In this talk, Debby will paint a picture of the thousand year history of St Mary’s Lane, re-named Station Street when the railway station opened at the bottom of the hill: its shops, businesses, public institutions and manufacturers. Using a broad range of historical sources and illustrated by a wide selection of photographs and maps, Debby presents a fascinating account of the development of Station Street. The talk will preview the publication of a new book in the Lewes Street Stories series.
Members will not need to register in advance to attend this talk.
Please arrive in good time for a prompt start at 7.30 pm. We hope you can join us.
A range of other LHG books will be on sale before and after the talk.
PS We would very much appreciate some help with putting out the chairs for the talk. We need to start doing this from 6.30 pm, and all volunteers will be welcome. Many thanks in advance.
Please note: this Bulletin is being put on the website one month after publication. Alternatively you can receive the Bulletin by email as soon as it is published, bybecoming a member of the Lewes History Group, and renewing your membership annually
1. Next meeting: 9 December 2024, on members’ Lewes Heirlooms and Possessions 2. A.G.M. Agenda 3. Infanticide in the Cliffe (by Sue Berry) 4. William Verrall at Southover Manor and the new railways (by Chris Grove) 5. Lewes images from the G.F. Burtt collection 6. A Victorian studio portrait by Daniel Blagrove 7. A Waterloo Veteran’s fate 8. A foiled burglary at Leighside 9. The Lewes Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery (by Douglas Dodds) 10. Lewes Bus Station (by Alan Green) 11. Grown in Lewes (by Ruth Thomson) 12. A.G.M. Reports (by Ian McClelland & Phil Green)
1. Next Meeting 7.30 p.m. King’s Church. Monday 9 December Marcus Taylor, Paul Nicoll, John Kay, Geoff Bridger & Bridget Millmore will make short presentations about their Lewes heirlooms and possessions.
As this is our Christmas meeting we shall be serving mulled wine and mince pies from 7.00 p.m. Please do join us. It will be preceded by a short A.G.M. This will begin at 7.30 p.m. and will be followed by five short presentations by members, under the general title “Lewes heirlooms and possessions”.
Members do not need to register in advance to attend, and non-members can buy a ticket (£4.00) from Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg
2. A.G.M. Agenda
Acceptance of Annual Reports. Please can be seen under item 12.
Appointment of officers. The following officers have so far been nominated for 2023
Chair
Treasurer: Phil Green
Secretary: Krystyna Weinstein
Executive Committee: Ann Holmes (Chair for EC meetings), John Kay (Bulletin editor), Ian McClelland (Chair for evening meetings & ‘Street Stories’ lead), Bill Kocher & Paul Yates (Website managers) & Chris Taylor (Membership).
Any other nominations, seconded and with the candidate’s consent, should be sent to info@leweshistory.org.uk by 5 December.
Membership subscription. Your Committee recommends that the annual subscription should remain at £10 p.a. per member, and that admission to evening meetings should be free for members. Admissions charges for non-members should remain at £4 per meeting.
Questions and comments.
3. Infanticide in the Cliffe (by Sue Berry)
On 11 July 1763 a Cliffe coroner’s jury of 21 inhabitants including Andrew Tasker and James Lambert heard that two days previously Sarah Young, a single woman, had given birth to a live male child “which by the laws of the kingdom was a bastard”. On the same day she “murdered him with a knife of iron and steel worth 1d which she held in her right hand, giving him a wound on the throat two inches wide and half an inch deep, of which he immediately died”.
The jury added that she had no goods or chattels and no lands or tenements in Sussex, as far as they knew, so nothing that could be confiscated. She was too ill to be prosecuted at the next assizes, so it was ordered that she should remain in the Lewes House of Correction until fit enough to be removed to the county gaol. She was committed to the gaol by Luke Spence, JP, having confessed to the murder, but when her case eventually came to trial at the East Grinstead assizes in March 1764 she pleaded not guilty. She was nevertheless convicted, and sentenced to be hanged, and then dissected and anatomised.
Source: East Sussex Coroners’ Records 1688-1838, Sussex Record Society volume 89 (2005), edited by R.F. Hunnisett, case 345.
