Cyril William Renton was born in Brixton, Surrey, on 27th November 1872. The older of two children, hie parents were Edward and Emily Renton. Edward was an engraver and artist and, when Emily died shortly after Cyril’s younger brother was born, he married again, to Harriett Predier: the couple went on to have two children, Cyril’s half-brother and half-sister.
By the time of the 1891 census, Edward had moved the family to Hampstead, Middlesex. Setting up home in the illustrious South Hill, their home – a Georgian semi-detached villa backing onto Hampstead Heath – served as a fine setting for the now art dealer head of the household.
When Cyril completed his schooling, he found work as a stockbroker. On 22nd December 1894, he married Mary Nettleton at St Paul’s Church in Kentish Town. Mary was the daughter of a solicitor’s clerk, and Cyril’s new father-in-law seems to have helped his career.
The 1901 census found the young couple living at 33 Tivoli Road in Hornsey, Middlesex. Their eldest child, Lionel, had been born four years before, and Mary’s father and brother were also living with them. Cyril was now recorded as being an articled clerk for a firm of solicitors.
Second son Esmonde was born in 1897, and Cyril’s career continued its upward journey. By 1911 the Rentons had moved to 46 Glasslyn Road in Crouch End, and had taken on two servants to support the family. Cyril was now a full-blown solicitor and counted an estate agent’s clerk, a cement company secretary, a master stevedore and a human hair merchant amongst his neighbours.
[He] practised as a solicitor as the Police Court. For several years he represented the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He was at one time the vice-president of the Highgate Thirty Club, and in 1914-15 became the president.
[Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal: Friday 3rd August 1917]
While obviously good at his job, Cyril wanted more:
At a time when he seemed very likely to make a big name for himself in the various courts he attended, he decided to dispose of his practice and to study for the bar. In the Michaelmas law examination of 1913 he successfully passed in all the subjects and the “final,” and was thereupon duly “called.” He was getting on extremely well in the higher branch of his profession when war broke out…
[Hampstead & Highgate Express: Saturday 28th July 1917]
Cyril felt a call to serve his country, and so stepped up to enlist.
[He] joined the Inns of Court OTC, and went into training. When he obtained his commission je joined a battalion of the London Regiment, and, having been through a course at Hythe, he became a musketry instructor and was engaged in that capacity for many months. At last the authorities yielded to his repeated applications to be sent on active service, and he went to France. There he had six months’ fighting, and only returned after he had been wounded.
[Hampstead & Highgate Express: Saturday 28th July 1917]
Attached to the 20th (Country of London) Battalion (Blackheath and Woolwich), Lieutenant Renton’s older son, Lionel, was also fighting, and was attached to the 16th Service Battalion – also known as the Public Schools Battalion – of the Middlesex Regiment.
It is unclear whether Cyril returned to the fray, and by the spring of 1917, having recovered from injuries, he fell ill. His health seems to have been impacted by his injuries, and he passed away from his condition on 19th July: he was 44 years of age.
The body of Cyril William Renton was taken to Streatham, Surrey, for burial: the reasons are unclear, but it is likely that this is where his mother and father (who had died in 1904) had been buried. Private Lionel Renton was recuperating from injuries, and was able to attend the funeral with Mary and Esmonde.
