The Garrod family were landowners in Melton dating back as far as the early 1800s. Robert Garrod, an auctioneer and land agent, purchased Wilford Lodge at auction in 1871. He and his wife Sarah had five children, one son and four daughters. Their son, Alfred Baring Garrod, went on to become the doctor responsible for discovering the connection between uric acid in the blood and gout. He was knighted in 1890 and became “Physician Extraordinary” to Queen Victoria.
Wilford Lodge, situated on the west side of Station Road, Melton > home to the Garrod family during the Great War.
ILLUSTRATION: JENNIFER HALL. OAK GALL INK ON PAPER. 2019.
In 1845, Sir Alfred Baring Garrod was married in Ipswich to Elizabeth Anne Colchester. They had six children, four sons and two daughters. Their children were also academics, with their eldest son, Alfred Henry Garrod, becoming an eminent zoologist. He was nominated as the Fullerian Professor of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at the Royal Institution and made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1876. He died in 1879, aged just thirty-three years old.
Sir Alfred’s fourth son, Archibald Edward Garrod, was to follow in his father’s footsteps and became a pioneering physician. For some of his time, he lived at Wilford Lodge on Station Road Melton and it is his family which has the most recent connection to Melton.