Local historian Kirk Bannister, 31, has won first prize in the new biennial competition, the Richard Milward Memorial Prize for Local History. Awarded by the Wimbledon Society for best essay bringing new insight into a familiar subject, his 2000-word study followed original research on New Wimbledon: the growth of a Victorian suburb 1851 - l891.

Kirk explains that clean water and local land companies were the real driving forces behind the original development of Wimbledon town in the 1860s, rather than just the arrival of railways as widely believed until now. Although the first Wimbledon station opened in 1838, building in the area did not start until the 1860s after clean water had become available and land companies had emerged to parcel up what was until then just farmland. Only then did railways with cheap fares begin to attract both house buyers and more builders.

Six award-winning entries in the competition were announced at this year’s Wimbledon Bookfest. Runner-up was Glenys Taylor for Keeping Up with the Joneses, a history of St John's Cottage, Copse Hill, and the Jones family. One member, Professor Daniel Jones is believed to be the inspiration for Professor Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, later the basis of My Fair Lady the musical.  

Commendations went to Yasmine Jamil, James Leek, Margaret Skilton and Lucy London for their essays respectively on the empire builder and local resident Sir Henry Bartle Frere; Wimbledon War Memorial; Somerset Stables SW19; and Rosaleen Graves, sister of World War One poet Robert Graves.

The Richard Milward Memorial Prize commemorates Wimbledon’s most prolific local historian who wrote at least 28 books, lectured regularly, was a founder member of the Wimbledon Society’s Local History Group and president of the society itself for six years. A lifelong Wimbledon resident, he died in 2006.

 

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