In a brief biography by the Whistler center Alfred is described as a poet. He also is said to have been a gambler, and there is, in a collection of letters from William Rathbone IV to William Gair Rathbone, one letter dated 22 Aug 1875 describing and condemning gambling debts of Alfred Steward Rathbone.
He gets a brief mention on p.35 of Robinson (1992). The author recounts a story that Alfred was in some way involved in the Tranby Croft Scandal of 1891, which was to do with allegations of cheating at baccarat. Since Alfred was a known gambler, and the Rathbones possibly knew the Cummings family, this is not impossible. At any rate, it was said that Alfred was sent to Australia until the scandal died down. He sailed from Liverpool on 17 Dec 1891, (which was after the libel trial was over), on the SS "Great Britain", arriving in Melbourne 66 days later. It is not known how long he stayed in Australia. On his return, he became the London correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the Adelaide Advertiser and a group of New Zealand newspapers. There is a photograph of him taken in Melbourne. Joy Robinson's book reproduces a portrait of Alfred with his long curling moustache.
The book also mentions that Alfred left a diary of journey he made to Spain and Portugual when he was 18, August 10-15, 1871, and that once in a dream he imagined that he was buried alive, a fear that stayed with him for the rest of his life and, in his will he left instructions that his executors make certain he was dead before he was buried.
There are two mentions of an Alfred Stewart(sic) Rathbone in a book on Newspapers in New Zealand, which describe him as an English journalist who, in 1879 was briefly in partnership with G V Stewart as owners of the Bay of Plenty Times in Tauranga. The same A S Rathbone in 1880 brought out the New Zealand Observer, a weekly illustrated paper which came out on Saturdays. The first number came out on 18 Sep 1880, and the last issue with A S Rathbone's name as proprietor and publisher appeared on 12 May 1883. Thereafter the proprietor's name was William Wilkinson, to whom presumably A S Rathbone sold the paper. There are images of the paper during Rathbone's ownership, and afterwards, available on the National Library of New Zealand Website. I do not, of course, know for sure that this was in fact the same Alfred as the subject of this page. However, the confusion of Steward and Stewart is one which occurs in other Rathbone names in New Zealand, but in this case the name is spelt Stewart in the Observer which he both owned and edited, so presumably was his own choice. If this was the same Alfred Steward Rathbone, then he clearly had visited New Zealand, and possibly Australia, before his 1891 trip. There is no other source that I have found which mentions his being in New Zealand between 1879 and 1883, but he does not appear in the England census for 1881 (see above). It may be possible to check passenger lists to gain further information.
© John Stowell 2006 Last updated 19 Oct 2006