19.—At a meeting of the Norwich Town Council the City Engineer (Mr. A. E. Collins) presented a report which stated that a further sum of £200,000 ought to be expended upon the Norwich sewerage works. The Council adopted a scheme involving the expenditure of £72,000 beyond the sum of £80,000 authorised by the Norwich Corporation Act. (See January 22nd, 1896.)
21.—Brigadier-General Bulwer presented the long-service medal to past and present members of Volunteer battalions in Norfolk. The presentations were made at St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich.
24.—A hurricane such as had never been known in living memory occurred on this day (Sunday). It swept over city and county, and its effects were experienced in the greater portion of the south-eastern district. Houses were unroofed and partially demolished, great chimney stacks destroyed, strong walls levelled, and solid masonry overthrown. There was not a park in the county which was not despoiled, and many thousands of trees were torn from the soil. Fortunately the storm happened upon a day when people were able to keep to their houses, otherwise the loss of life must have been serious. Only one casualty was admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. The storm was of short duration. At dawn a blustering March wind prevailed, as the day advanced the weather became squally, then the wind blew from W.S.W. and attained cyclonic intensity, at 4.30 p.m. the hurricane subsided. On the 25th Norfolk presented a vast scene of devastation.
30.—Died at his residence, the Abbey, Westacre, Mr. Anthony Hamond, in his 61st year. The eldest son of Mr. Anthony Hamond, he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered upon the duties and pursuits of a country gentleman. He became very popular as master of the West Norfolk Foxhounds, and on his retirement from the mastership was presented with his portrait. In the dark days of agricultural depression the tenantry on the estate experienced the practical sympathy of Mr. Hamond, who was a most kind and generous landlord. In the breeding of cattle and horses he took great interest. His shorthorns obtained wide celebrity, and his shires were equally well known. Mr. Hamond first conceived the idea of a stud-book for the Norfolk hackney; he was one of the founders of the Hackney Horse Society, was elected first president in June, 1883, and held office until June, 1885. He consistently supported the policy of the moderate Liberals, but when the great disruption came he unhesitatingly threw in his lot with the Unionists. On the death of Sir William Bagge in 1880 Mr. Hamond was approached by the Liberal electors of West Norfolk with the view of obtaining his consent to his nomination in opposition to Mr. Tyssen Amherst, but he declined, and the Conservative candidate was returned without a contest. A General Election took place a month afterwards, when Mr. Hamond was induced to stand against Mr. Amherst and Mr. Bentinck, and was defeated. He was much interested in the administrative work of the county, was a member of the County Council, and chairman of the Small Holdings and Allotments Committee. Mr. Hamond, who was a magistrate and a Deputy-Lieutenant for the county, married the only daughter of Sir Thomas Hare, of Stow.
APRIL.
2.—The lectures on ecclesiastical history were resumed at Norwich Cathedral by Archdeacon Sinclair, of London, who gave an address on “The Life and Times of Cyprian.” On the 17th the Rev. J. T. Kingsmill, D.D., vicar of Hockering, lectured on “The Life and Times of St. Chrysostom.” Another series commenced on November 21st with a lecture by the Rev. Professor Gwatkin, of Cambridge, on “The Life and Times of Eusebius”; followed on November 28th by the Rev. Professor Ince, D.D., of Oxford, on “The Life and Times of Athanasius”; and on December 5th, by the Rev. A. E. Brooke, M.A., of King’s College, Cambridge, on “The Life and Times of Origen.” (See February 5th, 1896.)
2.—Mr. Clement Higgins, Q.C., M.P., for Mid Norfolk, applied for the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, and on the 4th the Unionist party in the constituency opened the election campaign, and at a large meeting at Wymondham Mr. R. T. Gurdon was unanimously adopted a candidate in opposition to Mr. F. W. Wilson. The writ was issued by the House of Commons on the 8th, and the nomination took place at East Dereham on the 16th. Great activity was displayed by both parties up to the day of polling on the 23rd. The result was declared at Dereham on the 24th as follows:—Gurdon, 4,112; Wilson, 3,904.
4.—Died at his residence, the Woodlands, Norwich, Mr. Robert Fitch, in his 93rd year. Mr. Fitch, who was a native of Ipswich, was a partner in the firm of Fitch and Chambers, chemists and druggists, Norwich. In 1858 he was appointed upon the commission of the peace, and in 1867 became Sheriff of Norwich. He was connected with the directorate of several public companies, and for more than thirty years was an honorary secretary of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society. Among his literary contributions to the society’s proceedings was an admirable description of “The Gates of Norwich.” Mr. Fitch was widely known as a collector, and possessed one of the finest private collections in the kingdom, which some years before his death he handed over to the trustees of the Norfolk and Norwich Museum.
29.—Died at Letheringsett Hall, Mr. William Hardy Cozens-Hardy, aged 88. A son of Jeremiah and Mary Ann Cozens, of Sprowston, he assumed the name of Cozens-Hardy in 1842. In 1830 he married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Theobald; on July 21st, 1880, he celebrated his “golden” wedding, and in 1890 his “diamond” wedding. Mrs. Cozens-Hardy died in 1891. In his early life he was articled to Messrs. Foster and Unthank, solicitors. Mr. Cozens-Hardy was a regular attendant at Quarter Sessions, and was for many years chairman of the Holt bench of magistrates. A Liberal in politics he conferred many benefits upon his immediate neighbourhood. In 1851 he built the British school at Holt; he was the promoter of the Holt Literary Society, and the founder of the Reepham Provident Society, one of the most important organizations of the kind in the Eastern Counties. For fifty years he was connected with the Erpingham Union, and it was mainly due to him that the workhouse was erected at West Beckham in 1851.