George Matthews Arnold , (4 July 1826 – 28 May 1908) was an English solicitor and politician, serving as Mayor of
Gravesend
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...
and as an Alderman of
Kent County Council
Kent County Council is a county council that governs most of the county of Kent in England. It is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council h ...
on its formation.
Biography
George Matthews Arnold was born in 1828, the son of Robert Coles Arnold, J.P., and brother of the poet and journalist
Edwin Arnold
Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work ''The Light of Asia''.
Having interested himself in the religious controversies agitating the Church of England in the late 1850s Arnold, together with his wife, was received into the Church by Cardinal Manning in i860; shortly after this event he became legal adviser to the Bishop of Southwark, Thomas Grant. His professional work having meanwhile gravitated towards
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 ...
, he acquired 60 Carey Street, a Queen Anne mansion in
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
noted for the woodwork of its interior. He afterwards built Milton Hall on the banks of the Thames, close to Gravesend, where he assembled a fine collection of Roman and other antiquities.
He was Mayor of Gravesend (re-elected for the eighth time in 1906), and a
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
Kent County Council
Kent County Council is a county council that governs most of the county of Kent in England. It is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council h ...
on its formation in 1888, and was Chairman of the Kent Education Committee from its formation till 1905. He was Chairman of the Law Union and Crown Insurance Co. and author of ''Gravesend in Days of Old'' and other
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...