The Eastbourne Local Historian is the quarterly house journal of the Society which is supplied to all members and is published in March, June, September and December. It contains information about the activities of the Society and updates on local history and articles of merit concerning local history.
The editor welcomes contributions from members and others interested in the history of the town.
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George Musgrave
and the Musgrave Museum
George Musgrave died peacefully in
his home on Monday 26 November
2012 at the age of 97. He was born on 19
October 1915 during World War I. His
father was mortally wounded at Cambrai
in December 1917 and George grew up
in poverty in north London. His story
featured prominently in the BBC film
What Did You Do in the Great War,
Daddy? which received a four-star rating
and was shortlisted for the Grierson
Award. Before WWII, he was an
outstanding swimmer. He was ordained
a Minister in the Congregationalist
Church and served in English churches.
He was subsequently Head of Denomination
and a regular broadcaster in
British Guiana. Earlier, he had won an
art scholarship (Hornsey College of Art).
His mini-sculptures were shown on TV
from 1959. He was prominent in the
Liberal Party in the 1960s and 1970s,
was a parliamentary candidate three
times and agent at national by-elections.
In George's later years, his big passion
was his museum. He called it the
Musgrave Collection. In the museum he
assembled a unique blend of artefacts,
collected throughout his long life. Most
important of these were his paintings of
St Paul and the archæological items
that he had collected throughout the
Mediterranean. Two books, A Friendly
Refuge and Paul and Thekla, documented
his findings. He was an excellent story
teller, as volunteers and visitors to the
museum found out.
As the years went by, the Museum's
emphasis seemed to change. Perhaps the
strongest new emphasis became his
dedication of the museum to The Dad I
Never Knew. This was the title of a
booklet which described the story of his
father, Alfred Joseph Musgrave. The
story was featured in a TV documentary
by Testimony Films called What Did You
Do in the Great War, Daddy?
As time went on, he reflected more on
his urban roots and the poverty of his
childhood life. He wrote of this in the
The Dad I Never Knew. Later, he also
wrote A Speck of Dust which further
documented his childhood, his youthful
athletic aspirations and his conversion to
the Christian faith, through contact with
the Oxford Movement (Moral Rearmament)
during the 1930s depression years.
He was a man who found his life
structured through the Congregational
Church, whose principles he held to
strongly throughout his life. Through
this he was to become a non-conformist
minister during World War II and after.
He operated an influential ministry in
the dockland area of Greenwich. In
1943, he married Muriel Stables.
George was essentially an intelligent,
practical man. His views of life were
shaped by his experiences of living and
working amongst the urban poor in the
first half of the 20th century. The
direction of his career as the Revd George
Musgrave, clergyman, took a sharp turn
when he moved on to a suburban parish,
Christchurch (now in Dorset), and then
to British Guiana (now Guyana). He was
the 'white' parson of a large congregation
at the Smith Church Congregational
Church in Georgetown. He wrote about
this in a booklet called The Great
Republic. Unfortunately, a leg injury and
health problems ended his work in
Guyana and he returned to England in
1954, disabled, unemployed, and with
five children.
These experiences as a clergyman
shaped his social and political awareness
and he became an activist for the Liberal
Party. He was left of centre in his
thinking, but none of his experience led
him to a socialist perspective.
Back in the UK in the mid-1950s, he
had to shape a new career for himself,
this time as a small businessman. He got
a good break though participating in
the Get Ahead TV programme, which
enabled him to start Gemodels. He
utilised his artistic talents to become a
designer of small toy models just as
plastics were becoming cheaply available
as a medium for production, but before
the mass production possibilities in the
Far East made his business uncompetitive.
His models are on display in the
Musgrave Museum. He was a better
artist than a businessman and though his
firm survived for 20 to 30 years, it never
really thrived. Business was not really his
forte and by the late 1960s, economic
forces made business difficult. He
became attracted to the pains and
pleasures of active engagement in the tiny
parliamentary Liberal Party. He loved
the hustle and bustle of election life and
was an effective party agent. He became a
respected part of the Liberal Party and
remained a keen Party member until his
death.
His liberalism was a counterpoint to
his nonconformity. He remained a lay
preacher throughout the '50s, '60s and
'70s, even though no longer a paid
clergyman. He eventually dropped his
liberal activism and became once again a
part-time local church minister to two
small congregations in St Leonards and
in the Brighton area.
Eventually, he focused all his energies
on the museum. He tried very hard to
win recognition and many came to view
the museum. This gave him great
pleasure. He was so delighted that the
museum was praised in the media and in
the Visitors' Book. (Musgravemuseum@
googlemail.com).
In retirement, visitors who became
aware of his output of artwork and
research suggested that the work should
be made available to the public. The
museum has grown ever since. In 2001,
the Charity Commissioners, recognising
its value to the public, granted the
Musgrave Collection charitable status,
'. . . to establish and maintain in perpetuity
. . . the substantial collection of paintings,
works of art, sculptures, videos, photographs
and general artefacts received from the said
George Hamilton Musgrave and collected
together by him over his entire lifetime for
promoting the study and general knowledge
of the various artistic subjects of the
collection with the object of advancing the
education of the public'.
