Alfred Ellis (1868 -1936) and his wife Minnie moved to Amersham around 1905. They commissioned young architect, John Harold Kennard to build them one of the first houses in the new town.

Fulbeck, named after the village in Lincolnshire, where Ellis’s father was born, was a grand Arts and Crafts house set in a large garden, with a tennis court, in The Avenue. Ellis could easily commute to his London law firm from here, but he soon established an office in Amersham too.

Ellis was born in 1868 in Shepherd’s Bush, the only child of Dessey and John Ellis, a successful builder.

Alfred was privately educated and developed a lifelong passion for cricket with regular trips to Lords and the Oval where he became a member. He had a distinguished legal career and was appointed a Justice of the Peace in Buckinghamshire.

He was retained as the legal advisor and London solicitor of the National Farmers Union and the Milk Marketing Board. Perhaps most surprising was his association with the newly formed Soviet Government, following the revolution in Russia.

He was engaged by Leonid Krasin, a Bolshevik politician and diplomat to help negotiate the first Soviet trade agreement with the British Government. The Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was signed on March 16 1921.

This ended the British blockade of Russian ports and opened a period of extensive trade. Alfred Ellis was then retained as the solicitor to the Russian Embassy in London.

Nevertheless, Ellis was most proud of his appointment as the Honorary Solicitor to the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Both Alfred and Minnie were committed Baptists. She was a talented musician and singer and he was a gifted speaker. Both devoted these talents to the Baptist mission.

When they arrived in Amersham there were no churches in the new town and Ellis was one of the founders of the non-denominational Christian fellowship which became the Amersham Free Church.

The congregation worshipped in a church on Sycamore Road, which was also designed by Harold Kennard. Ellis acted as their lay pastor from 1907 until 1923.

Although he had retired from his church offices, Ellis didn’t stop working for the Church. In 1931 he was elected Vice President of the Baptist Union and in 1932, President.

After his death in 1936 a Memorial Fund was set up for a new church building on the land on Woodside Road which Alfred had helped the church buy in 1920. Forty-two years later the new church was completed on Woodside Road.

There is a memorial stone dedicated to this remarkable man in the entrance.