Charles James Féret (born 1854 in

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

, died 1921 in

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...

) was a newspaper editor and writer. He is known among historians of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

as the author of an exhaustive three volume history of

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, published in 1900. The son of a haberdasher of French descent, Féret was born in Clerkenwell, London. During his childhood, the family moved west to

Earl's Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

. After school, he joined the

Civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and worked as a clerk in the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of I ...

. He was of a studious disposition and by 21, he had a

British Museum Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

reader's ticket. At 26, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. While still at the India Office, and having moved to Fulham with his mother and sister some years earlier, he took up the part-time post of editor at the local paper, '' The Fulham Chronicle'', which launched in 1888. His thousand-page illustrated, ''Fulham Old and New'', was well supported and was published by subscription by the Leadenhall Press in 1900. In 1901, Féret not only left ''The Chronicle'', but moved to Margate probably for better quality air and became an antique dealer. He never married, but adopted a young girl from an orphanage. After her death, he adopted a second daughter. He died in Margate of a heart attack.Dewe, Michael. (1972) ''Fulham's Historian - Charles Feret, published by Fulham and Hammersmith Historical Society, 42 pages.

References

1854 births 1921 deaths British people of French descent British newspaper editors 19th-century English historians People from Clerkenwell People from Fulham People from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Historians of London Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham {{London-stub