Walter George Tarrant

Walter George Tarrant (8 April 1875 – 18 March 1942) was a builder born in Brockhurst in the north of the port town of Gosport, Hampshire, England.

[citation needed] By 1911 his premises in Byfleet covered over five acres and included workshops for joinery, wrought iron and leaded lights, a stonemason's yard, and a timber mill with drying sheds.

Tarrant was subsequently responsible for constructing housing in Weybridge, Byfleet, Pyrford, Woking and also Virginia Water where he launched the Wentworth Estate in 1923.

During World War One, his company manufactured large numbers of prefabricated wooden huts for military use on the Western Front and also designed and constructed the Tarrant Tabor six-engined triplane bomber, which crashed at Farnborough aerodrome when attempting its first flight on 26 May 1919.

Extensive research into the housebuilding was carried out by Mavis Swenarton who in 1992 described Tarrant as 'a man of vision and enterprise... with a reputation for high quality materials and good workmanship... an imposing figure, over six ft tall and a thick beard which gave him a striking resemblance to King Edward VII'.