On Wednesday 28 January 2026, our speaker at our Monthly Meeting was Rebecca Clark. Her subject was her Great Grandfather-in-law Sir William Pearce, Baronet. Rebecca had grown up in Australia, and her researches into her husbands family had been a little project that got out of control!
Pearce was born in 1833 at Brompton near Chatham in Kent, the son of Joseph George Pearce. He trained as a shipwright and naval architect at the Chatham Dockyard. After supervising the construction of HMS Achilles (see above), the first ironclad warship built in Chatham. which featured in Charles Dickens’ book “Commercial Traveller”. He moved in 1863 to Scotland to take up the post of surveyor to the Lloyd’s Register on the Clyde.
His career then developed rapidly with a seat in parliament, and a post in the government. A year after arriving on Clydeside, he became general manager of Robert Napier and Sons, where he designed innovative fast, transatlantic liners for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. In 1869 he became a partner in John Elder & Co, and after the retirement of the other partners he became the firm’s sole owner in 1878. In 1886, spending more time on his political career in London, he converted the business to a limited company, the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. Sir William Pearce remained the chairman of the board.
As he pursued a political career, he still kept his interest in shipping, and in particular building faster ships. His interest in speed competitions resulted in his winning several, including the Cross Channel Race which had to be completed in an hour, and his ship the Arizona, which at one time held the Atlantic Crossing record. Fairfield Shipbuiling and Engineering grew in the meantime, with a workforce of 5,000 and eventually built him a yacht – the Lady Torfrida – for entertaining his guests, which had included Sir Henry Irving, Bram Stoker and Ellen Terry.
His personal life was altogether a different story. He married Dinah Elizabeth Socoter and had a son with her named William George Pearce (like his father) who eventually became the 2nd Baronet Pearce. He had a relationship with Adelaide Francis over the years, much to the anger of her father who attacked Pearce at his office with a stick which was broken during the attack. Adelaide was moved to an asylum for much of the remainder of her life. Pearce had a relationship with Gwendoline Dawe and made an indenture to her, effectively rewarding her for her silence on their relationship. Another relationship led to two illegitimate boys, Harold and Alfred Godfrey. Pearce is thought to have paid for their private education provided it was not in the UK. They had ended up at the Moravian School in Neuwied, near Koblenz in Germany. Harry had died early in 1901 from pneumonia, but Alfred’s remains had been DNA tested and that proved his relationship to Pearce. Dinah had refused to divorce Pearce, and had devoted herself to the poor of Govan. She outlived him by some 30 years.
The son William had little interest in shipbuilding, preferring to collect cars and actresses for his home in London. He did however persuade Fairfield Shipbuilding to build him a yacht. There were further relationships for the son, with details provided of Maud Brigstoke and Florenz Buziau as well as his appearance in a divorce case as the correspondent!
It all came to a sad end, and we were shown the memorials to both the father and the son in their final resting places. As well as this detailed talk, we were offered to books published by the speaker at a special price.
Our next monthly meeting will be on Wednesday 25 February 2026 at 10:00am and will feature retired judge Jonathan Lewis speaking on Judicial Dilemmas Part 2.