4. William Verrall at Southover Manor and new railways (by Chris Grove)
William Verrall purchased the old Southover Manor House around 1839 and had it rebuilt to his requirements. Verrall owned Southover Brewery and its many properties within Lewes and the surrounding area. In 1844, he raised a petition against the proposed route of the Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings Railway, which would bisect his land. He owned the Southover Manor demesne which extended south of the manor house, and into the flood plain. He was joined in this petition by John Langford, brewer, William Mercer, fruiter and greengrocer, and Thomas Sheppard, MP for Frome Somerset who owned the Folkington Estate. Together they engaged William Figg as land surveyor and a railway engineer from the north west called John Collister. Figg and Collister developed alternatives to the proposed railway route which they claimed would be cheaper to construct and, most importantly, would avoid the properties of their clients.
Their proposed deviation through Lewes would have had a major impact on the town. Figg and Collister’s alternative was to approach Lewes by going north of the Winterbourne and proceed in a deep cutting along where Grange Road is today, passing close to Southover Grange and through the Grange Gardens.
Select Committees were established in the House of Commons and the House of Lords to examine the proposed Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings Railway Bill, and a competing line proposed by the South Eastern Railway Company which would have branched from the London to Dover line to Hastings, avoiding Lewes and Brighton altogether. The Committees would also examine the Figg/Collister deviations. In 1844 the Select Committee hearings sat for 17 days in the Commons and 6 days in the Lords before the Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings Railway Bill was approved without deviation and passed into law.
While William Verrall had claimed that he would be forced to move if the railway was built, in fact he remained at Southover Manor until his death towards the end of the nineteenth century.
He must have thought he was plagued by railways because twenty years later, in 1865, his house came again under threat. The South Eastern Railway Company proposed a new railway line that would provide an alternative route from London to Brighton via Westerham, East Grinstead and Lewes. That railway line would have passed so close to Verrall’s manor house in Southover that it was expected to be demolished. Apparently there was some support for this railway in Lewes. The Bill for that proposed railway was examined at Select Committee hearings in the Commons and the Lords and, to Verrall’s relief, was rejected on 25 July 1866.
5. Lewes images from the G.F. Burtt collection
George Frank Burtt ‘s collection of railway images was acquired by the National Railway Museum, York. It contains photographic images by G.F. Burtt himself, who was employed as a photographer by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, but also others made by the Lewes Photographer Edward John Bedford, whose archive he had acquired. Some examples are shown below:
G.F. Burtt’s views of the first railway station in Friars Walk (above) and the Goods Yard about 1910 (below)
The two views below of Lewes Railway Station are both by E.J. Bedford and show the second railway station, which was replaced by the present station in 1887. Bedford, a native of Lewes, studied at the Lewes School of Science and Art in Albion Street and in 1883 became a master at the Brighton School of Art. In 1892 he became head of the Eastbourne School of Art and Design, before returning to Lewes to become head of the Lewes school at which he had studied in the 1920s. He took up photography as a hobby in the 1880s and became a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.
A G-class 2-2-2 locomotive at Lewes station, photographed by E.J. Bedford.This view of Lewes Railway Station by E.J. Bedford is said to date from about 1888.
This carte de visite studio portrait of a young woman was taken by the photographer Daniel Blagrove’ who established his business in Lewes in 1851. Such portraits were commonly taken for middle class customers to mark such occasions as a 21st birthday or a forthcoming marriage. This sitter has removed her bonnet, which is carefully posed on the table next to her. Both the young woman’s clothing and the plain studio advertisement on the reverse of the card suggest that this was taken not long after Daniel Blagrove opened a short-lived second studio in Uckfield in 1867. By the 1881 the business was described as Daniel Blagrove & Son, as his eldest son, another Daniel Blagrove, had also joined the business, now again based solely in Lewes. Their late-Victorian cards have far more elaborate designs on the reverse to illustrate the artist’s skills.
