A musical connection A great-nephew of Frederick Seymour, who was for many years the musical director at the Devonshire Park Theatre, contacted us as he had found a reference to Frederick being involved in the College production of West Side Story at the Congress Theatre in 1967 and wanted to find out more about it. A search on the digital archive listed Frederick as ‘accompanist’ in the review of the production in the Eastbournian , and his obituary, written by College director of music John Walker and published in the Eastbournian in 1968, said: ‘Many of us will remember the endless hours when he patiently played the impossible piano reduction of West Side Story (he, unlike us, was never late and gave up the whole of a holiday for it), and his tearful eyes when at the end he wished us luck.’ The enquirer later wrote to us: ‘This information has greatly enriched my research into his life and I have been touched by the tribute to him from John Walker. I always find this aspect of family history research the most rewarding, that is when you find human stories that help you appreciate the life of the person themselves rather than just sometimes, somewhat dry genealogical relationships.’
A Czechoslovakian refugee Sometimes we get speculative enquiries about relatives who may have attended the College, but on closer inspection we find that the person in question went to a school somewhere else in Eastbourne. One such was an enquiry from the son of a boy who was one of the 669 Czechoslovakian children saved as part of the Kindertransport in 1939 led by Sir Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, whose story was portrayed in the 2024 film One Life starring Sir Anthony Hopkins. Although the boy was not a College pupil, the story was so interesting that it was worth investigating anyway. We discovered that he went to Willingdon College, based at Ratton Manor, the former home of the Marquis of Willingdon. This had been acquired by Mr L J Cottingham in May 1939, but only a year later the school was evacuated to Sherbourne in Dorset. The manor was taken over by Canadian troops and burnt down in December 1940. It is possible that the boy came first to Eastbourne and then moved to Sherbourne later.
Angelo Hayter Last year we carried an article about Angelo George Kirby Hayter, teacher of modern languages at the College in the 1890s. He went on to become a noted archaeologist. Our initial enquiry came from Dr Anna
K Hodgkinson of the Freie Universität, Berlin and Dr Stephanie Boonstra (archivist of the Egypt Exploration Society) who have contributed an article on Hayter which appears in the latest issue of Horizon, the newsletter of the Amarna Project, https://www. amarnaproject.com/documents/pdf/ horizon-newsletter-23-HI.pdf.
Ratton Manor
The original design for a chapel window
Thomas Kevin Rubens of Michigan, USA, contacted us concerning the chapel window dedicated to Henry Singleton Pennell VC (Blackwater 1887–92). Designed by Victorian artist and suffragette, Mary Lowndes, it depicts Gideon and was unveiled in 1913. Thomas wrote that he had an original watercolour ‘cartoon’ (design) for the window and, according to its provenance, it was previously owned by Mary Lowndes’ lifelong companion Barbara Forbes. When Lowndes died in 1929, she left Forbes a sum of money, all her pictures, prints, cartoons and studio effects. The design for the Pennell window was likely part of this bequeathed collection. Thomas very kindly sent us a digital copy of the design and in return we sent him a photograph of the window in situ and a report of its installation which appeared in the 1913 Eastbournian . Henry Singleton Pennell won his VC on 20 October 1897 during the attack on the Dargai Heights, part of the Tirah campaign on the north- west Indian frontier. He also fought in the Second Boer War. He died in the first fatal accident on the Cresta Run at St Moritz on 19 January 1907.
The window inscribed ‘The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon’
The lower panel in the finished window, dedicated ‘To the glory of God in memory of Henry Singleton Pennell VC (OE) Capt. Derbyshire Regt. Erected by old schoolfellows and his family’
Part of the cartoon depicting the lower panel
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