Walter Raleigh Gilbert was the only son of Colonel Walter Raleigh Gilbert, later of Priory House, Bodin, Cornwall. His mother was Marianne Charlotte Isabelle née Peters, daughter of the banker and amateur photographer William Peters of Beckenham, Kent (later of Ashfold House, Slaugham, Sussex).

Born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in Northumbria on 12 August 1849, he was baptised on 6 November 1849 at Beckenham in Kent. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford (BA, 1873; MA, 1875). He took holy orders and between 1875 and 1884 he served as a Chaplain in the Royal Navy.

When the census was taken in 1881 he was serving aboard Her Majesty’s ship Encounter.

On 7 August 1884 at Newton Ferrers in Devon ‘Walter Raleigh Gilbert, chaplain of H.M. Royal Navy, of Rosemount, Ilfracombe’ married Clara Williams, ‘third daughter of the late John Michael Williams, of Caerhays Castle and Pengreep, Cornwall’ (Morning Post, 9 August 1884). The marriage was a short one. The new Mrs Gilbert died less than two months after her wedding, on 3 October 1884, at Caerhays Castle, St Austell, Cornwall. ‘Mrs Gilbert, who was only 21 years of age, was married to a son of Col. Gilbert, of the Priory, Bodmin, about two months ago’ (Royal Cornwall Gazette, 10 October 1884).

On 3 April 1888 at St Stephen’s, Kensington, Reverend Gilbert married secondly Rachel Mary Shubrick, ‘youngest daughter of General Richard Shubrick, H.M. Indian Army, of 7, Cornwall Mansions, S.W., and granddaughter of the later Major-General Sir W.R. Gilbert, Bart, G.C.B.’ (The Globe, 4 April 1888).

In 1891 the couple were living at The Mount, Barnstaple Road, Ilfracombe, Devon. Also present on the night of the census were their two young sons and five servants.

In 1911 Reverend and Mrs Gilbert were living at The Priory, Bodmin, with two servants.

Reverend Walter Raleigh Gilbert died, aged 73, on 28 September 1922 at The Priory, Bodmin. His estate was valued at £5263. He left a widow, one son and two daughters. Another son had died in childhood.

‘Mr Gilbert, who had been in ill-health for some time, was the son of the late Colonel Walter Raleigh Gilbert, for many years chief constable of Cornwall. For a great many years Mr Gilbert was a county magistrate, being a regular attendant at the Trigg Petty Sessions, until ill-health confined him to the house. He was a keen angler, this being one of his chief hobbies’ (Western Morning News, 29 September 1922).

Photographed by William Peters, the sitter's grandfather.

[From an album compiled by the sitter's mother Marianne Charlotte Isabelle Gilbert.]