Frederick de Bunsen
(1846-1870)
14 May 1863

Volume 10, page 223, sitting number 13,260.

[The sitter is identified as ‘F. De Brunsen Esq.’ in the Silvy daybooks. The extra 'R' in his surname is a clerical error.]

Born at Upton in Essex on 17 August 1846, Frederick Charles Ernest de Bunsen was the elder son of Ernest Christian Louis de Bunsen and Elizabeth Shepherd née Gurney.

According to Alumni Cantabrigienses, he was named Fritz at his baptism but this was later Anglicised to Frederick, just as his younger brother’s name was Anglicised from Moritz to Maurice. His entry also states that he ‘Travelled abroad on account of ill health.’ 

He appears on the 1861 census, together with his brother Moritz William and his sister Marie Frances. The three siblings were visiting their aunt and uncle Henry Ford Barclay and Richenda Louisa Barclay (née Gurney) at Walthamstow in Essex. Henry Ford Barclay described himself as a 'Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for the County of Essex, [a] Gutta Percha Manufacturer and [a] Colonial Broker.' 

Frederick Charles Ernest de Bunsen died, aged 23, on 25 June 1870 at Abbey Lodge, Regent’s Park, London. The cause of death was pneumonia. 

He left an estate valued at £1500. Probate was granted to Ernest de Bunsen of Abbey Lodge, ‘the Father and Next of Kin.’ 

He was buried at St John the Baptist’s in Leytonstone.