▶Date of birth:  21 October 1871        Place of birth: Nottingham

▶Father: Arthur Page      Mother: Alice Mary Barker

▶Spouse(s):  Harriet Margaret Knox    Date(s) of marriage:  29 December 1914     Place(s) of marriage: All Saints’ Church, Cheltenham

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican); Composer

▶Lifestory: The Revd. Walter Cecil Page was a curate for almost six years at All Saints’ Church, Cheltenham; he may well be remembered best for two incidents involving near-drownings. Page was born in Nottingham in 1871, the second son of Arthur James Page, teacher of music, of Castlegate, Nottingham, and his wife Alice Mary (née Barker). While still living at home in Nottingham in 1891 Page was a Student of Music. In 1895 he matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, BA 1898, MA 1902, and was ordained Deacon in 1899, and Priest (both Oxford) in 1900. Once a Deacon he was licensed in 1899 to become Curate of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, where he remained until 1903. In 1903 he joined All Saints’ Church in Cheltenham as a Curate, taking a prominent part in parochial work; between 1904 and 1905 he lived at 11 Pittville Villas (now 46 Prestbury Road).

After serving in Cheltenham for almost six years, he moved in 1909 to Chislehurst in Kent, as a Curate, where in 1910 he had a lucky escape from drowning: on holiday at Cromer in Norfolk he went swimming and was seized with a cramp which rendered him unconscious before he was “pluckily” rescued and taken to a cottage hospital by two bystanders.

After Chislehurst Page succeeded to the curacy of Southbourne-on-Sea, Hampshire during the war years of 1913-17. He married Harriet Margaret, daughter of Major John Simpson Knox VC, of the 4th Battalion, the Prince Consort’s Own Rifle Brigade, in 1914. In 1917 he was finally appointed Vicar, of Chaceley in Worcestershire, where he remained until transferring as Vicar to Sherston Magna with Pinkway, Wiltshire, 1923-33, where he was noted as a composer of music.

He resigned from his post at Sherston Magna in 1933 owing to ill-health: this was partially attributed to the after-effects of another “plucky” watery rescue. In 1931, when Page was leading a Sunday School outing to Bristol Zoo, he saw a young girl, not one of his charges, fall into the sea-lions’ pond; he jumped in, fully clothed, and held the girl above the water until help came, but the following day he collapsed while giving a sermon, and later suffered from a stroke.

Page was a frequent visitor to Seaton in Devon, where he moved several weeks before his death there, in late 1933, at the age of sixty-two; his estate at death was valued at just over £1,065. (He was sometimes referred to as the Revd. C. W. or Cecil Walter Page.)

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire      Moved from Pittville to: Chislehurst, Kent

▶Date of death:   5 December 1933     Place of death: Seaton, Devon

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes: Gloucestershire Echo 31 August 1910       ID: 15196

Contributor(s):  John Simpson