William Bracken
(1809-1891)
7 March 1861

Volume 2, page 275, sitting number 2392.

Born at Ickenham in Middlesex in 1809, William Bracken was the youngest son of the Reverend Thomas Bracken. He went out to India in 1826, where he worked in the Bengal Civil Service of the Honourable East India Company.

He never married. He appears on the 1891 census, aged 82, living with two unmarried nieces from Ireland and four servants at ‘Alvington,’ a house in Torquay on the coast of Devon.

William Braken, 'formerly of Torquay in the county of Devon,' died later that year at Chagford, a market town on the north-east edge of Dartmoor, on 16 September 1891, leaving an estate valued at £49,022. His executors were his niece and nephew, Nina Radclyffe Dolling of Torquay and Reverend Robert William Radclyffe Dolling of Landport.

The following obituary appeared in a Scottish newspaper: ‘DEATH OF A WELL-KNOWN BRAEMAR VISITOR – By the death, at Monkland, Chagford, Devon, of Mr William Bracken, in his 83rd year, one of the familiar faces and forms so well and widely known in Braemar for many years past has vanished. In early life Mr Bracken, who was the youngest son of Rev. Thomas Bracken, went out to India. He was in the Civil Service of the old East India Company, where he remained without ever coming home to his native land for the very long period of 28 years. Having retired from the service, he came back to Europe, and after spending some years travelling in Switzerland and other parts of the Continent, he finally made his summer home at Braemar. This was in 1878, and since then up to the present season Mr Bracken has been a regular annual visitant to the capital of the Deeside Highlands, and of late years his established residence was the beautiful and finely situated property of Dee Bank Lodge. Deceased was a great favourite amongst all classes of the community, and amongst the juvenile branches especially he was a genial and warm friend, and amongst these his memory will long remain fresh and green. […] Deceased was also an honorary member of the Braemar Royal Highland Society, in the prosperity of which he always manifested the keenest and warmest interest’ (Aberdeen Free Press, 25 September 1891).