Cornelius Walford

Cornelius Walford (1827–1885), was an English writer on insurance. Walford, born in Curtain Road, London, on 2 April 1827, was the eldest of five sons of Cornelius Walford (d. 1883) of Park House Farm, near Coggeshall, Essex, who married Mary Amelia Osborn of Pentonville. He is said to have been for a short time at Felsted School. At the age of fifteen he became clerk to Mr. Pattisson, solicitor at Witham, where he acquired much experience in the tenure and rating of land. He was appointed assistant secretary of the Witham building society, and, having in early life acquired a knowledge of shorthand, he acted as local correspondent of the Essex Standard. About 1848 he settled at Witham as insurance inspector and agent. Walford was in 1857 elected an associate, and on a later date a fellow, of the Institute of Actuaries. About 1857 he joined the Statistical Society, and was for some time on its council. He published in parts, and anonymously, in 1857 his Insurance Guide and Handbook, which was pirated and had a large sale in America (2nd edit. 1867, with his name on the title-page). In 1858 he was admitted a student of the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in Michaelmas term 1860. It was his intention to practise at the parliamentary bar, and he joined Messrs. Chadwick and Adamson; but the connection was soon dissolved, though he continued to give legal opinions on insurance questions.