village CLUB history

SIR ALFRED FERNANDEZ YARROW

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Alfred was born on the 13th January 1842 in London. His mother, Esther Lindo, was from a Jewish family that traded with the West Indies; His father Edgar worked as a clerk in the business.
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He was educated at University College School. He left in 1857 to take up an apprenticeship with Ravenhills, who produced engines for naval vessels in London. During his apprenticeship he attended lectures at the Royal Institution and became an admirer of Faraday. He developed a talent for invention, and in 1859 was a founder member of The Society that became The Institution of Civil Engineers. Alfred completed his apprenticeship in 1863, aged 21, and started work on new innovations with financial help from a maiden aunt and a friend of his father.

The most successful project was an agricultural steam plough and with the royalties from this and other contract work he saved a thousand pounds. This enabled him to establish his own small marine engineering works on the Isle of Dogs in 1866, when he was 24. By 1869 the business had started to build steam launches for river work, and through to 1875 produced a great number, including prefabricated paddle boats for use on Lake Nyasa at the request of Dr. Livingstone. In 1875 Alfred married his first wife Minnie Franklin. They were to have five children, the eldest of whom Harold Edgar, was born in 1884. In the same year he restructured the firm, and took a new direction in developing the Naval business in which he was to earn his reputation.

Yarrow & Co. worked primarily on developing torpedo boats, then a new class of vessel, for Navies around the world. In the 1890's work for the British Government resulted in the development of the destroyer, a larger and faster ship, to counter the threat from torpedo boats. The evolution of these two types of vessel, with their ever increasing speed, was due to many technical developments. Yarrows excelled in the innovative use of new materials, and in boiler and engine design. While the company's fame was based on its naval vessels, it continued to develop river boats for use all over the world, including the Nile. The increase in demand for naval ships meant that the yard in London was outgrown and in 1907 the firm relocated to Scotstoun on the Clyde. Alfred retired as Managing Director in 1913 at the age of 71, but continued as Chairman until 1922.

The family moved to Hindhead in Surrey, and on the outbreak of war in 1914 Alfred came out of retirement at the request of the First Sea Lord. He worked in the Admiralty developing and building more destroyers, and also gun boats for use in Mesopotamia. As a result of the success of this work he was created a Baronet in 1916. After the war he retired for a second time.  

Sir Alfred's wife died early in 1922. In December he married Eleanor Cecilia Barnes. She was the grand-daughter of a friend of his mother, and had lived with the family for some years. Greenmeadows Estate in Goodworth Clatford had been purchased in 1921. Sir Alfred and the new Lady Yarrow had the corn mill converted into a residence. They lived there until his death ten years later in January 1932 aged ninety. 

Throughout his life Sir Alfred took a keen interest in supporting enterprise through the donation of funds and made many endowments for scientific research. He also encouraged women's education, and was a supporter of Girton College, Cambridge, where the original photograph of Sir Alfred hangs. A copy of this photograph is in the Village Club. Goodworth Clatford was the third Village Club which he endowed, the other two being Blanefield in Scotland, and Hindhead in Surrey.