Walter Floyd (1875-1934) was born in Lewisham, Kent. After gaining a first class matriculation pass in 1892, he registered as a dental student in October of that year and was apprenticed to a dentist in Kent for three years 'to learn the Art, Trade or Business of Mechanical Dentist'. In May 1895 he registered at Guy's Hospital, London.
It is uncertain when he came out to South Africa, though records prove that he was living here by January 1902. In 1904 he bought a practice in Cape Town (for £2,404 16s 8d), and in June 1909 he entered into partnership with William Johnston.
He was very active in dental politics, being an office-bearing member of the Dental Society of the Cape Province, and a member of the South African Dental Association. For a large part of the 1920s he was the key figure in formulating and presenting the dentists' case against unqualified dental mechanics in the proposed new medical bill, which was passed in 1928 as the Medical, Dental and Pharmacy Act.
In early 1914 he married Agnes Chamberlain, who had come out to South Africa in 1907 from her home near Bristol. They had four children: Eleanor, Hugh, Katherine and Godfrey.
After Walter's death in 1934 Agnes Floyd started a riding school which she ran very successfully until the early 1950s, after which she had the stables converted into 'The Mews', six maisonettes.
She died in 1977.