Anecdotes about Albert Ricardo

Boulter's Lock, the water-approach to Maidenhead, is the busiest lock on the Thames, and now busier on Sundays than on any other day. How astonishingly times have changed on the river may be judged from an experience of the late Mr. Albert Ricardo, who died at the close of 1908, aged eighty-eight. He lived at Ray Mead all his long life, and was ever keen on boating. When he was a comparatively young man, he brought his skiff round to the lock one Sunday. His was the only boat there, and he was addressed in no measured terms by a man who indignantly asked him if he knew what day it was, and telling him, in very plain language, his opinion of a person who used the river on Sunday.

Harper, Charles G. Thames Valley Villages, Vol. II. Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1910.

Things Grave and Gay

I was named after (John) Lewis Ricardo, who was my godfather. This uncle, who represented Stoke-on-Trent for nearly thirty years, was a famous man in his time, the ‘fifties, in social, political, and financial circles. I recollect my clever uncle Frederick Ricardo telling me how he and his brother Albert once met their elder brother walking by the Virginia Water and saying to him, “You are a very great man whom many fear to approach, but to us you are merely a brother whom we intend to treat quite familiarly, and fraternally, while ducking you in this pond.” And that they proceeded to do.

Keyser, Arthur Louis. People and Places: A Life in Five Continents. John Murray, 1922.

Out-Of-Door Games

My week-ends were often spent with Lord and Lady Dangan, afterwards Cowley, at their beautiful cottage at Maidenhead, close by Boulter's Lock. There we played much lawn tennis, at which the elderly but amusing Albert Ricardo, who lived next door, used to join us.

Ibid.