mary Ann Schofield, born in 1824 in Bradford, Yorkshire

In 1871, the family were back together, in Islington. With them were four of their children – Eliza, William Walter (born in Huddersfield in 1866), Louise Janette (born in Islington in 1866) and Alfred Ernest (born in Islington in 1867). Henry was by now described as a Wholesale Retail Draper. They also had two Domestic Servants. Son Charles Albert, born in Rusholme, Lancashire, in 1862, was a pupil in a Preparatory School in Chiswick at this time.

They had moved a short distance again in 1881 – to Stapleton Hall, Hornsey, Middlesex – about 3 miles. Henry, General Draper and Furnisher, is described as having defective sight and hearing. Eliza, Charles Albert, Tutor, Louise and Albert were with their parents, and one female Domestic Servant..

The 1891 census at Seacroft, 3, The Parade, South Road, Worthing has Henry living in the Household of his unmarried son Charles, Schoolmaster and Cambridge Graduate – he graduated from Queens College. It seems that Charles was Head of a School. He was at the Parade (now Marine Parade) from about 1888 to 1892, so the school proved to be short-lived. Brother Albert was a Schoolmaster – and a Cambridge Undergraduate – and sister Louisa was Assistant Dormitory Housekeeper. There was another Tutor, nine Boarders and four Servants.

Henry died in 1895, back in Yorkshire, with Executor of his will being Charles Albert Houfe, Schoolmaster.

Charles Albert had moved to Yorkshire by 1895 and was, in 1901, Head of a Boarding Preparatory School in Aysgarth, Yorkshire. In 1911 he was living in Cambridge, with sister Louisa, as a Student of Literature and Writer. Neither he, nor Louisa, had married.

William Walter Houfe was staying with his aunt Ada in Yorkshire in 1881. In 1891, now a Marine Engineer, he was a Boarder in Lime House, Tower Hamlets, which appears to have been a School for training Marine Engineers, both Electrical and Mechanical.
In London, in 1892, he married Mary Templeton Hunter, also born in 1864.
There are records of William – now Walter William – travelling from London to Sydney, Australia in 1888, 1890 and 1891, as a Second Engineer, from New York to Liverpool in February 1919, having come from Shanghai, described as a Marine Engineer, and in August 1919, with wife Mary, he departed Glasgow for Shanghai on the ship Mentor, of the Blue Funnel Line.

In 1908 he is recorded as working for Messrs Butterfield and Swire, in Shanghai.
He was the Author of books and papers on Marine Engineering. In October 1895 he read a Paper to the Institute of Marine Engineers and the Institute of Naval Architects on ‘Internal Friction in Steam Engines’. He was described as ‘of Hong Kong’. He is recorded as giving other similar Lectures in 1910 and 1918.

By 1929, William and Mary had moved to Dunoolti, Parkfield Road, off South Street, Tarring.
William died, in 1936, at Leaholm Nursing Home, 10 St Michael’s Road, Heene, though his home was still in Parkfield Road. His will named wife Mary and there were effects in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Mary died in Worthing in 1950.

Researcher: Liz Lane

Date of Death: 21/11/1936

Cause of death: Unknown

Address line 1: Leaholm Nursing Home

Address line 2: 10

Address line 3: St Michael's Road

Town: Worthing

County: Sussex

Country: England

Obituary

No obituary has been entered.

Personal Effects

Money left to others: £5539 10 s 10 d

Current value of effects: £280645.00

1871

4 Lyddall Terrace, Islington, Middx.

Henry aged 52, wholesale retail draper. Mary aged 46. Eliza aged 12. Walter aged 7. Louise aged 5. Alfred aged 5. Plus 2 servants.

1891

41 East India Dock Road, London.

Walter aged 29, marine engineer, lodging in house of James Hawthorne, teacher of marine engineering.

1901

In Shanghai, China.

1911

In Shanghai, China.