To house the ever-expanding
Museum, George Musgrave purchased
property using his lifetime savings in
order to make it available to the public.
We now need funds to train and employ
personnel to take his place and expand
the usefulness of our enterprise. The
public have always been admitted free of
charge. Whereas the Visitors' Book is full
of appreciation, and despite many
commendations in the media both
nationally and internationally, donations
have remained small, scarcely covering
overheads and insufficient to pay staff.
George Musgrave had to subsidise the
museum from his own savings.
Volunteer help of a suitable character has
been, and remains, difficult to find.
We wish to continue to achieve the
Charity Commission's specification, but
now lack the funds to remain effective or
to improve our service to the public.
This tribute to George Musgrave has been assembled from material written by his middle
son (of three) Peter Musgrave. Other siblings are John, Robert, Andrew and Marian.
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Chateau Beaurivage
Michael Ockenden
The mystery house in issue 166
stood on a huge plot at the
junction of Trinity Place, Hartington
Place and Compton Street, the site
of the present Gannet House, and
ended its days in the early 1960s as
Chateau Beaurivage. The main visual
clue is Holy Trinity Church but, as
is so often the case, parts of the
original boundary wall survived the
demolition of the house. The crosspatterning
in the bricks at the base of
this wall in Trinity Place can still be
seen on the ground and also via
Google Street View.
The French look suits the name,
Chateau Beaurivage, but the house
was originally St Margaret's, built
around 1870, and started life as a
convalescent hospital. The next owner
was Francis William Henry Cavendish
(FWHC) (1820-93), whose father was
Henry Frederick Compton Cavendish,
a first cousin of the 6th Duke of
Devonshire. When FWHC moved
from London in 1865, he first made
his home at Mellerstein, 19 Bolton
Road, which appears now to form
part of the premises of Cornfield Law
LLP in Cornfield Road. However,
when the hospital left St Margaret's,
he had it converted into a private
residence. He is shown, aged 61 years
and a JP, at his new home in the 1881
census with his second wife, Ianthe
Florence Skyring, his teenage son,
Ernest Lionel, by his first marriage to
Lady Eleanor Sophia FitzGibbon, and his
two-year-old son, Nigel Frederick Rupert,
by his marriage to Ianthe. The household
also consisted of five servants, all of whom
were born outside the town, and a Swiss
nurse. FWHC had divorced his first wife in
1861, citing Lord Palmerston (then Prime
Minister) as the co-respondent. Ianthe is
described in the census as a British subject
who was born 'off the coast of Spain'.
His journal, Society, Politics and Diplomacy
1820-1864, published posthumously by T
Fisher Unwin in 1913, is an account of the
life of a man in the upper levels of society in
the nineteenth century. The un-named
editor notes that FWHC's early life had
been spent as a 'young man about London'
because his chosen career as a soldier was not
open to him for family reasons. There are
several references to Eastbourne, where he
came with his family nearly every autumn to
stay in or near the Round House, 'a strange
shaped building on the edge of the cliff,
where Splash Point is now, and which had
been the residence of Queen Victoria's
father in 1780'. In the book, he recalls being
on the beach in November 1832 and hearing
'the sound of a cannonade coming from
across the sea' - gunfire from the siege of
Antwerp. Another Eastbourne memory is
the glare in the sky from the fire which
destroyed both Houses of Parliament on
16 October 1834. On 26 September
1846, he records that his father had met
Lord Palmerston at a dinner at Windsor
Castle and that the latter had promised
to appoint him as an attaché
at the
embassy in Vienna. In the event, he
served at the Foreign Office from 1846
to 1863 as Précis
Writer to Lord John
(later Earl) Russell and Lord Clarendon
and acted frequently as their private
secretary.
As far as FWHC's later life is
concerned, the editor of his journal
comments: 'A constant visitor to Paris,
he was acquainted with French politicians
of very varying shades of opinion,
and in both the Royalist and Napoleonic
camps he had friends and correspondents
well informed as to the inside information
of many of the domestic intrigues
attending the birth of the Second
Empire.' However, on his way to the
Foreign Office in April 1861, he was
thrown from his horse in Whitehall and
fractured the base of his skull. The
accident left him unconscious for several
days and prompted his resignation two
years later. The entry for 3 July 1864
states: 'I find the noise of London so
distressing that I must avoid the
Metropolis as much as possible in the
future and live in the country.' GF
Chambers in Eastbourne Memories notes
that a meeting in Eastbourne on 9
September 1872 to discuss the setting up
of the Devonshire Club was held at the
residence of Mr Francis Cavendish.
The 1891 census shows FWHC,
Ianthe and the youngest son, now 12
years of age, at the house. Also present is
a 12-year-old Swiss girl from Geneva
(child's companion), a German
governess, aged 21, from Avolsen
[probably Bad Arolsen], a 25-year-old
Swiss lady's maid from Ollne [probably
Ollon] and three new female servants,
none of whom gave their place of birth
as Eastbourne.
