Leonard Henry Alden (1873–1937)
Mayor of Oxford 1936–7
Leonard Alden in 1936/7 (Picture Oxon 0618233)
Leonard Henry Alden was born at Eastwyke Farm at Grandpont (then in Berkshire) in 1873.
He was the son of Robert Rhodes Alden, the butcher at Eastwyke Farm, and Hannah Morriss, who was born in Southampton.
His parents were married at Southampton in 1868 and had eleven children: Grace, Arthur, Leonard, Stanley, Reginald, Harold, Edward, William, Frederick, Eveline, and Winifred.
The three generations of Aldens in Oxford before Leonard
Isaac Alden (1770–1832)
Leonard Alden's great-grandfather
Isaac Alden of Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire was the head of the whole Alden dynasty of butchers and printers in Oxford.
He was originally a yeoman in the service of Webb Seymour, who on 1 January 1792 had become the 10th Duke of Somerset. The Duke's eldest son Edward Adolphus Seymour (who later changed his surname from “Seymour” to “St Maur”) was aged only 16 when he was matriculated at the University of Oxford by Christ Church on 31 January 1792, and so Isaac was sent to take care of him in Oxford. When the 10th Duke died on 24 December 1793, Edward (still only aged 18) succeeded him as the 11th Duke.
On 26 May 1794 at North Hinksey Church, Isaac Alden (described as being of Chipping Sodbury but as resident in North Hinksey) married Martha Curtis (described as being of St Aldate's parish). On 30 October 1795 it was agreed that Isaac Alden should be allowed to purchase his freedom of the City of Oxford. His eldest son was born at Chipping Sodbury on 25 March 1796, but soon after his birth the family was back in Oxford: by February 1797 they were in St Aldate's parish and by 1802 in All Saints' parish (probably Bear Lane).
Isaac Alden was a Baptist who served as a warden of New Road Baptist Church, and the births of all nine of his children between 1796 and 1809 are recorded in its register.
In about 1820 he took on the lease of Eastwyke Farm in Grandpont and had a butcher's stall in the Covered Market.
He died at Bear Lane on 14 September 1832 at the age of 62 and was buried at New Road Baptist Church two days later.
Thomas Amos Alden (1807–1874)
Leonard Alden's grandfather (the son of Isaac Alden & Martha)
Thomas Amos Alden was born in All Saints' parish in Oxford, probably at Bear Lane. He followed his father Isaac into the business along with his brother Isaac Alden junior. He was a widower when on 12 December 1834 he married Elizabeth Bland of St Giles in St Aldate's Church. They had seven children, all born at Eastwyke Farm.
Robert Rhodes Alden (1841–1927)
Leonard Alden's father (the son of Thomas Amos Alden & Elizabeth)
Robert Rhodes Allen expanded the business, and in 1916 R. R. Alden was listed as a butcher, pork butcher, and sausage maker at Units 67 & 68, 72, 73, 74–77, and 108 & 109 The Market. He is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery.
Eastwyke Farm, leased by the Aldens from c.1820 to 1988, photographed in 2011
Leonard Henry Alden
The 1881 census shows Leonard as a child of 7 living at Eastwyke Farm with his father Robert Rhodes Alden, his mother Hannah, his sister Grace (11), and five of his brothers: Arthur (9), Stanley (5), Reginald (3), Harold (2), and Edward (seven months). There were eventually to be eight Alden sons, of whom five (including Leonard himself) followed their father into the butchery trade.
Leonard Alden was educated privately and then at the Oxford Central School. At the time of the 1881 census he was a schoolboy of 7, living at Eastwyke Farm with his parents and his siblings Grace (11), Arthur (9), Stanley (5), Reginald (3), Harold (2), and Edward (six months), plus their gentleman's servant and nurse.
By the time of the 1891 census Leonard (17) was a butcher’s assistant, living with his parents at Eastwyke Farm. His older brother Arthur (19) was a butcher’s shopman, his younger brother Stanley (15) was an apprentice grocer, while his other siblings Reginald, Harold, Edward, William, Frederick, Eveline, and Winifred were still at school. The family had one servant.
On 20 June 1894 at South Hinksey Church, Leonard Alden (21), described as a butcher of Eastwyke Farm, married Emily Penn (21), who was living at 162 Abingdon Road, New Hinksey, the daughter of the college servant Edward Penn. They appear to have started their married life in Cowley St John, moving to New Hinksey by 1895, and then to Egrove Farm in South Hinksey in about 1900. They had seven children:
- Arthur Rhodes Alden (born in Cowley St John on 22 December 1894)
- Nellie Alden (born in New Hinksey on 28 November 1895)
- Grace Morris Alden (born in New Hinksey on 11 October 1898), later Mrs Wilkes
- Leonard Stanley Alden (born at Egrove Farm in South Hinksey on 28 January 1901)
- Rodney Robert Alden (born at Egrove Farm in South Hinksey on 31 May 1902)
- Kathleen Alden (born at Egrove Farm in South Hinksey on 19 April 1904), later Mrs Clapcott
- Priscilla M. Alden (born in Oxford on 26 June 1911). later Mrs Hawes.
From 1898 to 1908 Alden was Chairman of South Hinksey Parish Council.
