Old Eastbournian
Hydneye House School
Edward Atkinson (Reeves 1977–82) wrote to us having seen the prep school article in Notes from the Archives in last year’s magazine. He said: ‘I believe I am the youngest former pupil from Hydneye House School (HHS), which was actually situated on the Ridge in Baldslow, part of St Leonards-on-Sea, not strictly Hastings. I joined its pre-prep aged four in 1968. I was only there a year, since it then amalgamated with Glengorse in Battle becoming Glengorse and Hydneye. The Hydneye House site was compulsory purchased by Hastings Borough Council who wanted to build a secondary modern school there, forcing the headmas- ter to either find a new location or amalgamate with another prep school. Hydneye House’s last headmaster, and then co- headmaster of Glengorse and Hydneye, A G (Gerald) N Brodribb (Gonville 1929 –33) was an OE, as was his father, Arthur Brodribb (Wargrave 1889 –95), who was a GP in St Leonards. Glengorse and Hydneye remained an independent co-educational prep school until 1989, when it amalgamated with Battle Abbey School, a girls school which wanted to become co-ed. They however soon left the Glengorse site, which recently became a school again, for pupils with special needs. The site seems to have changed little since I was a pupil there in the 1970s.’
The yard at Hydneye House School
You can find more information about Hydneye House on this forum for former pupils: https://hydneyehouse.blogspot.com and at this website: https://historymap.info/Hydneye_House.
The archives was contacted by Greg Horsford, the chair of the AE558 Steering Group in the parish of Northill, Bedfordshire. He was researching the life of John Homfray Ellis (Pennell 1936–40), the pilot of an John Ellis remembered
would take them some 653 miles across the heart of England to Hungerford twice before returning to their base. However, at 10.30pm that evening the aircraft developed difficulties over the
HM Coroner Mr Rose said, ‘They died in the service of the country every bit as if they had been on a flying operation’. This story of heroism and sacrifice had been lost for more than 80 years until
members of all four airmen, where the memorial will be unveiled later in 2025. Mr Horsford said ‘it’s been a wonderful yet truly humbling experience to piece together the lives of those four young men and return their story to their families. I am delighted that Eastbourne College has a record of John and have been so enthusiastic about our project to honour him.’ The AE558 Memorial Facebook page can be found at www.facebook.com/ groups/1866371617502112 and the Steering Group can be contacted through Greg at greghorsford@icloud.com. Editor’s note: John’s stepfather, Colonel Gillum, founded the John Ellis Biography Prize in his memory.
RAF aircraft which crashed on a train- ing flight in 1942. We were able to supply him with the information we held on John, who has an entry in the Second World War Roll of Honour. Greg takes up the story: On the evening of 1 April 1942, a Lockheed Hudson aircraft
The type of Lockheed Hudson flown by the 1428 Flight Conversion Unit
of the Royal Air Force took off on a training flight from RAF Oulton in Norfolk. The aircraft was designated AE558 of the 1428 Flight Conversion Unit and was piloted by 19-year-old John Homfray Ellis who had left Eastbourne College two years earlier. John and his three other flight crew were being quickly prepared to be deployed out to Burma, which was deemed to be in a desperate situation, the Japanese advancing daily against the British. The route of the flight
small Bedfordshire parish of Northill, some 40 miles north of London. Eyewitnesses state that they heard an aircraft flying low. Then the engines started ‘popping’ a suggestion of fuel starvation. They then ‘cut out’. A few seconds later there was ‘one big orange glow in the sky, immediately followed by a terrible thud.’ John and his three crewmates were killed instantly. Two were aged 21 and the third just 29, with a wife and infant son. At the subsequent inquest,
recently rediscovered by retired Bedfordshire Police Officer Greg Horsford. A keen historian, he came across the crash site whilst looking at an old map he had purchased. The AE558 Steering Group was soon established with the distinct objectives of raising the required funds to erect a lasting stone memorial in the parish churchyard to the lost crew. A memorial service is also being planned to bring together various organisations, individuals and surviving family
John Ellis’s grave in the cemetery at St Mary’s Church, Cardington
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