His illness seems to have come on
quite suddenly, the Eastbourne Chronicle
of 14 January 1893 commenting that 'he
had quite lately been about the town in
his bath chair', also noting that the JP
'had until very recently been occupied in
the administration of justice at the Town
Hall, and condemned the disorderly
excesses of wildly exuberant larrikins'.
The same paper goes on to record that
'Mr Cavendish was led by personal
idiosyncrasies to sometimes take the
unpopular side of things, and his
occasional expression of strong views
from the Bench did not add to the
number of friends in certain quarters; but
those least enamoured of his personality
will admit his integrity and diligence,
and the earnestness of his desire to act
justly by those who came before him.'
The Eastbourne Chronicle notes that he
had been a member of the old Local
Board and taken an energetic part in
bringing about the Incorporation of the
Borough. The paper comments on his
politics stating: 'He was formerly one of
the most active local supporters of the
principles enunciated by Mr Gladstone,
but in common with the whole of his
illustrious relatives, he stoutly opposed
the Home Rule Bill and had since been a
warm Unionist, and was a great admirer
of Lord Salisbury's administration since
1886.'
The Cavendish family had left the
house by 1901, a year when the census
shows the head of the household at St
Margaret's as a widower - a retired
manufacturing chemist by the name of
Alfred I Peek, aged 81 years, who was
born in Whitechapel. These days the
unfortunate Mr Peek would be no doubt
be described as 'suffering from dementia'
but the 1901 census minces no words
and has him down as 'a lunatic'. The rest
of the household consisted of three
domestic staff and two mental nurses. Mr
Peek had had a successful career in
Manchester and is credited in the London
Gazette with at least two inventions: one,
in 1862, for 'improvements in apparatus
for evaporating saccharine and saline
solutions' and another the following year
(with Harold Potter) for 'improvements
in treating or preparing textile materials
and fabrics'. The same publication
records his death on 14 November 1902
and describes him as 'formerly of
Manchester and Harrogate'. The Times
carries no obituary but notes his death at
St Margaret's in its edition of 19
November 1902. The Eastbourne local
papers report his passing but there was
no obituary.
Street directories show a few occupants
staying for short periods after the
departure of Alfred Peek, but the house
stood largely empty until 1910, when it
was re-named. The 1911 census has it as
'Redmont, lately St Margaret's' and the
home of Harry Reid, aged 46, a
landowner and retired company manager
born in Monikie Parish, Forfarshire.
His wife, Alice Maclaren, hailed from
Inverarity in Forfarshire but their three-year-
old daughter was born in Argentina.
Also present on the night of the census
was a visitor from New York, Edward
Wells Penfield (46), a railway manufacturer.
There was a domestic staff of five,
one of whom was a butler; none of the
servants gave Eastbourne as the place of
birth. However, there was now a
chauffeur living next door with his family
at Redmont Garage. The Reids' two
sons, Harry Redvers and Claude
McLaren, do not appear at Redmont but
are recorded as boarders at Winchester
House School in Staveley Road. Bill
Bowden, who kindly provided much
genealogical and background detail
about the family, notes several entries for
Harry Reid travelling between the UK
and Argentina between 1892, when he is
listed as single and a farmer, and 1916
when he appears as a landowner. The
1913 directory (compiled in 1912) shows
Redmont unoccupied - the Reid family
had probably moved to London - and on
28 August 1917 Harry Reid died at
Smedley's Hydropathic Establishment in
Matlock, his residence at this time being
40 Inverness Terrace, an elegant house in
Bayswater. The cause of death is not
known, but could Harry have been
receiving some kind of treatment at the
Matlock spa? His sons, Harry Redvers
and Claude McLaren, both joined the
RAF: Harry rose to the rank of Group
Captain, was awarded the DFC and
during the war served as British Air
Attaché
to South America, whereas
Claude ended his career in the Singapore
Colonial Police Force and became a
prisoner of war of the Japanese. In 1948,
Harry Redvers Reid changed his name to
Harry Redvers McLaren-Reid.
The mansion in Trinity Place stood
empty for some years during World War
I, but the 1920-21 directory shows it for
the first time as Chateau Beaurivage and
occupied by a Mr C Grierson Lowe. In
1928, it appears as flats and remained as
such until its demolition towards the end
of the 1950s. The site is now occupied by
the block of flats known as Gannet
House
Sources:
Society, Politics and Diplomacy 1820-1864, published by T Fisher Unwin (1913),
can be read on line at:
archive.org/details/societypoliticsd00caverich
Eastbourne Memories, by GF Chambers, FRAS (1910), can now be downloaded as a
pdf or in Kindle form at:
archive.org/details/eastbournememori00chamiala
The Monikie Story, by W Douglas Chisholm (1982), is available from:
www.monikie.org.uk
A good aerial view of Redmont can be seen at:
www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw000084?search=eastbourne&ref=5
An account of Claude McLaren-Reid's captivity in Java during World War II can
currently be seen at:
www.artfact.com/auction-lot/aviation-memorabilia-1-c-c15f2af9f5
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The above articles are taken from the Eastbourne Local Historian Spring 2013 Issue 167.
(The quarterly publication of the Eastbourne Local History Society available free to members)
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