Memoir of C A Wilde.

(23rd April 1875 - 13th December 1933)

Charles Arthur Wilde was born on the 23rd April, 1875 at “Links House” Eastbourne, the fourth and youngest son of Lieutenant General Sir Alfred Thomas Wilde, KCB, KSI, and Lady Wilde, born Ellen Greene. The Wildes can be traced back to Derbyshire in the 17th century and the Greenes to Ireland in the same period.

Physically, Charles combined the characteristics of his parents, dark eyes and complexion of his mother, long face and height of his father, although, at under six feet he was the shortest of the brothers. The one next to him in age, Edward Hugh (Bob) was over 6 ft 6, broad in proportion and fair.

As for temperament, an old friend, Joe Wilding, who met him first soon after he left school, stated that he was mercurial, alternating between the extremes of depression and high spirits. He had an outstanding practical ability and obvious intelligence, but never read a serious book, never passed an examination and was emphatically an individual, a man of action and without intellectual or academic interests. Social and sporting activities had no appeal for him whatever - it was no accident that most of his life was spent in remote places.

He was very humane and would allow no unkindness to animals or any living thing unable to defend itself. His brothers were in this more conventional, happy in youth to go shooting rabbits, and later big game. The age of paternalism had not departed in his time. The same fair dealing and sympathetic understanding that had made his father loved and faithfully followed by native troops in the Indian Mutiny was also shown in him during the many years that he employed labour.

His father died in 1878, and although the pension of a General's widow would have been substantial for those days, Lady Wilde must have been relieved to find that a co-operative effort by Service officers had created in 1874, the United Services College at Westward Ho!, N Devon. Fees there were at a minimum and an adequate education was provided in the spartan conditions described in Kipling's " Stalky and Co." The eldest boy, Edward Godfrey, was sent to Winchester (where his father had been) and was soon ejected for declining to work. The other three were sent to the USC where Neville, the second son, was a contemporary of Rudyard Kipling.

Charles was happy there, and it would have been in that marine setting, with the salt wind howling through the attic dormitories, that he acquired a love of the sea and distant islands which never left him. He was much among the ship-rights of nearby Appledore. Here, it was still thronged with sailing vessels and it is likely that the small boy eagerly watching the skilled workers and being allowed to try their tools, discovered the mechanical aptitude and ingenuity which was to make him an engineer.

One of the schoolmasters, Mr. Crofts, who is "King" in Rudyard Kipling's school stories encouraged his interest in photography and there still remain several albums of snapshots taken by him at this time, as far afield as Buck's Mills and Lundy Island.

It was while he was still a schoolboy at Westward Ho! that he first saw the little girl who was to become his wife many years later. The school chapel was the only place of worship in the area, with the services held there being attended by both outsiders and the boys. Among them were the children of Lieutenant Colonel George Scott, four girls and a boy. The second daughter, Alicia (Kitta) was the one who caught his fancy and he is said to have announced that if ever he married, that was the only girl for him.

One of his brothers followed their father into the Army, but died soon after reaching India. Another trained at " Barts" and became a doctor. He had a practice at Barry in South Wales and after a disastrous marriage left for South Africa, where he died many years later.

To be an engineer was the only ambition of Charles, so on leaving school he entered as a premium pupil with the famous old firm of Maudslay, Son and Field whose works occupied the river- bank site where St. Thomas's Hospital now stands. Among his many photographs of this period it is interesting to see those of the construction and erection of the Great Wheel for the Earl's Court Exhibition. This was later re-erected at Vienna, where it features notably as the rendezvous of Orson Welles and Trevor Howard in the film " The Third Man".

After only two years (1892-4), he left. Whether the reason was his lack of interest in the theoretical and mathematical side of engineering, or a shortage of funds, cannot be known. So, aged only 19, he was ripe for the fate of so many younger sons - a passage paid to far away. Lady Wilde (a complete innocent in such matters) fell in with some obscure character who, for a fee, promised a wonderful opportunity in the booming Goldfields of Australia. With an introduction from him, her son was a made man!

