Wyrley Wyrley Birch
(1837-1901)
1 April 1863

Voume 10, page 144, sitting number 12,946.

[The sitter is identified as ‘Wyrley Birch Esq. Junior’ in the Silvy datybooks.]

Born in 1837 at South Rauceby in Lincolnshire, Wyrley Wyrley Birch was the eldest son of George Wyrley Birch of East Wretham, Norfolk. At the time of the 1851 census, George Wyrley Birch was a ‘Magistrate & Farmer of 892 acres employing 37 labourers, of whom about half are boys & girls.’

He was baptised on 9 July 1837 at Leasingham in Lincolnshire.

He joined the Army on 2 March 1855 as an Ensign in the 45th (The Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot. He appears on the 1861 census, a Lieutenant stationed at Aldershot.

On 27 November 1862 at St Anne’s Church in Dublin he married Rebecca Katherine Kyle, ‘eldest daughter of the Venerable Samuel Moore Kyle, Archdeacon of Cork, Vicar-General of the United Dioceses’ (Dublin Daily Express, 28 November 1862). Their marriage produced five daughters and one son.

1n 1881 the family were living or staying at 111 Lansdowne Place, Brighton. Also present on the night of the census were four servants.

Wyrley Birch appears on the 1901 census, aged 63, living with his wife Rebecca and two unmarried daughters at 7 Park Road, Cromer, Norfolk. The household included seven servants.

Wyrley Wyrley Birch died, aged 64, on 1 October 1901, leaving an estate valued at £27,087.

‘The death of Mr W. Wyrley Birch of Suffield Park, Cromer, took place on Tuesday. The deceased, who was in his 66th [sic] year, served with the 88th Connaught Rangers in the Crimean and Indian Mutiny, and received the Turkish and Crimean medals with the Sebastopol clasp, and the Mutiny medals with the Central Indian clasp. He was for some time in the 45th Sherwood Foresters. He has been resident of Cromer for the past ten years. He was a J.P. for Norfolk and Deputy-Lieutenant of the county’ (Yarmouth Independent, 5 October 1901).

[The sitter visited the studio with his wife, whose portraits are the previous two entries in the daybooks.]