Frederic West

Fred was born in Orleans, France and along with the other children of Charles Edward West was brought up with Provencal as his first language. The family moved to Montpelier before returning to England. Originally, he had hopes of joining the army in India but this did not work out. Instead he went to work on a farm. He later borrowed £1000 from his uncle to buy a farm near Southampton.

He stayed here for about 7 years before selling and buying another farm a few miles away where he had a nice house built. He stayed here for 6 years before going to Belgium to work on building a railway in Belgium with his cousin Edward Preston. More railway construction work followed in France and Spain and then he spent 5 years in Russia helping to build the Poti to Tiflis Railway. Once this was completed he returned to England and invested his money in a business.

In 1876, at the age of 49, he married Emily Palmer. They lived at Putney where their first 2 of their 8 children were born. The business he had invested in did not succeed and the family were forced to move to Winchester. Fred died there in 1914.