At the time of the 1901 census Leonard (27), described as a butcher, farmer, and cattle dealer, was living at Egrove Farm in South Hinksey with his wife Emily (28) and their four eldest children Arthur (6), Nellie (5), Grace (2), and Leonard junior (under three months), plus one servant. His parents Robert & Hannah were still living at Eastwyke Farm with Leonard's siblings Reginald (23), Harold (22), Edward (20), William (18), Frederick (16). Eveline (14), and Winifred (13), plus one domestic servant.
By 1911 Alden (39), described as a butcher and farmer, was living at Eastwyke (or Eastwick) Farm on the Abingdon Road with his wife Emily (38) and five of their first six children: Nellie (15), Grace (12), Leonard junior (10), Rodney (8), and Kathleen (6). They also had two domestic servants. Their eldest son Arthur Rhodes Alden (16) was a civil service student living in a boarding house at Shepherd's Bush, and their youngest child, Priscilla, was born later that year. His parents Robert Rhodes Alden and his mother Hannah had moved to 232 Woodstock Road, and their two youngest daughters were still with them.
The 1921 census shows Alden (48), described as a butcher & farmer with a stall in Oxford Market, living on his Abingdon Road farm with five of his grown-up children. Only his son Rodney Robert Alden (19) worked in the farming business.
Alden was Chairman of South Hinksey Parish Council from 1898 to 1908 and a Liberal Oxford City Councillor from 1919 to 1936. While on the council he was Chairman of the Farm Committee (1920-5), Vice-Chairman of the Watch Committee (1922–6) and Chairman of the Highways Committee and the Sewers and Lighting Committee (1931–6). In 1935 he was Chairman of Oxford Liberal Association.
Alden was President of the Master Butchers’ Association, and acted as Cattle Judge in Reading, Northampton, Wellington in Shropshire, and finally at Smithfield (1935–6). His business was described as “probably the biggest butchering business under one roof in England”.
In November 1936 at the age of 63, Leonard Alden was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1936/7) and during his year of office was made an Alderman. The Coronation of George VI on 12 May 1937 fell during his mayoralty, and he attended the Coronation with his sergeant, because his wife Emily had been ill for a long time, and she died the next month.
Just three weeks after his wife's funeral Leonard Alden went to visit his son Robert at his farm at Wheatley Bridge and was hit by a car when walking across the road between the farm and its yard.
† Leonard Henry Alden died on 21 July 1937 in the Radcliffe Infirmary. His funeral service at New Road Baptist Church was attended by the Vice-Chancellor and many other members of the University as well as of the corporation. The Minister said at his funeral:
We see the passing of a type for he had lineage and descent … generations under the same roof … farming the same fields, and known and respected in the same city life…. And on that yeoman stock Leonard Alden grafted some new qualities. He did not rise in any pretentious way above it … he loved his flowers and his cattle, and his fields. He was a yeoman of England.
At a luncheon the Vice-Chancellor of the University (Alexander Dunlop Lindsay) said:
I thought more of the Mayor every time I met him. You expect at the head of a great city ability, honesty, and shrewdness, but you will not misunderstand me when I say that you don’t expect to find a saint. I do think our Mayor was, in a most straightforward sense, a saint… I felt that everybody in the city really must respect and love him.
He was buried with his wife at Wolvercote Cemetery (see his grave).
His effects came to £48,062 17s. 11d., and his executors were his three sons (Arthur Rhodes Alden, now a civil servant, Leonard Stanley Alden, now a motor engineer, and Rodney Robert Alden, now a master butcher) and his solicitor.
Isaac Alden's son Robert Rodney Alden took over the family butcher's business, followed in turn by his four sons Rodney, Peter, David, and Richard. Richard Alden's son Matthew Alden took it over in 2003.
Alden’s head office at Eastwyke Farm closed in 1988, and the land reverted to University College. The Four Pillars Hotel was built on the site, and in March 2010 they converted the farmhouse to ten additional hotel rooms. The Alden family business is now at Osney Mead.
Sir Percy Alden
Leonard Henry Alden's great-uncle John Alden, who was another son of Isaac Alden and Martha Curtis, was also a butcher:
see his biography (St Sepulchre's Cemetery).
John's son Isaac Alden junior by his second wife Caroline Cabbell married Harriet Kemp, and their son was the Liberal Party politician Sir Percy Alden.
See also:
- Who’s Who in Oxfordshire, 1936, p. 5
- Oxford Magazine, 1937–8, p. 4 (obituary)
- Oxford Monthly, August 1937, p. 1
- Oxford Times, 23 July 1937, pp. 14c and 15fg (obituary and editorial)
- The Times, 29 July 1937, p. 15 (obituary)
- Clyde Binfield, “The Aldens of New Road: A Baptist continuity” in Rosie Chadwick (ed.), A Protestant Catholic Church of Christ: Essays on the History and Life of New Road Baptist Church, Oxford (Oxford: Alden Group Ltd, 2003), pp. 201–58
- Portrait of Leonard Alden in the Council Chamber Corridor of the Town Hall
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Aldate), RG11: 1501/52
- 1891 Census: Oxford (St Aldate), RG12: 1167/20
