Charles Willis, Borstal Benefactor

by Stephen Rayner

Charles Willis

Mrs Willis

CHARLES WILLIS was Rochester’s first citizen in the days when mayors looked like mayors. He also became a great benefactor.

He started a correspondence in the Medway News Memories page when I carried a picture taken outside Rochester Guildhall of George V being proclaimed King in 1910.

The photograph caption said the proclamation was being made by A J Knight; city records show that A J Knight was mayor at the time.

Mr John Cooke, of St William’s Way, Rochester, knew better. It was not Knight but Charles Willis, a six-footer with splendid walrus moustache, looking every inch the civic dignitary.

Mr Cooke wrote: “After he had served four successive years as mayor, Charles Willis was for many more years an alderman, during which time he was granted the greatest honour that Rochester could bestow upon him: That of the freedom of the city.

Charles Willis and Wife

“Charles, his wife and two sons lived in a wonderful house in Borstal Road [near Goddings Drive] then known as the Moorings.”

Charles Willis died in 1943, the house was donated to a charitable foundation - possibly connected with the Salvation Army - and was renamed Greenacres. It went through a number of uses including, I think, a home for unmarried mums. It was damaged by fire, demolished, and a nicely designed terrace put on the site.

“But let us turn to greater times and more heroic figures,” Mr Cooke wrote. “For this is what Charles Willis was. He had his own firm of solicitors with premises in Chatham, and Rochester. He worked closely with Mr Shippwick [of the Medway Steam Packet Company] to run the paddle steamer fleet upon the Medway and was instrumental in persuading the three Short Brothers to transfer from the Isle of Sheppey to Rochester in 1913.”

Memorial Stone in Willis Gardens,
the inscription reads:

"THESE GARDENS WERE PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF ROCHESTER BY ALD & MRS CHARLES WILLIS IN MEMORY OF THEIR SON GEORGE WHITE WILLIS WHO WAS KILLED IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919"

Then came tragedy. One of Mr Willis’s sons, George, died in a plane crash in the First World War. Mrs Willis is said to have kept the propeller of the plane in her bedroom in his memory.

The public gardens in Borstal, at the point where the Borstal Road meets St Margaret’s Street had been maintained by Mr Willis and were given to the citizens of Rochester as a memorial to George. He also gave the Backfields, behind the Bishop’s Palace, and the part of the Esplanade nearest the bridge was named Willis Avenue in his memory.

He also gave a sack of coal to every Rochester citizen during the Great Depression and donated shoes to schoolchildren. One old boy of Troy Town told me: “Great bags of shoes arrived. One lad had never had shoes before and got this huge pair of boots. He was so proud - and polished them every day with the sleeve of his jumper.”

The gardens, now, are in a poor state. They are in two parts, the side nearest to Borstal know by locals as The Improvement.

Willis Gardens as they are today

They are split by a deep ravine, part of the fortifications leading to Fort Clarence, and were once linked by a bridge. A little dangerous, but beautiful. They should be cherished.

Who has pictures of them in their prime? I’d love to see a copy.