Soon he was on his way, the camera recording Naples, Port Said and Suez.

In February 1895 he arrived at the Wentworth Gold Mine, Lucknow, New South Wales, only to find that nobody had heard of his alleged patron. Nothing for it but to go down the pits and work hard, which he did for a year, he earned the warmest commendations of his employers. A faded photo shows him outside his ramshackle hut. During this period he befriended a mysterious old man - believed to be an ex - pirate - who gave him the fine Swiss Musical Box still extant. By February 1896, rumours of fabulous gold and diamond strikes in South Africa caused him and several friends to leave for that land of promise, saving their little money by stoking their way to Cape Town.

At about the time of his arrival great alarm was spread by the news of a rising of the Matabele tribe, in what later became known as Rhodesia. The Matabele people had become alarmed by the establishment of settlers on their grazing lands that had created a threat to their way of life. Their remedy was to burn the farms and butcher the settlers.

Volunteers were called for, and a column was formed to enter the disputed territory and restore order, which was done with little or no fighting. But with much privation and no medical help, there was very serious sickness, Malaria, Blackwater Fever, Dysentery and other obscure tropical diseases. His health never fully recovered from the effects of this three-month campaign in the bush. However, he received a handsome medal by the British South Africa Company.

Around September 1896, he joined the Wolhuter Gold Mines of Johannesburg as electrical engineer and took entire charge of their generating and pumping equipment. In those days no thought was given to the protection of workers among dangerous machinery. A favourite amusement of drunks on their way home, was to throw iron hoops on to the overhead cables that carried power from the generators to the mine. This produced a most pleasing display of sparks and a dead stop to the dynamos. As a result, the great belts linking the engines and the generators flew off and thrashed about in all directions. Those attending were lucky to escape injury or death.

His stay at the Wolhuter mine lasted only seven months, for in April 1897 he was deeply distressed by the electrocution of a close friend. Again, he went with a warm testimonial. An interval of about two months now occurs, presumably a time spent in England, when he may have resumed his acquaintance with the Scott family. It may have been then that he took a snapshot of himself with Elsie and Kitta Scott at Buck's Mills.

His next job took him to the West Indies, where so much of his subsequent life was spent, that it may be well at this point to outline the situation in those islands.

In 1895, Joseph Chamberlain was made Colonial Secretary. A powerful statesman, he was dedicated to the idea of consolidation of the Empire by economic means, especially Imperial Preference. He was greatly concerned by the plight of the less flourishing colonies, and of those none were more distressed than the Bahama Islands, a group lying off the coast of Florida. Low-lying coral islands with shallow soil and no water, they were sparsely inhabited by the descendants of slaves and buccaneers, feebly struggling to survive. He decided to come to the rescue with subsidies and expert advice on starting new projects, sending his younger son Neville to toil there for years, trying to create work for the people - in the upshot, with little success. This was the same Neville Chamberlain whose last days as Premier were spent confronting Hitler.

Very few crops had any hope of growing on that sterile dry land, apart from one of the cactus family, the Sisal. This was already cultivated in West Africa and valued for the exceptionally long and strong fibre extracted from the leaves. Binder-twine made from this fibre was in great demand from the United States for use in the reaping machines of the mid-West.

Whale Cay plantation looking north towards the house.

How Charles came to be involved is not known - it may have been another attempt by his mother. However, by June 1897, he was employed as manager by the West Caicos Fibre Company of Turks Islands. There is a letter dated 20th July 1897, to Lady Wilde from one Robert Lee. He seems to have been some sort of agent or broker. He refers to a cheque received from Lady Wilde concerning a cable to Johannesburg

(perhaps about the return of Charles the England?). He continues

" I heard from Turks Islands this morning... and had a good report of your son.... an extract from my friends letter... " Mr Wilde is at West Caicos and we all feel deeply indebted to you. There is something about this young man that I cannot understand, he simply carries everything before him, wherever he goes, the friends in New York and all the folks here have taken well to him."