7. A Waterloo Veteran’s fate
The 1 February 1849 Brighton Gazette reported that the body of the Waterloo veteran Sinnock, who had been missing since Christmas Day, was found on Friday morning in the river near Barcombe Mills. An inquest was held in the afternoon at the Cock Inn, Ringmer. The evidence given was that the deceased was last seen when leaving Lewes, very drunk, and the appearances as exhibited by a post-mortem examination were those usual in cases of drowning. As his watch and 4s 6d were found in his pockets foul play was not suspected, and a verdict of ‘Found Drowned’ was returned.
There is a March quarter 1849 death registration in the Lewes registration district for Thomas Sinnock aged 56, so he would have been in his early twenties when at Waterloo in 1815.
In the 1841 census Thomas Sinnock aged 45-49, dealer in marine stores, lodged with a Lancaster Street household. A ‘dealer in marine stores’ was a rag and bone man.
8. A foiled burglary at Leighside
The 9 August 1890 Sussex Express reported:
“Between twelve and one on Thursday night an attempt was made to break into Leighside, the residence of Mrs Godlee. The burglar or burglars, in attempting to force a door, caused an alarm bell to ring, which aroused the servants.”
This seems a surprisingly early report of a burglar alarm, presumably powered by electricity, but the builder of Leighside, the Quaker businessman, magistrate and philanthropist Burwood Godlee (1802-1882), was a thoroughly modern man and an enthusiast for the application of science to business. As a very young man he launched the Lewes Gas Company, and in the 1840s he gave lectures to the Lewes Mechanics Institution on such topics as electricity, organic chemistry and geology.
9. The Lewes Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery (by Douglas Dodds)
I was interested in the photograph of the Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery 3rd (Lewes) Company [Bulletin no.171], as I recognised the large house in the background. It is on the southern side of Rotten Row, and is now called Rykehurst. When the photograph was taken it was called Sunnyside and it was owned by brewer George Ravenhill Beard (1871-1958). He was also a Captain and later a Major in the Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery. I assume he’s the man at the centre, wearing gloves and a slightly paler uniform.
At the time of the photo Sunnyside’s south-facing garden sloped all the way down to Grange Road. The garage on the right survives today but the conservatory on the left has been replaced by a modern extension.
10. Lewes Bus Station (by Alan Green)
Lewes was one of three commodious new Southdown bus stations built in the 1950s, the others being at Chichester and Haywards Heath. All three locations were transport hubs and provided facilities for waiting passengers and bus crews. Constructed as an island to make best use of the space, it was designed by the architectural practice of Clayton and Black. Their bold design, using brick, concrete and glass bricks, is evocative of the 1950s and features a widely overhanging cantilevered first floor which, as well as maximising use of space, provides shelter for those queuing for buses. Overall the design is elegant and an asset to the Lewes Conservation Area, not least because its design and modest scale fits well with the massing of adjacent historic buildings. Since privatisation of the National Bus Company most of the ex-Southdown estate has been sold off for development, and amongst the many casualties was Haywards Heath. Chichester bus station is also proposed for redevelopment.
The Lewes bus station is also of national importance as the only other bus stations using an island layout – at Hawkhurst and Derby – have already been demolished, leaving Lewes as the sole survivor. Suitably refurbished, it would remain fit for purpose. Its location and facilities are far superior to the replacement bus interchange facility on School Hill or the proposed alternative replacement provision of bus stands on either side of the windswept Phoenix Causeway.
Alan Green MA BSc CEng MICE FPWI, is Historic Structures Advisor to the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society
11. Grown in Lewes (by Ruth Thomson)
Produced by the same creative team as ‘The Pells of Lewes’, ‘Grown in Lewes’ is a timely compendium of all things green in the town – past, present and future. More than 50 local volunteer authors (some members of LHG) provide, with passion and expertise, insights into the history of cultivation in Lewes, as well as many current community environmental projects helping to make Lewes a greener place to live. The book features many intriguing stories. Discover the history of Elphick and Son, the much-loved – and much-missed – seed merchant and garden shop, which traded in Cliffe High Street for more than 150 years, and the story behind McBean’s, the oldest-surviving orchid nursery in the UK. Find out about the changing fortunes of various notable private gardens in Lewes, which are now public spaces – Southover Grange, Lewes Castle and Lewes House Garden – as well as those which have disappeared or
remain hidden. Read about the growth and demise of Lewes horticultural societies and shows from the 1850s, the pressure on allotment land for housing developments in the town, and much, much more.
