Arthur Heywood-Lonsdale

Who was Arthur Heywood-Lonsdale?

Arthur Pemberton Heywood-Lonsdale was an English rower and landowner who was High Sheriff of two counties and a substantial investor in North Vancouver.

Lonsdale was the son of Rev. Henry Gylby Lonsdale and his wife Anna Maria Heywood. He was the nephew of John Lonsdale Bishop of Lichfield. Lonsdale was at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. He rowed at Oxford and was in the Oxford crew in the Boat Race in 1856 and 1857. In 1857 Lonsdale also partnered Edmond Warre in a coxless pair to win Silver Goblets at Henley Royal Regatta. In 1858 the pair lost in the final of Silver Goblets to Herbert Playford and A. A. Casamajor.

Lonsdale became High Sheriff of Louth in 1877. He was granted a Royal Licence to change his name to Arthur Pemberton Heywood-Lonsdale in order to inherit a fortune of a million and a quarter pounds under the will of his maternal uncle John Pemberton Heywood who died in 1877.

With another relation James Pemberton Fell, Heywood-Lonsdale made substantial investments in the City of North Vancouver. In 1882 he financed the Moodyville investments founded by Sewell Moody. Several locations in the North Vancouver area are named after Lonsdale and the family. In 1885 Heywood-Lonsdale purchased the Shavington estate in Shropshire and greatly improved the house and grounds. He became High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1888.