This sounds a little too effusive - there may have been something shady about the Fibre Company, for so soon as April 1898 he resigned. A letter from the company regrets his decision to do so, and to leave the colony, referring rather apologetically to the "unfortunate accident to machinery" which caused him to leave his post.

From April 1898 for a whole year no evidence exists of his activities. It may have been then that the studio portrait of him was taken in New York, looking a little uneasy in a semi-Western costume with a knife at his belt and a "lewd" hat. This suggests that he was en route for the Pacific, pearl fishing and copra trading, ending up in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands at Butaritari. What echoes in that name of Stevenson and Maugham! In fact, R.L.Stevenson and his wife Fanny came to Butaritari in the schooner "Equator" on the 14th July 1889. They found it a wild and dangerous place, the whole population roaring drunk and heavily armed.

He wrote;

"... we were here in barbarous islands, rarely visited, lately and partly civilised. First and last, a really considerable number of whites have perished in the Gilberts, chiefly through their own misconduct; and the natives have displayed in at least one instance a disposition to conceal an accident under a butchery and leave nothing but dumb bones." Any trader refusing to sell drink would instantly be killed.

It seems Charles Wilde's job there, just 10 years later may have been no sinecure.

Addendum to the Gilberts

In 1916, Somerset Maugham travelled in the Pacific making notes on people and places. At Pago-Pago (in the Samoas), he observed a coarsely pretty young woman, a fugitive from the recently suppressed red-light district of Honolulu. Also present were a grimly fanatical missionary and his disagreeable wife.

Several years later, Maugham wove these characters into a famous short story called “Rain" which was later made into an equally famous film.

Those missionaries were returning to their duties in a region where they found the natives to be exceedingly depraved - the Gilbert Islands.

A letter (on paper black - bordered in mourning for Queen Victoria) signed by the Resident Commissioner, Telfer Campbell - who remained a lifelong friend - mentions his employment as Government Agent at Nukunau and Assistant at Butaritari from April 1899 until May 1901. He regrets his departure and hopes for his return, although his ability and qualifications deserve a better position in the public service.

Presumably at this point he returned to England, but how long it took him to get there and how long he stayed, is not known. It is on record that by about October 1901 he was back in the Bahamas, employed as engineer by the West Caicos Sisal Company. This may have been the same company as before, under a slightly different name, or a totally different outfit. It is very likely that the benevolent outflow of money from London did stimulate a spate of bogus enterprises that only endured while subsidies lasted. As a strictly honest man, Charles may often have been aware of things going on around him that he found highly distasteful. A letter dated 18th May, 1903, signed by the manager, states that during the 17 months of his employment, his work has given every satisfaction. And so, once again he was homeward-bound.

The next known event in his life - a very important one – was his marriage to Kitta Scott on the 4th October 1904 at St Mary's, Bathwick. His adventures around the world had now lasted 10 years and he was nearly 30 years old. Kitta had waited long, slightly cheered by presents of native artefacts such as a Kafir's snuffbox from Africa and a Chinese tea-pot from the South Seas. Lieutenant Colonel Scott had died long ago of the consumption that had forced his retirement, and his widow had moved to Bath with her three daughters. When Charles re-appeared once more, Mrs Scott may have felt the time had come for her to hint that he should make a decision. Perhaps he had established some kind of modus vivendi at West Caicos (employed or self-employed) which held out the hope of a settled home and a promising future. In any event … away they went!

Very little information exists from this time on, beyond an album of photographs showing factory buildings, Sisal plantations in a forbidding landscape and boats. Soon a baby appears in the arms of a black nurse. This was Charles Neville George Wilde, born on 29th July, 1905 at West Caicos, attended by a Dr. Neville Wilde and probably Mrs Scott and her daughters Elsie and Gladys.

Somehow before long, in 1905, Charles managed to raise the money to buy his very own island, Great Whale Cay. They moved there after a short stay on the island of Abaco. Their first home seems to have been a small wooden hut, supported by props (a far cry from Bath), but then there are many pictures of the building of an attractive stone house, also a factory and the planting of Sisal.

