Hove in the Past: Hove High School

Judy Middleton

Published originally in Tales of the Old Hove Schools (1991) revised 2019

copyright © D. Sharp
The former Hove High School at 49 Clarendon Villas, the school's First World War Memorial is visible in the porch.

There seems to have been a school at 49 Clarendon Villas as soon as the building was erected in the 1880s. It is still there and just as imposing with its yellow brick and red brick dressings rising to four storeys. Above the front entrance there is a curious female torso jutting out like an old ship’s figurehead. In October 2012 the building looked somewhat forlorn as it was swathed in scaffolding and plastic sheeting while yellow leaves scudded about the steps.

Thomas Hales was the first headmaster. He named the establishment for boys Gloucester House and so it remained until 1908 when it became Hove High School. As sometimes happened, this private school was kept in the family, so to speak. For example, the Genners were in charge from 1890 to 1911 and the Kingstons from 1914 to 1951. The Kingston family connection did not end there because the Revd HJ Kingston’s daughter, who also taught at the school, married fellow teacher Mr Hoyle and they became the subsequent and last heads of Hove High School.

Charles Whitsed Kingston took over in 1914 and it was he who superintended the erection of a stone tablet to the memory of 27 Old Boys killed in World War I. The tablet is still there on the east side of the front door and it is especially sad to see some families lost two sons, such as the Andrews, the Bakers and the Scotts. The school motto appears on the left of the tablet and on the right there is a shield bearing a lion rampant with the legend d ‘Old Hoverians’. This is an unusual derivation from the name Hove whose inhabitants usually called themselves Hoveites. However, the school magazine was also called The Hoverian.

CW Kingston died in 1930 while still in office. All the boys marched in a crocodile to his funeral, which was held at St Mary’s Church, Upper Rock Gardens, Brighton. His son the Revd HJ Kingston was vicar of this church from 1944 to 1957 – in fact it became the joint parish of St James and St Mary during his tenure. He combined his role as vicar with being head of Hove High School. He was also chaplain to the celebrated Bishop Bell who often looked in upon the school. The headmaster was popularly known as the Revd Jack Kingston and according to one Old Boy his favourite dictum was ‘Smut, won’t have it’.

Old Boys Lost in the Great War

There are twenty-seven names on the school memorial. But only seventeen appear in Hove’s Roll of Honour, which means that the families came from outside Hove. The following is a selection of the fallen:

Private William Frederick Andrews – His parents lived at 2 Osmond Gardens. He joined the 2^nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment in December 1915 and met his death while on active service in Waziristan on the north-west frontier of India, dying of colitis on 7 August 1917.

Lieutenant Eric Bernard Andrews RAF – he was born at Hove in 1897, and his elder brother was the Private Andrews, just mentioned. When war broke out E. B. Andrews joined the Brighton Royal Field Artillery, Territorial Force, straight from school. In October 1916 he obtained his commission, and was sent to France in January 1917, and thence to Italy after the Austro-German offensive in that country. He later returned to England and in February 1918 joined the air service, going on to serve on the Western Front. On 16 September 1918 his plane flew beyond German lines and did not return. He was posted missing and it was hoped that perhaps he had been taken prisoner. A member of his squadron wrote the following to his parents. ‘He was with a very good pilot and he himself being a particularly good observer, I can scarcely imagine that they would come to grief in ordinary combat with the enemy.’ Meanwhile his parents remained on tenterhooks until his death was formally announced in December 1918. His commanding officer wrote to his parents, ‘He was one of the very best observers and a great loss to the squadron.’

