Alfred Beague Gundry - Drowned on Good Friday by the Upsetting of a Boat

Monument of Alfred Beague Gundry, St Michael's Churchyard, Bray, Berkshire

"Sacred to the memory of Alfred Beague Gundry. Youngest son of Walter Eustace Gundry ESQre late of Bridport Dorset who was drowned by the upsetting of a boat on the Thames at Bray Weir on the 18th April 1862 aged 26 years

~ Sincerely beloved and deeply lamented. What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know here after.

I am the resurrection and the life (rest illegible) ~"

 

Alfred Beague Gundry was indeed the youngest son of Walter Eustace Gundry and Susan Jarvis, born on 7th July 1835 in Bridport Dorset. He came from a rather upper-class family his father being an accountant and his elder brothers employed as Bank of England Clerks, they all lived in the affluent Pembroke Square in Kensington, London.

 

Alfred fist appears on the 1841 Census living at his grandfather Samuel's home in East Street, Bridport, Dorset, with his parents and siblings.

East Street, Bridport, Dorset c1914

 

By 1851 the family had moved to 8 Pembroke Square, Kensington, London

On the 1861 Census a year before his tragic and untimely death Alfred is listed as an accountant boarding at 14 Everett Street in Finsbury, London.

Quite what was Alfred doing mucking about in a boat in Maidenhead, on the river Thames on that fateful day in April? In the Victorian era, mucking about on the river pleasure boating or 'punting' was very much in vogue. Anybody who was anybody was to be seen bobbing about on the river. Pleasure punts in use in England were first built around 1860 and reached the peak of their popularity in the 1910s.

 

The London Illustrated News reported on Alfred's death on 26th April 1862:

"Drowned, on the 18th of April, by the upsetting of a boat on the Thames at Maidenhead, to the inexpressible grief of his family and friends, Alfred Beague, second surviving son of Walter Eustace Gundry, Esq., Sussex House, Jersey, aged 26 years."

The later inquest was held on the 28th April 1862 at the George Inn, now the Hinds Head, Bray.  The Reading Mercury reported on 3rd Mat 1862:

"The Late Melancholy Case Of Drowning

An inquest was held before William Weedon Esq., Deputy Coroner, on Monday, the 28th ult., at the George Inn, in the parish of Bray, on the body of Mr. Alfred Beague Gundry, aged 26 years. The deceased was a clerk in the house of Messrs. Sampson, Mitchell, and Cos., London, and on Good Friday last came down to Maidenhead in company with a fellow clerk., to enjoy a day's boating. They started down the river at about 11 o'clock, and on reaching the first lock, instead of going through, they, by the suggestion of the deceased, attempted to get round it, but the stream there being very strong, the boat came in contact with a small bridge leading over a weir, and capsized, precipitating them both into the water. deceased's companion in his evidence, stated that although the former was a strong swimmer, he on reaching the surface of the water appeared unconscious, as if he had struck against something when thrown out of the boat. Witness therefore seized him by his hair, and after some considerable difficulty succeeded in bringing to the shallows near. Here, however, the current soon swept witness away, and he saw nothing of deceased afterwards. The body was not found until Sunday morning last, the ninth day after the accident. From the evidence, it appeared that there were no marks of violence about the body, and money and other valuables were found about his person. Verdict "Accidentally Drowned." Mr. Brown, of Maidenhead, Solicitor, appeared on behalf of the father of the deceased."