Harry Chester

Harry Chester (1 October 1806 – 5 October 1868) was a British civil servant who spent most of his career in the Privy Council Office.

He published one book, The Lay of the Lady Ellen, a tale of 1834, and is best remembered as the founder of the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution.

Early life The third son of Sir Robert Chester, Master of Ceremonies to King George III, George IV, and William IV, Chester was born in Ipswich and educated at Charterhouse and Westminster before joining Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated on 12 June 1824. He became a scholar of the college in 1825, but Alumni Cantabrigienses does not say that he took a degree.

Career After leaving Cambridge, Chester briefly served in the diplomatic service. and was also a Justice of the Peace for the county of Middlesex. The Institution flourished, and Chester took office as its first president and so continued until 1858.

Chester retired from the Privy Council office in 1856. They had a son, Robert, and two daughters, Dulcibella Fanny and Caroline Mary. His wife died in 1854 in the parish of St George Hanover Square. On 24 March 1856, Chester married secondly Henrietta Mary, daughter of George Goff. Probate on his estate was granted to his widow, Henrietta Mary Chester, of that address. In 1871, Mrs Chester was living in Brighton with her children Ella, Leonora, Henrietta, and Harry Chester, her step-daughter Caroline, and eight servants. The census of 1901 finds her at Poplar Hall, Birchanger, Essex, with a small grandson and five servants, and gives her birthplace as Florence.

Published work Chester was the author of The Lay of the Lady Ellen, a tale of 1834, A long narrative poem, the work was reviewed by The New Monthly Magazine, which described it as “a tragedy founded on Anglo-Saxon history, and of a well-sustained interest, although the metre proves the writer to have been too careless of the rhythm of his lines”.