‘Grown in Lewes’ will be on sale at the LHG meeting on Monday, December 9
12. A.G.M. Reports
Chair’s Report (by Ian McClelland)
This has been another successful year for LHG – thank you for your membership and support.
We continued our practice of hosting our monthly talks on Zoom in the winter, and in King’s Church in the summer. Attendances at both have averaged over 100, with the most popular being Alexandra Loske’s talk on Turner and Constable in Sussex.
Membership has fallen slightly during the year and is currently about 520. We have a large group of long-established members, but over 50 who have joined in the past year. We also have over 200 additional contacts who receive information about our talks and events. As you will see from the financial report we end the year in a healthy state.
We have continued to publish our monthly bulletin, and this autumn run a 5-session introductory course on Victorian & Edwardian Lewes led by Sue Berry. We also participated successfully again in both the Lewes Societies Fair and the Heritage Open Days weekend, both in September. This year we also published ‘South Street’ by Heather Downie as part of the Street Stories project.
Once again thanks are due to all our EC members for their commitment and contributions:
Phil Green for managing our finances,
Ann Holmes for chairing our EC meetings,
John Kay for the monthly Bulletins, for our monthly talks programme, and for fielding most of the surprising number of enquiries we receive about local history and genealogy,
Victoria Moy for keeping us in the public eye through her PR work,
Ian McClelland for managing our Street Stories research program and chairing our talks,
Bill Kocher and Paul Yates for tirelessly maintaining both our website and social media presence, and our LHG records,
Chris Taylor for his work in the membership secretary role,
Thanks are also due to our various volunteers, including Tessa Bain who maintains our display boards.
EC membership: Neil and Barbara Merchant left the EC at the beginning of 2024 due to health issues. Neil was our Chair for several years and, in particular, steered our migration into the digital era in relation to membership & subscriptions, enabling our Zoom meetings, and enabling card payments for publications and meeting attendees. Barbara set up and ran our Web site and social media presence for over a decade which in large measure kept our group in the public eye.
Their contributions to from the establishment of the LHG in the early days to the present were invaluable for which the group is very grateful.
Victoria Moy is leaving Lewes and so can no longer continue in her PR role. We are very grateful for Victoria’s contribution. We urgently need someone to replace her and continue the work of keeping us in the public eye. Fortunately, thanks to all the PR work of the past years, what needs to be done is well documented. However we need to look to the future so we need to recruit someone who is also familiar with social media to support our public presence.
Treasurer’s Preliminary Report (by Phil Green)
Below are our interim accounts for 2023-4, but our financial year is not yet complete. Final accounts will be published early in 2025.
Please note: this Bulletin is being put on the website one month after publication. Alternatively you can receive the Bulletin by email as soon as it is published, bybecoming a member of the Lewes History Group, and renewing your membership annually
1. Next meeting: 11 November 2024, Chris Taylor, ‘Lewes Council Housing’ 2. Grown in Lewes 3. Lewes Racecourse History Group: final exhibition 4. Two Georgian funerals 5. The Lewes Navigation 6. Military Exercises at Winterbourne, 1905 7. Two new images of South Malling Church 8. Developments at the Priory 9. Was Hitler the Anti-Christ? 10. A Cliffe Baptism certificate 11. No honour for George Holman
1. Next Meeting 7.30 p.m. Zoom meeting Monday 11 November Chris Taylor: Lewes Council Housing, from 1920 to 1970
In this talk, Chris will outline the development of council housing in Lewes in the mid-20th century. A close look at specific episodes, drawn from five decades of house-building, will illustrate how Lewes councillors responded to national policy in the provision of homes for rent. Lewes Borough Council took it first steps into the housing market in the early 1920s with the opening of the first houses on the Nevill estate. Considerable expansion in the number of council homes followed as a result of ambitious slum clearances in the 1930s and a concerted, government-driven effort to eliminate sub-standard housing in the 1950s and 1960s. The consequences are visible in Lewes today, where a sizeable proportion of the housing stock was originally council-built.
