On 3 January 1867, the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette announced the arrival of several men at the White Lion Hotel, among them Mr Walne.
This may well have been Alfred Septimus Walne or one of his brothers. Certainly Alfred spent time there as he was enumerated at the hotel in the census of 1861, when he was Her Majesty’s Consul at Cairo. (1861 Census; Bath St Peter and St Paul, Somerset; ED 1, Page 7). This might suggest he was a regular visitor when home from Egypt.
Alfred was a seventh son (hence his middle name) and was born in Market Weston Suffolk. By the time of his death, at Russell Square in London, he had substantial property in Brockdish, Norfolk. He now lies in the graveyard of St Peter and St Paul, under a pink marble monument with his brother, Daniel Henry Walne (more later!).
The hotel was demolished at the end of the century and made way for the Victoria Art Gallery- more about Bath’s inns can be found in The Survey of Bath and District (No 26, October 2011; The Journal of the Survey of Old Bath and Its Associates).