An old steam yacht was modernised as the "Alicia” and formed the only link with the outside world - especially Nassau, the seat of local government on the Island of New Providence.

Apparently life proceeded for the next few years in a promising way. An album of Gladys Scott's well illustrates a visit to the island in the spring of 1909 by herself, her mother and sister Elsie.

They went on to Bermuda later in the year.

Tended by his father,

Neville enjoys “Tub Time”

aboard The Alicia

But in the summer of that year, disaster struck in the form of a hurricane. These cyclonic storms were a recognised danger in the islands. They built up in the Gulf of Mexico and usually moved north along the eastern coasts of the United States to fade away off Cape Hatteras. However, sometimes there were rogue hurricanes that left the normal route. Not one had struck Great Whale Cay for many years, so the risk was acceptable.

This visitation was violent in the extreme, smashing the sisal to pulp and carrying the factory out to sea. All was ruined except for the newly built house, which had been strengthened with old ships anchor chains to endure just such an assault.

Kitta was expecting her second baby, and all arrangements had been made to go to Nassau for the birth, but perhaps because of storm-stress, Thomas Godfrey Wilde arrived unexpectedly on the 2nd August 1909, amidst all the uproar. His father, who may have learned a little from his doctor brother at the birth of his first child, was the only person available to help. The baby was born none the worse for wear and soon appears in the album as a minute object.

The only course open was to sell the island in the hope of raising enough money to pay off the existing load of debt and depart destitute, to seek employment elsewhere. At this point, however, a saviour appeared in the form of Sir William Grey-Wilson, Governor of the Bahamas. He had been a guest at Great Whale Cay (he can be seen in the album, aboard the "Alicia") and had become a friend who appreciated the benefit to local people of the employment provided by Charles, very much in line with the Chamberlain policy. Eager to maintain the Great Whale Cay project in being, Sir William offered a government loan to finance its continuance. Banking on a long period of tranquillity before the next hurricane, Charles accepted and set to work with high hopes. For about five years the plantation prospered, the factory hummed, the work force smiled and a profitable crop of fibre left the island.

Then, against all probability, disaster was repeated and the island was once more reduced to desolation. There could be no hope of reprieve now. Great Whale Cay was advertised for sale in London and was purchased in the spring of 1914 by a wealthy hotelier for £4,000 (when last heard of, the island was about to change hands again, for millions of pounds). Sadly impoverished and unemployed, Charles returned to England.

The Wilde family, Whale Cay

Charles, Neville, Tom & Alicia (“Kitta”)

(photo taken about 1911)

At this time, the Dutch government was faced with the same problem as the British, as guardians of a few poverty-stricken West Indian islands. One of these was an extinct volcano known as St Eustatius, much revered by historically-minded Americans as the first place in the world whose cannon saluted the infant United States flag.

Cotton, sugar and indigo had flourished there in the days of slavery, which continued under the Dutch for many years after British abolition, but now all was derelict, ruins and batteries of rusting guns scattered in the bush. Great warehouses, half-sunk along the shore, were the memorials of the sack by Admiral Rodney before his defeat of De Grasse at the Battle of the Saints.

With State support, a Company was formed in Holland to exploit the possibilities of plantation, especially of cotton, in order to provide work for the people. This enterprise did not prosper, and soon the company had to seek for more effective management. It happened that the moving spirit in the company was one Morzer-Bruyns, that rare bird and Anglophile Dutchman (little more than a decade after the Boer War). How contact was made it is not known, but his final decision to engage Charles Wilde may well have been influenced by a letter from Sir William Grey-Wilson. It is dated from London, 17th March 1914 and addressed to Messrs A. G. Morzer-Bruyns and Company. The Hague.

Dear Sir,

I understand that Mr C. A. Wilde is willing to undertake the duties of manager of a plantation in the Dutch West Indies.

As Governor of the Bahamas I have known of Mr Wilde for many years. He is a gentleman of the highest probity and in every way reliable and worthy of complete trust.

He is a first rate mechanical engineer, not afraid of hard work and very inventive. As manager of an estate I shall expect him to prove a great success; that is, provided the circumstances and conditions admit of success.