Ordinary Seaman Sydney Benton RN – HMS Newmarket was once a civilian vessel, carrying cargo or passengers, being built in 1907. Her wartime occupation was as an auxiliary mine-sweeper, and by 1917 she was in the thick of things at the Dardenelles. On 17 July 1917 German submarine UC-38 torpedoed HMS Newmarket in the Aegean Sea, south of the island of Nikaria. Newmarket sank with the loss of seventy lives, including Sydney Benton. His father, Arthur Benton, of 208 Church Road, was desperate for news of his son and wrote to the Admiralty, receiving the following reply. ‘I have to state for your information that HMS Newmarket sailed from Port Laki, in the Aegean Sea, on the 16^th ultimo, to go the assistance of a vessel attacked by an enemy submarine. Nothing further has been heard of the ship, and despite an exhaustive search of the whole neighbourhood, no trace has been found of her or her crew. In these circumstances, it is deeply regretted that all on board must, it is feared, now be definitely regarded as having lost their lives.’

Captain William Thomas Carter, 7^th/Seaforth Highlanders – W. T. Carter was born in Kent in 1892, but by the time of the Great War the family home was in Silverdale Road. He was employed as a clerk in the Anglo-South American Bank in London, and joined the Seaforth Highlanders in August 1914. He was killed in action leading his company at Eaucourt L’Abbaye during the Battle of the Somme on 12 October 1916. His name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial, which means that he has no known grave. His mother, Rose Carter, wrote, ‘My son was recommended by his colonel and the brigadier general for a permanent commission in the regular army and this was granted on 2 December 1916. His colonel reported that he was a first class company leader and very much liked.’

Trooper Harold Colbourne – He was born at Willesden Green in 1897. In November 1914 he enlisted in the Sussex Yeomanry straight from school. He was sent to Gallipoli where he fell ill with dysentery, and was invalided back to England. He died of pleural pneumonia on 12 May 1916 at his home 12 Raphael Road.

Lance Corporal Samuel Ashburner Foot – He was serving in the 16th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, when he was killed in the Battle of the Somme, which lasted from 1 July 1916 until 18 November 1916, with the British casualties numbering an astonishing 420,000.

Private Hugh Scott – He was the son of Hugh Hamilton Scott who was surveyor to the Hove Commissioners / Hove Council for forty-two years. After his school days at Hove, Hugh Scott went on to the University of London, and worked as a civil engineer and a surveyor, living with his wife Winifred (daughter of Revd A. D. Spong) at 19 Ventnor Villas, Hove. Originally, he joined the Royal Engineers, but transferred to the 25th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, and was killed in action at Vimy Ridge on 27 April 1917 aged 36. At the time in the confusion of battle, it was not clear what fate had befallen him, and for at least two months he was posted as missing. This was still the case, although by then hope had faded, when the tragic news arrived that his brother had also been killed.

Private Robert Scott – He was the younger brother of Hugh Scott, just mentioned. He emigrated to British Columbia, and enlisted in the 72nd Canadian Battalion. By a dreadful coincidence he too lost his life at Vimy Ridge, just four days after his brother was killed. Robert Scott was aged 33 when he was killed in action on 1 March 1917.

(This information is derived from newspaper accounts, and the Hove Roll of Honour – a unique resource stored at Hove Library)

Old Boys of Note

Lieutenant Marcus Bloom (1907-1944) – Lieutenant Marcus Bloom’s family moved from London to Hove during the Second World War and lived at 13 Medina Villas until 1929. The Bloom family consisted of Harry Bloom, a businessman with many interests including a restaurant at Hove, his wife Anna, and their four sons who all attended Hove High School – they were Alex, Marcus, Bernard, and Jenice. Lieutenant Bloom became a SOE agent but sadly his activities were were short-lived because he was betrayed and captured by the Germans while on active service in France, and shot at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria on 6 September 1944 : he has no known grave. (For further details please see under Hove and the Second World War)

Peter Jackson (1922-2003) – Although on-line sources state that Jackson studied at Willesden School of Art, there seems to be no mention of his earlier schooling at Hove. Perhaps it is because his name became so closely associated with London. It is amusing to note that when he applied for a post with the Evening Standard to illustrate interesting facts about London, he was asked what he knew about the city and he had to admit that he knew nothing. This was soon remedied and Jackson became an expert on the subject, amassing a collection of 25,000 items that included prints, photos, drawings and ephemera. His great work – in collaboration with Felix Barber – was seventeen years in preparation and entitled London: 2,000 Years of a City and its People (1974) followed in 1990 by a further work by the duo entitled A History of London in Maps.

