Wadham Diggle
Wadham Diggle


Wadham Diggle received the ownership of Bratton House, probably to his surprise, in 1914 from William Seagram, a cousin on his mother’s side. Diggle had been a lieutenant in the British Navy and, by the end of the 1860s, he was commander of HMS Boxer, patrolling the Pacific seaboard of Canada.

He became friend with Robert Dunsmuir who offered him a business venture. Following the expiry of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s lease over all the coal seams on Vancouver Island in 1859, it was possible for others to stake claims on the Island. Dunsmuir thought he found a good seam near Wellington and invited Diggle to invest $8,000. Soon they were selling coal to the Royal Navy, San Francisco and all the Eastern seaboard towns. In 1883, Diggle was paid by Dunsmuir $600,000 for his share of the business (a little over one year’s profit for the company).

Wadham Diggle and his wife, Lily Julia, moved to Bratton House, but had to move again at the start of the First World War as the house was taken over by the Government to house the 26 Divisional Cyclists Company under the command of Major Smith. After the War, Diggle rebuilt the top floor over the library, creating four rooms and continued the balustrade of the original house over this wing. He also seems to have carried out several small projects, such as installing newer more ornate chimney pieces and turning the chapel in the garden into a garage for cars and rebuilding the vestry as a garden room.

He also donated the Bratton war memorial to the village. As his four children were already grown up by the time he inherited the house, none of them wished to take over the house when he died in 1934 and his wife decided to move to be closer to her family near Henley and sold Bratton House to Horace Seymour




[Return]
Bratton History Association.

The Bratton History Association aims to provide all those curious about local history with an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and discover more about the history of Bratton and Wiltshire. Activities include monthly meetings, talks by professional historians, visits to places of interest to historians, and our own local history project.

Copyright Bratton History Association 2015-2026

Bratton History Association Privacy Statement
Web Design by Blue Engine Web Development © 2008-2026