He is bold and active in making plans, but neither reckless nor extravagant. One of the most valuable of his qualities is a very great capacity for controlling native labour. He is kind, firm and sympathetic and able to obtain from his workers the best results.

I believe that any company securing Mr Wilde's services is fortunate in so doing.

Believe me

Yours truly

(signed) W. Grey-Wilson.

So, ere long the Wilde family was back in the West Indies, but in a quite different part of the Antilles, far south of the Bahamas. The Leeward Islands form a chain of high volcanic places, some still erupting, most (like St Eustatius) subject only though to tremors.

They found the only available lodgings so dirty and fly-blown that they were glad to move into a temporary wooden hut. Later a comfortable airy house was built upon the mountain-side, well away from the ruinous and insanitary "town".

Charles found the cotton plantation was not a success, partly because of disease, partly because of wholesale theft of the crop. The women pickers all appeared to be highly pregnant at the end of a day's work, their dresses being stuffed with cotton which was readily accepted by dishonest traders. He was well aware of this, but helpless to stop it.

Nobody could steal the formidable spiked Sisal, and it was disease-free, so it did not take long for him to convince the company to switch to that crop, which he knew so well.

Now came the first world war, and he felt it was his duty to volunteer, but his services were declined, for he was almost forty and helping to produce invaluable raw-material.

1915 brought great sadness. Devotedly nursing her husband, Mrs Scott had caught the consumption that had killed him and their daughter Beatrice, aged only 16. After their visit to Great Whale Cay in 1909, she and her daughters settled in Bermuda, hoping the climate would be beneficial, but her illness increased and by 1915 they were at a sanatorium in the Adirondack hills in the state of New York, where she died.

Kitta longed to see her mother once more, before it was too late. Arrangements were made for her to travel to the United States, in spite of the fact that her new baby, Anthony, would have to go too, as there was nobody on the island with whom he could be safely left. On the ship taking them North, the baby suddenly sickened and died. The disease then known as infantile paralysis, now 'Polio', was rife on St Eustatius and somehow he had caught it. He was buried at sea. Whether Kitta was in time to see her mother before the end is not known.

After this tragedy, life continued, Charles struggling to keep the people fed under difficult wartime conditions, while Kitta did her best to educate Neville and Tom, there being no school on the island. The elder boy proudly rode a donkey round the estate with his father while the younger buried himself in books.

At last the war ended, Neville was hurried home to school at Canterbury and the rest of the family followed as soon as possible. This was the occasion, 1920, of a most touching Address, signed by the people of the island, some with their "mark", that expressed their deep gratitude for the kindness and care they had received from Charles and hoping for his quick return.

Back home, a dash was made to Ireland to see Lady Wilde, who was living in Connemara regardless of murderous armed gangs roaming the countryside. She died in 1921.

After settling business affairs at the Hague, establishing Tom at King's School, Canterbury, along with his brother Neville and visiting relations Charles and Kitta returned to St Eustatius. There, on the 17th April 1920, Charles was elected Senior Counsellor unanimously except for one Van Putten, who had voted for him-self. For an Englishman working in a Dutch colony, this was a tribute indeed, for it acknowledged his status as virtual ruler of the island, much to the chagrin of the Anglophobe Governor.

But this situation did not last for long. His reputation had travelled far, and he was offered a much better paid job at Curacao. This was the principal Dutch island farther South again, near the coast of Venezuela. Years before, a wandering Cornish prospector, John Godden, had located a big deposit of phosphate rock at a remote spot on the island. He obtained a concession to mine and a Company was floated in London for that purpose. With the ending of the war, demand vastly increased and John Godden and Co. were looking for a manager capable of installing new heavy machinery and controlling the, sometimes fractious, Labour.

