An anti-Valentine's Day tale

Today is Valentine’s Day - the day for love, when if you listen very carefully you may hear the twang of Cupid’s arrow, but more likely the sound of an empty wallet and the rustle of florist paper wrapped around an over-priced rose.
But while you’re (hopefully) snuggling up to your nearest and dearest, spare a thought for poor Alfred Webb, whose quest for love failed - dismally.
His is almost the time-honoured story; boy meets girl, boy falls in love, boy fails to meet girl’s mother’s standard, boy loses girl, boy is branded a lunatic and dies alone in an asylum. We did say almost!
Alfred was born sometime around 1844, where is not known, nor are the names of his parents. He landed up in Whanganui where he served in the Armed Constabulary, a police force which operated in Taranaki between 1846 and 1867 and aimed to protect settlers.
Alfred also worked as a messenger for the Post Office, was active in his church Sunday School and by all accounts was a well-respected, honest young man.
Early in 1869, Alfred contracted Rheumatic Fever. Remarkably he survived, but the illness left him with memory problems and made him appear quite simple-minded.
It is not known when Alfred met Emily Soulby, the girl who stole his heart, but it was at Sunday School.
Emily was born in Whanganui in 1852, the only child of Joseph Soulby, a wealthy mill owner and his wife Mary Jane (nee Shield). Joseph died in 1868, leaving Mary, then aged 53, a widow with a 14-year-old daughter.
Alfred’s (perhaps one-sided) romance with Emily saw him bring her gifts of cakes and he often called on her at her home – despite the protests of her mother.
On September 15, 1869, things took a turn for the worse when Alfred was found in the Soulby’s garden trying to see Emily. Mary finally had enough. She had him arrested.
Alfred appeared in court the next day and was sentenced to a week in prison. While there, he was assessed as being insane (no doubt his memory problems aided the diagnosis) and he was shipped off to the notorious Karori Lunatic Asylum in Wellington.
Many in the Whanganui community who knew Alfred protested that he was quite sane and was being harshly punished, while others thought the treatment might help him recover from his memory problems.
But Alfred’s fate was sealed. He spent around six months in the asylum before being released. He returned to Whanganui but found that being labelled a lunatic left him unemployable. Alfred refused to take charity and was arrested for vagrancy in June 1870, then again in July for which he was imprisoned for a month with hard labour. In October he was again charged with vagrancy and was sent back to Karori.
The Karori asylum closed in 1873 due to its horrendous conditions and lack of actual treatment and Alfred became one of the first patients at the new Mount View Lunatic Asylum near the Basin Reserve (where the Governor General’s residence is now).
He never left. Alfred died from tuberculosis on March 20, 1885, aged 41. He is buried in Bolton Street Cemetery.
But, as it is nearing Valentine’s Day, we will end on a happier note. Emily did meet someone who passed her mother’s scratch test. In 1872 she married William Lingard, a former trooper in the Colonial Forces and the first recipient of the New Zealand Cross (the equivalent of the Victoria Cross). William was also a founder of Whanganui’s Bell Brewery. Probably much to his mother-in-law’s disappointment, however, William became bankrupt in 1883 owing £13,300.
William found work as an insurance agent and in about 1889 the couple and, most likely, Emily’s mother, moved to Wellington. They bought a large house on Wesley Road, Kelburn. Ironically the house was just a few hundred metres from Bolton Street Cemetery, where Alfred was buried.
Mary died in January 1905, William in June 1922 and Emily two years later in 1924. All three are buried in Karori Cemetery. William and Emily had five daughters, four of whom lived into adulthood.
Picture by Kelly Sekkema.​