Sir Walter Gilbey, 1st Baronet, (2 May 1831 – 12 November 1914) was an English wine-merchant, horse-breeder, author, and philanthropist.
Early life
Gilbey was born at 11, Windhill, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire to Henry Gilbey (1789–1842) and Elizabeth (died 1869), a daughter of William Bailey, of Stansted Mountfichet, Essex. Henry Gilbey, of Essex farming stock, had gone into innkeeping at Stansted, becoming landlord of the Bell Inn, but after the economic depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars he had to seek other employment. Settling at Bishop's Stortford, he established a successful daily coach service travelling to and from London, often driving himself. The arrival of the railway put an end to this business, and Henry returned to his former occupation as landlord of the Red Lion Inn at Hockerill. He died after only a short time, when Walter was eleven years old, leaving his widow and seven children with limited means. Walter Gilbey was shortly placed in the office of an estate agent at Tring, later obtaining a clerkship in a firm of parliamentary agents in London.
On the outbreak of the Crimean War, Walter and his younger brother Alfred (grandfather of the cleric Alfred Newman Gilbey) volunteered for civilian service at the front, and were employed at a convalescent hospital on the Dardanelles. Returning to London on the declaration of peace, the pair took the advice of their eldest brother Henry, a wholesale wine-merchant, and started in the retail wine and spirits trade. This included the local London style gin.
