104 THE REEDER 2021
REED’S HERITAGE
Spotlight on... Arthur James Moxham A Life of Endeavour and Achievement
Andy Wotton (Mullens 1975)
Arthur James Moxham was born in Neath on 19th September 1854. His life would take him from South Wales to Belgium to East London, then Kentucky, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Nova Scotia, back to Kentucky and, eventually, New York State. During his 76 years, he was a model pupil at the London Orphan Asylum, a leading ironmaster and designer of wrought iron processes, a significant figure during one of America’s worst peacetime disasters, all alongside jointly raising a family. He also never forgot about the key influence his old School had on his life, something he happily acknowledged in later years. Arthur’s journey to the London Orphan Asylum In 1851, Arthur’s father, Egbert Moxham, eloped with a spinster from Neath seven years his senior called Catherine Morgan. At various times in his life Egbert was described as an apprentice builder, an architect, a landscape artist and a sometime inventor. No paintings of his seem to have survived, but there are references to him designing religious chapels, extensions to school buildings and, perhaps most notably, remodelling work for Dunraven Castle in South Wales. Egbert and Catherine had five children between 1852 and 1859. Elizabeth, Arthur and Evangeline were born in Neath and then, when Egbert decided to follow his landscape painting interests, he moved his family to Bruges where Evan and Edgar were born. Sadly, Evan died a year later and the Moxham family settled in Maze Hill, part of Greenwich. Egbert died on 4th September 1864, leaving Catherine a widow with four children under the age of 12 and less than £100 from his estate. An unmarried uncle of Egbert’s assisted Catherine in her plight to stave off the spectre of the workhouse by supporting her in obtaining a place at the London Orphan Asylum for her son, Arthur, in 1865, where he remained until 1869. His younger sister, Evangeline, was also admitted to the School two years later. Arthur’s arrival at the School must have been a shock to him, not just because of the need to adapt to his new surroundings and routines, but also because of the event that occurred at Clapton in November that year. An outbreak of typhoid swept through the institution causing 216 of the 461 pupils to fall ill with the fever, of whom 15 died. At the time Arthur was admitted to the School, it was overseen by Reverend Henry Beattie, a rather stern disciplinarian, but in