So the people of St Eustatius had to set about the task, sad for them, of composing another Address this time of farewell. It is dated 26th April 1921, and could hardly be more flattering and heart-felt. Soon after that date they moved on to what was to be Charles's last job, six years in the heat and dust of Nieuport, Curacao. A letter dated 15th June 1927 from John Godden and company is copied here:

Dear Mr Wilde,

We enclose a separate letter regarding settlement of account and should like to take this opportunity of expressing our thanks and appreciation of your services during the past six years whilst in charge of our phosphate mining and shipping undertaking at Curacao. During this period the property has been equipped with engines and electrical machinery for the treatment and handling of the material and we regard the efficient working of the plant as in no small measure due to your painstaking supervision at the time of erection and during the early stages of operation. Furthermore the excellent spirit in evidence amongst the other members of the staff at Curacao testify as to your ability and tact in dealing with your subordinates.

Your resignation has naturally been a matter of regret to us, but we fully appreciate your reasons and you have our best wishes for your future happiness.

Yours faithfully,

Two things had happened during this period that had made retirement possible. Firstly, in 1924 a cousin, Charles Wilde, Recorder of Derby died and left him a legacy substantial for those days and totally unexpected. Secondly, his elder brother Godfrey died in 1926, intestate. As the law decrees, his estate was divided equally between his two surviving brothers Neville and Charles and his sister Minnie.

Godfrey, like Charles, had been a roamer, first in Canada (at one time surveying in the far North-West), later in Assam tea planting and then in Malaya. There he had become an expert in the cultivation of rubber and was invited to become a director of many companies. A tremendous boom followed the end of the war, he owned large blocks of shares and became rich almost overnight. A kind and generous man, he now lived en prince, with a flat in St James's Street and then a huge one in Whitehall Court. The windows overlooked, across a narrow street, those of the War Office, where one could observe many military bald heads bent over desks.

Towards 1926, he planned to retire and bought a mansion outside Frome in Somerset, looking down to Nunney Castle (so like the Paris Bastille). There was a full - size billiard table and two grand pianos (for Minnie), lovely Oriental ornaments, a Malay silver collection, big elephant tusks and the regimental colours of the 4th Punjabis, which had been presented by them to Lady Wilde. Also, of course, chauffeur, gardeners and maids. Hardly was the establishment complete, when he suddenly died of a severe attack of Angina.

With what he had saved and these additions, Charles and Kitta could at last return to England for good and make the first home of their own since the days of Great Whale Cay. The only area to be considered was North Devon and the neighbourhood of Bideford, where they had both been happy as youngsters. They settled, as was to be expected, in a remote spot down a narrow lane near Parkham, a few miles west of Bideford.

Bocombe Farm was up the hill and lower down with some land and a small orchard of mossy apple trees. They must have enjoyed buying furniture, pictures and everything needed for a comfortable home. Electric light and automatic water pumping was installed, a stone garage was built for the blue Buick saloon and a small stream was damned and a marshy area converted to a pretty pond. He seemed always to be dismantling the car's engine to make it go better, which it invariably did, and he was never more content than when covered in oil.

So their last six happy years together went by, troubled only by the dwindling value of the rubber shares. Over-production had depressed the market, but it was the action of the Baldwin government that really caused ruin. As so often, then and now, the government clung to a pathetic belief that if they set a wise example, others would follow their lead. Not so! In Malaya, production was forcibly reduced to sustain the price of rubber, much to the glee of the Dutch in Java and Sumatra, who promptly raised their output and profited accordingly, while many British companies collapsed. Faced with harder times, Charles and Kitta had to part with the married couple they had employed, but soon found that they were happier on their own.

But Charles was now losing weight and in failing health. In the summer of 1933 he enjoyed one more trip to Lundy, the delight of his schoolboy days. The end came suddenly with a severe stroke and he died on the 13th December of that year. He would have hated a life immobilised by illness or old age.

Kitta lived another 36 years, until January 1969. Her ashes are mingled with the grass on Charles’ grave in Abbotsham churchyard, N Devon.

If anyone should read this brief account of the life of Charles Wilde, they will have become aware of the sparseness of written records. On the other hand, the collection of photographs, loose or in albums, which still exists does cover the complete story and therefore may be found interesting.

T. G. W. 1998.

Last updated: February 14^th, 2004