136 



Sir WALTER GILBEY, Bart. 



Born 1831. Died 1914. 



In Sir Walter Gilbey, whose lamented death took place on 

 November 12 last, the Society has lost one of its oldest and 

 most valued members. His name was identified with many 

 movements of vital importance in the world of agriculture, but 

 most prominently with those pertaining to the horse. There 

 is no organization having for its purpose the betterment of 

 horse breeding with which Sir Walter was not associated, and 

 in the work of which, at some period of his industrious life, he 

 did not take a leading part. 



Love of horseflesh was born in him. A son of Mr. Henry 

 Gilbey, of Gilbey & Low, coach proprietors, of Bishop's Stort- 

 ford, he would say he had been " reared in a stable yard." At 

 the age of thirteen he -was articled to a cousin, an estate agent 

 at Tring. He had no particular taste for office work, but the 

 business had the redeeming merit, in his eyes, that it involved 

 much riding and driving about the country in connection with 

 matters relating to the land. 



Even in early days he had ambition, and the outlook 

 offered by the land agency business did not satisfy ; and 

 vv^hen, in his nineteenth year, an opening occurred in the office 

 of Mr. Walmisley, a Parliamentary agent, he made up his 

 mind to take it. To change the country for London demanded 

 self-denial ; he disliked town life, and its most agreeal:)le 

 feature was the acquaintance he cultivated with liverj^ stable 

 keepers and horse dealers ; with them he discovered a common 

 interest, and from them he used to obtain mounts. His 

 father's calling, he would say, was helpful here : Mr. Henry 

 Gilbey used often to drive his own coach up to London, and 

 he was widely known to those whose work lay among horses. 

 Young Gilbey was still in the employ of Mr. Walmisley when, 

 in 1(S54, the outbreak of the Crimean War turned his thoughts 

 in a new direction. In the office he heard daily of the war 

 and nothing but the war, and taking council with his younger 

 brother Alfred, then a clerk in a wine merchant's business, he 

 determined to go out to the East. It was the spirit of adven- 

 ture ; for the time he laid aside plans for getting on in life. 

 Those who knew him need not be told that when he set 

 himself to achieve a purpose he rarely failed to accomplish his 

 end, and before long the interest of Sir Benjamin Hawes, a 

 War Ofifice official, was secured on the brothers' behalf. 