‘Grown in Lewes’ edited by Ruth Thomson & Sarah Bayliss is a new book about all things green in the town – both past and present. Its 192 pages are the work of over 50 authors and include 400 illustrations. The publication price is £16.50. The seeds were sown at a packed meeting in the Yarrow Room, Lewes Town Hall, in February 2023, and germinated to encompass topics as diverse as allotments, nurseries, seed merchants, notable gardens, graveyards, markets, wildflowers, trees, the Railway Land, artist-gardeners, and horticultural societies and their shows.
Copies of ‘Grown in Lewes’ will be on sale at:
3. Lewes Racecourse History Group: final exhibition
Barry Foulkes’ Lewes Racecourse History Group held what Barry described as its final exhibition at St Mary’s Hall on Saturday 14 September. On show was the astonishing archive that Barry and his colleagues have assembled to document the history of the racecourse from its establishment in the 18th century, when it frequently benefitted from royal patronage until its closure 60 years ago.
The archive covers almost every meeting, listing the runners, riders, trainers and owners of almost every race of which there is a record, and for good measure extends to the many racing trainers who established their stables in Lewes, and the successes of their horses and jockeys.
This is a truly exceptional collection of information about an activity, indeed an area of business, that played an important role in the life of the town over a period of more than two centuries. Barry and his colleagues are to be congratulated for their exceptional contribution to our understanding of this aspect of Lewes History.
4. Two Georgian Funerals
The Jireh chapel yard has a small number of memorials, one of them remembering Rev William Huntington, an eccentric London preacher who inspired the founder of Jireh, Rev Jenkin Jenkins. William Huntington described himself as ‘the converted coal heaver’ and added to his name as a qualification the letters S.S., standing for Sinner Saved. When he died at Tunbridge Wells in July 1813 his body was transported to Lewes on a hearse drawn by six horses and followed by a procession of mourners a mile in length. The Victoria County History of Sussex describes his as the most remarkable funeral that the county had ever witnessed.
Another memorable funeral took place at St Anne’s church in August 1832 after Charles Lee, King of the Gypsies, died in a tent near Lewes. He was buried in St Anne’s churchyard in the presence of a thousand spectators.
Source: J.M. Connell, ‘The Religious History of Lewes’ (1931), p.148
5. The Lewes Navigation
The excerpt below is taken from volume 5, p.270 of the Universal British Directory published in 1791, at the time when Britain’s canals were at the heart of the nascent industrial revolution, and the Lower Ouse Navigation was in progress.
“The river between Newhaven bridge and Lewes was navigable only for small barges at particular times of tide; but by widening, deepening, and some new cuts it is now constantly navigable for boats of larger burthen. A great purpose intended by this canal was to drain certain lands, lying to the east of Lewes, called the Laughton-levels.
For beach, gravel and other materials to be used for the making and repairing of roads, the tonnage is three-pence. For chalk, lime, dung, mould, soil, compost, or other articles to be used for manuring of land, two pence per ton. For other goods, wares and merchandises, four-pence per ton.
Vessels, rafts, etc, passing between Lewes-bridge and Southerham-corner are exempted from toll; also between Newhaven-bridge and Lock-hole.
By this canal the neighbouring lands will be materially benefitted by better drainage: as the embankments are to be continued on the east side of the river above Lewes-bridge to a place called Bushy-brook; and on the west side above Lewes-bridge to the upper end of the new cut; and on the north side of Glynde-Sewer, from Sound to the Swall-bank; and on the south side from Sound to a piece of land called the Cock-field, etc, etc, which lands are divided into five divisions, and are liable to certain rates which are under the direction of the commissioners of sewers. The lands below Newhaven bridge are exempted from rates, and they are to maintain their own walls, etc.”
