Walter Wren (28 December 1833 – 5 August 1898) was an English tutor and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons briefly in 1880. Wren was born at

Buntingford Buntingford is a market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, the son of Richard Wren (1804-1872), a maltster and coal merchant. He was educated at Buntingford and Elizabeth College, Guernsey before being admitted at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

in 1852. He suffered severe disability from a spinal disease contracted there. He became a teacher and, at Wren and Gurney, the crammer he jointly established with

Henry Palin Gurney Henry Palin Gurney (1847 – 13 August 1904) was a partner with Walter Wren in Wren and Gurney, the London cramming college which successfully tutored candidates for the Civil Service. Life The eldest son of Henry Gurney (son of James Gurney, ...

, coached pupils privately for military college and for the Indian Civil Service. He was a radical Liberal and opposed the aristocracy and its privileges. He published a book of ''Wallingford Speeches 1878-1880''. At the 1880 general election Wren was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallingford. However his election was declared void in June on account of bribery by one of his agents. He stood unsuccessfully at Lambeth North in 1885 and 1886. In 1889, he was a member of the first London County Council. Wren died at the age of 64. A prize was founded in his honour at Christ's College in 1902. Wren married firstly in 1860, Eliza Cox, daughter of William Cox of Halesowen, and secondly in 1867, Emily Horn, daughter of G. W. Horn of Richmond. He had several children; his daughter from his first marriage, Feona Mary Duport, married

Frank Geere Howard Frank Geere Howard (3 March 1861 – 14 July 1935) was a Municipal Reform Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was a member of the London County Council from 1926 to 1934. Early life Howard was born in Hampstead, London in 1861, the son ...

, a Municipal Reform Party member of the London County Council; his fourth daughter, Mary Dorothea, married Sir Thomas Marris Taylor, C.B.E., a principal at Wren's school from 1898 to 1915, later a director of the Ministry of Munitions; a son, Emil Fitzwalter Wren (1871-1933), was a barrister.The Solicitors' Journal vol. 77, part 2, 1933, pg 764

References

External links

* 1833 births 1898 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1880–1885 Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Members of London County Council People educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey Progressive Party (London) politicians People from Buntingford {{England-Liberal-UK-MP-stub