Old Eastbournian
by his aunts in Rottingdean because he had developed polio. There- after, he only saw his parents once a year, if he was lucky, until he left school, at 18. He was sent to prep school in Rottingdean and then to Eastbourne College where he was in Pennell, although of course, being the war years, he was evacuated with the rest of the College to Radley. Noel was 15 when his elder brother, Roland, was killed in 1942 as a pilot with the Royal Air Force. His distraught parents came back to England and set up a home for the war-displaced young in Devon. If his current family could only use one word to describe Noel (apart from being a true gentleman), it would be Creative. Although he chose accountancy as a career, it couldn’t have been further from his natural inclinations and indeed his natural skills. He was also, for a man whose career involved accounting for the past, remarkably impetuous about the future. He was a talented draughtsman and he could have been an archi- tect. He could have been a number of things, but he decided to join a trade, because he wanted to travel and he wanted a company job which would provide that opportunity, and one which would also educate any children he might have. His regard for private education was constant – he taught at Ascham prep school in Eastbourne for a year or so after finishing school, and while he decided what to do. And, in addition to sending all his daughters to private school (Moira House), he also took on the role of bursar there, after he retired from his career company, British American Tobacco. That was the company he joined as a ‘pupil’ in 1948 and was sent to India, with his tropical kit, to live in a chummery in a hill station in the North West Frontier with other pupil bachelors, and learn the ropes as an accountant and how to shoot on safari, camp at high altitude and get back from the club without, he thinks, driving back – he always swore his car knew its own way back home to his bungalow. His love of India was a constant, a thread that ran through his life, his sense of self-worth and his memories. He was very much of the old Raj India, not the new India, but he felt that, forever, he had links there. He stayed with BAT for 30 years, most of it in India and Pakistan but with five years in Europe at the end of his career. In 1956, he had met Gladys Umney in Jhelum in the North West Frontier. Noel followed Gladys back to the UK on leave, and married her before his leave was over, eloping to Paris via Petit France for a civil ceremony. His parents were informed after the event. Noel’s creativity is evidenced wherever he lived. At first it expressed itself in his gardens – his first one that he created was in Cornwall. He had bought a plot of land on the headland of St Agnes, and built an aggressively modern house of plate glass, grey slate, spilt level, huge seascapes framed through enormous windows, glass staircases and walls. Single-handedly he built a cliff-side garden of rockeries and plateaux. In the North West frontier, his garden was all about ponds for his demoiselle cranes. In the UK, his creativity as a bursar resulted in the creation of cosily decorated sitting rooms and living areas for boarders. He revelled in the acquisition of a new house for the school, as it gave him the oppor- tunity to create areas full of colour and comfort. And in return Moira House gave him a totally rewarding life, one where he was respected. When the family bought property in South Chailey, in Sussex, in his retirement he threw himself into creating gardens on the estate – he planted quite literally thousands of trees, building different garden areas, including executing a request to build a swimming pool garden ‘so that it looked like a French motorway aire’. He was also an enthu- siastic member of the local horticultural society. Later, he taught himself calligraphy and was immensely talented. His water paintings were less successful, although he was inordinately proud of them. In his retirement, he researched his family history, catalogued it and recorded it meticulously in his careful books. He was busy editing his father’s writings and ordering his own collections of writings, memo- ries, photos and memorabilia. His expertise as a calligrapher and as a very competent illustrator was in much demand locally and it gave him much joy to use these skills in illustrating his memories. He was respected by everyone and regarded as a friend by the many people who he had helped. A natural conservative, he was for
a while the treasurer for the local Conservative association and was an active campaigner for them. He read widely on current affairs and followed his investments online. He taught himself how to use a computer, having never used a QWERTY keyboard until well after he retired. He eagerly followed English cricket and was a member of the MCC. And he loved watching English rugby, even if he did have quite extreme views about the way they wouldn’t throw out enough. He was never timid; as evidence of this, he played bridge bravely and was a frightful over-bidder (6 no trumps was his favourite and impossible bid). Noel has left a strong legacy of memories, of creations, memoirs, paintings, writings and photos. It is a true legacy of a man of his time and he was very proud of it. Paul Jordan adds: Noel was a talented sportsman at the College. He played in the 1st XI cricket team and was described in the 1945 Eastbournian as: ‘a necessary member of the side and a more useful cricketer than his records show. A safe fielder and a promising change bowler of the slow spin type.’ In the same year he was also listed as being captain of the fives and squash teams and was captain of gym in 1944. Other sports in which he was involved were tennis and boxing. Academically, he won the Macklin Junior History Prize in 1943 and the Macklin Senior History Prize a year later. With regard to Noel’s time teaching at Ascham, Alexander Black (teacher of classics at Ascham) wrote in the 1970 Eastbournian about the establishment of the prep school as the war ended: ‘But Henry Collis [Headmaster] was still at the War Office and the task of helping Mrs Collis to supervise some 50 boarders devolved on my unworthy self… Fortunately, I had with me a sprightly young man straight from the College, one Noel Hill, game for anything, even for pre-breakfast PT, a proposition to which I myself was never wholly dedicated.’
John Nevell Horne (Gonville 1941–46) died on 28 April 2023, aged 95. After leaving school he attended Cirencester Agricultural College and by 1954 was working for William Lillico & Sons Ltd, corn merchants, Croydon. At the College, he was awarded his shooting colours in 1945 and his rowing colours a year later. He also played for the 1st XV. The 1945 Eastbournian described his skills as a wing three-quarter:
‘He has gained in pace and greatly improved his tackling this season. When given a chance goes well for the corner flag. He has scored some very good tries.’ From 1944 to 1946 he was a Band Sergeant in the CCF and appeared in a 1946 report about the Drums: ‘The Band has been renamed The Drums and now has 26 members and 18 recruits. A considerable amount of enthusiasm has been shown, thanks to the hard work and inspiration of Cpl Horne (NCO i/c Drums). Cpl Horne is the Silver Drummer’. John’s wife, Bridget, died in December 2023 and he is survived by his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. John’s father, Lester Horne , came to the College (Blackwater 1914–18) as did his brother, Richard Neale Horne (Gonville 1940–45). Richard died in 2013. Anthony (Tony) John William Horrox (Powell 1965–70) died on 11 May 2024, aged 72. His career as Head of Chemistry at the Merchant Taylor’s School had its roots at the College where he won the Tunstall Practical Science and the Frederick Soddy Memorial Prize. He later said: ‘I was an early recipient of this prize fifty years ago when I gained a place at Oxford to read Chemistry… the prize was a book, which I still possess.’ After graduating from Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1977 Tony joined the Merchant Taylor’s School in Middlesex as a chemistry teacher. A fuller account of his career was published on the school’s website: ‘For almost 40 years, Tony was a wonderful school master and highly popular colleague who also served as the President of the
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