George Dines
George Dines
[see if we can get permission to use one of the photos of George Dines on the Ranmore War Memorial site]
George Dines was born near Hitchen, Hertfordshire, in 1812.¹
Charles Dines, his father, was the gamekeeper at Knebworth House, the country house of Samuel Whitbread.
A letter from W Wilshere to Samuel Whitbread of 8th November 1812 [W1/5159 – Bedfordshire Archives] states:-
“….will order Dines to attend. He is park-keeper as well as gamekeeper at Knebworth…”
Charles Dines was shot and killed by poachers when George was only three years old. Samuel Whitbread looked after the young boy and it was through the connection between the Whitbread family and Thomas Cubitt that George found a position with Thomas Cubitt’s company. The suspects were named in press reports of December 1815 [below] as Edmund Chamberlain, Wm. Albone, John Twel??trees, John Hopkins, Thomas Jeffreys and Henry Albone with John Humberstone and John Sutton having absconded.
Edmund Chamberlain was convicted of his murder at Bedford Assizes in March 1816 [below] and sentenced to death.
Samuel Whitbread’s will of 9th October 1863 [W3527 – Bedfordshire Archives] contains a bequest of £60 to Harriet, a daughter of Charles Dines. This makes it very clear that Charles was highly valued by the Whitbread family and his descendants were looked after.
“Harriet Button, widow of Southill, the daughter of my gamekeeper Charles Dines who was murdered in 1815 £60”
George was one of Cubitt’s most senior foremen and worked on the construction of Osborne House.
[Track down George Dines’ address in Pimlico and try and find the entry in the Cubitt lease book]
The 1851 census has George Dines at Dorking close to Denbies.
George Dines took over Cubitt’s Thames Bank Works after his death in December 1855.
The 1861 census has George Dines at St Anne’s Hill Wandsworth. This property was likely destroyed by enemy action during WWII.
Dines built the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore initially for Prince Albert in 1862.
[insert press cutting re the Frogmore Mausoleum & see if The Builder has any articles about Dines/The Mausoleum]
There is some correspondence in the wet copy letter books addressed to Dines and concerning Dines and the Thames Bank works particularly in the period that part of them was leased to the War Office as was part of the wharf.
The images from the Thos Cubitt & Co wet letter books have been digitally enhanced and sharpened to make them more readable.
Insert page 123
insert page 278
He continued to use them until he too retired in or about 1876 when the workshops and their contents were auctioned off.
[see if we can get permission to use the Fuller, Horsey auction catalogue of 1876 on the Ranmore War Memorial site or image the whole thing]
Dines was highly active in The Builders Benevolent Fund serving as chairman.
[insert press cutting]
He died on 25th May 1887 at his home in Hersham. He was buried at St Peter’s Hersham where in 1892 his widow Louisa Sarah nee Coke joined him.¹
Emily Dines (19th Century) from https://fineart.cheffins.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-40—emily-dines-19th-century/?lot=196275&sd=1
View of the east front of the house and grounds known as ‘Woodside’ or ‘Burlea’, Hersham, built in 1875 by George Dines, general foreman to Thomas Cubitt, builder to Queen Victoria, watercolour, together with ‘Dial Stone’, the news sheet of Walton and Weybridge Local History Society dated Oct/Nov. 1972, detailing the history of the property
Pike, William. (2006). William Henry Dines (1855–1927). Weather. 60. 308 – 315. 10.1256/wea.38.05.
Was George related to ”
John Henry Dines, 12 Woburn Buildings Woburn Place, builder who shows up in both the Cubitt lease book pg. 336 Bedford Estate volume and in the London Archives MS 11936/523/1115234 Sun Insurance on 17 November 1830
Robert Henry Dines is given as 96 Maryon Road, London in early directories
¹Information from the Ranmore War Memorial site