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=Max and Harry WAECHTER=

Max Waechter
Glover’s Island, an island in the Thames opposite the Terrace Gardens previously known as Petersham Ait, was owned by Joseph Glover who was a Richmond waterman. He put the island up for sale in 1895. Sir J. Whittaker Ellis declined to buy it for £5,000 and suggested that the Richmond Corporation should be approached. The Amenities Committee considered the proposal on 2nd April 1895 and decided –

"That while the Committee think it desirable that the Island should be acquired for the Corporation if it could be obtained at a reasonable price, they are of the opinion that in view of the sum now named, it would be useless to enter into any negotiation for its purchase."

In August 1898, Glover decided to auction the island and again, with the threat of a sale to a large advertising firm who would probably use the site as an advertising station, offered it to the Corporation for £4,000. Although the Corporation wanted to buy it, it felt that there was no justification in spending such a large sum of money out of its funds.

There then followed a lengthy debate and correspondence in the local press about preserving the view from Richmond Hill and suggestions were made that the purchase should be funded jointly by public subscription and the corporation. By September, only £50 had been given to the public fund and the disclosure that Glover had purchased the island in 1872 for £70 did not helped the collection. The auction took place on 21st September when the highest bid was £200. It was noted that an unnamed resident had offered Glover £1,000 for the island which he then intended to present to the Corporation, but Glover refused to sell and also withdrew the island from sale.

In 1900 Max Waechter, who lived in Terrace House, Richmond Hill, bought Glover’s Island and gave it to the Council – the sale price was never disclosed – and the island reverted to its original name of Petersham Ait. In 1902, Waechter also gave the freehold of Petersham Lodge and grounds as free gifts to the council for further preservation of the view.

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 * Source of Richmond story http://www.richmond.gov.uk/local_history_richmond_hill.pdf

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The estate, by then including a manor of GARTON, presumably part of the property formerly belonging to Thornton abbey, (fn. 14) passed from Thomas Grimston (d. 1618) to his nephew Marmaduke Grimston (d. 1623). (fn. 15) Later reckoned a single manor, GARTON WITH GRIMSTON, it descended in the family (fn. 16) to Marmaduke Grimston (d. 1879), whose heirs were his daughters Florence, who married Edward Byrom, and Rose, who married George Hobart and in 1912 assumed the additional name Grimston. The family estates were held in undivided moieties (fn. 17) until 1918. The manor house and c. 1,210 a. in Garton with Grimston township then formed the bulk of the share assigned to Mrs. Hobart Grimston and her daughter Armatrude, wife of Sir Max Waechter. (fn. 18) Lady Waechter, who took the additional name de Grimston on her mother's death in 1927, gave the estate to her cousin Norman R. Grimston in 1946, and he sold it in 1948 to St. Andrew's Steam Fishing Co. Ltd. (fn. 19)

From: 'Middle division: Garton', A History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 7: Holderness Wapentake, Middle and North Divisions (2002), pp. 40-50. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16127. Date accessed: 09 June 2006.

Source: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16127

Books by MW in the BL:

Author - personal   WAECHTER, Max Leonard, Sir. Title European Federation ... A lecture delivered at the London Institution on the 25th February, 1908. Publisher/year   pp. 15. C. W. Stidstone: London, [1908.] Physical descr. 8º.

Author - personal   WAECHTER, Max Leonard, Sir. Title How to Abolish War. The United States of Europe. (Revised edition.). Publisher/year   pp. 12. T.C.P.: London, [1924.] Physical descr. 8º.

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Vernon White 14:08, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

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