6. Military Exercises at Winterbourne, 1905
This postcard of one of the many summer territorial army camps on the Downs around Lewes in the Edwardian era was posted to Warnham, near Horsham, in 1906. This part of Lewes looks very different a century or so later.
7. Two new images of South Malling Church
A pair of small photographs of the exterior and interior came into my possession recently, acquired via ebay. The approximate size of cartes de visite, and mounted on card, they are identified as South Malling on the reverse in a hand from a century or so ago. The exterior view of the church looks quite similar to early Edwardian postcards views, though there is a little ivy on the church porch, and the 4-rail post and rail fence looks a little newer. On the reverse a modern hand has added ‘Trinity Church 1865’ but that does not seem credible. The A.H. Homewood and Mezzotint postcard views were taken in winter, but the new view was taken when the trees were in leaf.
New image above: Mezzotint postcard view below
The interior view says on the reverse: ‘The Kempe Vault is immediately below the tablets’ – presumably the tablets marked with pencil crosses on the image. Comparison with the interior view looking east on the C.V. Travers postcard below (probably c.1910) shows that these tablets were at the east end of the north wall of the church. The organ pipes appear to have been re-located between the two photographs. The Kempe family, a descendant of whom was presumably responsible for these photographs, lived at Malling Deanery in the 18th century.
8. Developments at the Priory
In 1845 news of the discovery of the cists bearing the remains of William de Warrenne and his wife Gundrada during work to bring the railway from Brighton to Lewes attracted the attention of antiquarians across the country. Thus the 8 November 1845 Illustrated London News reported that it had commissioned the Brighton artist R.H. Nibbs to travel to Lewes to record the excavations, and then the editor himself had travelled to the spot to see for himself. At this date the cists containing the remains of William de Warrenne and Gundrada, carefully protected after their discovery by the chief officer of the London & Hastings Railway Police, were on display in the nave of Southover church, where they could be inspected by visitors on any day except Sundays. They had proved a very popular attraction. Unless they were Southover residents, such visitors were expected to contribute to the fund for providing them with a permanent home.
The editor also recorded the very recent discovery on the site of an earthenware urn encased in a leaden vessel, with the space between filled with clay, in which were a set of human lungs, stomach and intestines. These were thought to be part of the remains of the 3rd Earl de Warrenne, grandson of the dynasty’s founder, who had joined a French expedition to the Holy Land in 1147 only to be slain in an attack by the Turks. It was speculated that these were part of his remains, which had been bought home to the Priory for burial.
The priory church and its chapter house had been completely levelled on Thomas Cromwell’s orders, but some other monastic buildings had survived. The hall and refectory had been converted for use as a malthouse, while the priory’s immense cruciform pigeon house, which could accommodate three thousand pairs of doves, had survived until not long before 1845. Also demolished not long before 1845 was a large elliptical oven, 17 feet long and curiously built with tiles. The prior’s lodgings had been converted into a mansion house which had fallen into the hands of the Earls of Dorset, until destroyed by fire 150 years previously. This mansion had become known as the Lord’s Place, a name that came to cover the entire site.
It had been recorded in the Sussex Express (founded in 1837 by W.E. Baxter) that in 1828 & 1829 workmen had been employed to level the ground around the remaining Priory walls. Removal of the turf had revealed many of the foundation walls of the demolished buildings. W.E. Baxter had made a careful plan of them, that he still possessed. In 1835 part of the Priory grounds’ northern frontage had been laid out for the construction of the crescent of houses called Priory Crescent. W.E. Baxter’s ‘Guide to Lewes’ which contained much detail about the Priory site was described in this November 1845 article as ‘forthcoming’. It must have proved popular, as the only copy I have seen is a copy of the 6th edition dated 1852. Despite its evident popularity, very few copies seem to have survived.
9. Was Hitler the Anti-Christ?
The 2 December 1938 Sussex Express reported that the topic of the Rev Austen H. Atkins’ address to his congregation at Providence Strict Baptist Chapel, Little East Street, on the previous Sunday had been ‘Is Hitler the Anti-Christ?’. Mr Atkins said that he had been asked that question in the street. Rev Austen Atkins, pastor at Providence Chapel from 1934 to 1944, during which he also served as Honorary Secretary of the Lewes Free Churches Council, was not a man afraid to share views that might cause offence. After his address to his chapel’s anniversary service in 1940 a Lewes alderman and a Borough Council employee protested against his condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church. In the same year he gave a series of public talks on ‘God and the War’, declaring that in 1940, as in 1588 when the Spanish Armada threatened, God was on the side of Right, and that in both instances Englishmen could see the divine hand in the preservation of their nation. He preached his last service in Lewes in March 1944 to a large and appreciative congregation, after a decade of service to his church. He died in Essex in 1963 at the age of 66
10. A Cliffe Baptism certificate
As recently as the 1940s Cliffe church was still issuing elaborate certificates such as the one below to children baptised in the church. I have seen several such certificates from before World War II, but this is later in date than the others I have seen. Does anyone know how long the issuing of such certificates by the Anglican churches in Lewes continued?
11. No honour for George Holman
On 31 October 1917, in the middle of the Great War, the House of Lords found time to debate the propriety of party funds being supplemented by donations made by those seeking to purchase honours, which there seems little doubt was a well-established custom. The Earl of Selborne’s contribution to the debate, recorded in Hansard, includes the following paragraph:
“The next case is even more remarkable. There is a gentleman in Lewes, in Sussex, called Mr George Holman, who has been seven time Mayor of Lewes. He has done public work of a great many kinds, but he has never asked for an honour. In 1912, at the end of his seventh mayorality, some of his friends in Lewes went to him and said: “We should like to get an honour for you. You have done so much public work that we think you ought to have a reward.” He said: “I should like an honour very much: I am greatly obliged to you”. One of his friends went straight to headquarters to the Whip and the Whip said: “Yes, it is a clear case for an honour. What is he prepared to give to my party fund?”. The friend returned to Mr Holman and told him what had been said. Mr Holman then remarked that in no circumstances would he give a penny to party funds. The friend returned to the Whip, and the Whip said on each occasion: “This is a very good case for an honour, but an honour he shall not have unless he contributes to my party fund”.”
In 1912 the Liberal prime minister was Herbert Asquith, and the chief whip was Percy Illingworth. While the system in force, in which of the order of £10,000 was expected for a knighthood, £30,000 for a baronetcy or upwards of £50,000 for a seat in the House of Lords, was not invented by Asquith’s government, they do seem to have made a sufficiently increased use of it to attract attention. However, in 1916 Asquith’s government was replaced by a Coalition led by the Liberal David Lloyd-George. This created a split within the Liberal party, in which Asquith, now out of office, retained control over party funds. Lloyd-George, desperate for party money, greatly increased the sale of honours, in a way that had already attracted public attention by the time of the 1917 debate. In the six years between 1916 and 1922 in which Lloyd-George remained prime minister over 1,500 knighthoods and 91 new peerages were created. Since there were many party donors who could not afford a knighthood, the Order of the British Empire was created to fill the gap, and another 25,000 people were given the OBE, which at that time was given the nickname of the Order of the Bad Egg.
A clergyman’s son called Maundy Gregory, whose roles included being an entertainer, a private investigator and, allegedly, a blackmailer, emerged as an honours broker for this system. He secured funds impartially for Liberal, Conservative and Coalition governments, and took a cut for himself. His activities in this arena were curtailed only in 1925, when the Act was passed that controls political donations to this day. These established the key principles still in force: that it is fine to give honours to party donors, and that it is fine to make a political donation in the hope of receiving an honour, as long as there is no formal link between the two. It is essential that a credible alternative reason for the award can be put forward, if only as a fig-leaf. After 1925 Maundy Gregory moved into related activities, such a brokering international and papal honours. In 1933 he attempted to revert to his old habits, and ran foul of a military man of principle, resulting in a conviction. To this day he remains the only person ever convicted under the 1925 Act.
Sources: Hansard; Andrew Cook, ‘Cash for Honours: the Story of Maundy Gregory’ (2008); http://www.globalsecurity.org.
Lewes History Group 