But to return to earlier days : Jackson illustrated a popular series concerning strange facts about London that appeared every Wednesday in the Evening Standard, and became very popular. Jackson was a prolific illustrator whose work ranged through a variety of publications from Mickey Mouse Weekly to the more sedate Look and Learn, and from Swift to the iconic Eagle.

Captain Arthur Bartlett Wales – He was elected to Hove Council in 1913 and was one of the few Hove councillors to serve in the First World War, becoming a decorated war hero. He was with the Essex Regiment for four years, seeing action in Belgium, France and Italy: he served throughout the Battle of the Somme, the 3^rd Battle of Ypres, and Passchendale Ridge. He was Mentioned in Despatches no less that three times, and was awarded the Military Cross and the Italian Croce di Guerra.

Wales ran an estate agent’s business at 173 Church Road, Hove. When he became Mayor of Hove 1928-1930, the auctioneers laid on a special lunch at the First Avenue Hotel in December 1928 to celebrate the first member of their profession being elected to that honour. Wales continued in his business for over 40 years, and retired in 1949. Wales had a variety of interests, being a member of the Hove Mummers, the Aldrington Dramatic Society and the Aldrington Hockey Club. He died in February 1953 at the age of 68.

copyright © J Broomfield
Form III of Hove High School in 1935.
Back row, left to right, 2nd from left Peter Goldsmith, 3rd, Roy Hatcher, 4th John Goldsmith. Middle row, Maurice Wilmer is on the far right. Front row, John Broomfield 2nd from left.

Greville Redford was a pupil at the school from 1929 to 1934. He remembered the French master was named very aptly Mr French. There were around 200 boys at the school and classes held between 20 and 30 pupils each. There were no sports facilities to speak of although the yard at the back was asphalted and used for physical jerks under the direction of an ex-sergeant-major type. But for anything more exacting, such as cricket or football, the boys had to toil up to the sports field at Holmes Avenue, lugging their equipment with them.

Two of Greville Redford’s contemporaries went on to join the RAF and were killed in World War II. Another boy’s parents ran a large double-fronted vegetable shop in Blatchington Road; while young John Broomfield’s father owned a great deal of farmland in the Mile Oak area of Portslade. Altogether, there was a good cross-section of the local community.

Another contemporary, John Barter, became the Mayor of Hove’s secretary for many years. It was Mr Barter who acted decisively on the memorable occasion when Hove Town Hall went up in flames on 9^th January 1966. He made a quick dash through the heat to the mayor’s parlour on the first floor and rescued the beautiful, historic chain of office from destruction. This chain of office was older and more valuable than the one belonging to the Mayor of Brighton. But to the chagrin of the people of Hove, since the amalgamation of the two, it is only the Brighton chain of office that is seen in public on important occasions.

The Revd HJ Kingston remained head until the end of 1951 when he disposed of the school to his daughter and son-in-law. He stayed on as vicar of St Mary’s but left in 1957 to become rector of Fishbourne. The school did not survive for much longer.

The school magazine of 1938 was called The Hoverian.

The Argus (16/1/05) published a letter from Janet Del Turco (nee Clarkson) now living in Ohio. She left Hove High School in 1947 but could still remember the lines of the patriotic school song as follows:

Be British first and always

Do your best what ‘ere you do

Never say die or argue why

Do your best and see things through

Working, playing, striving

Be a sportsman, play the game

Never say die, nor argue why

Floreat Hova, grow in fame

Aldrington High School

When Charles Whitsed Kingston established his separate school for girls in around 1929 it was called Aldrington High School. It was rather a grandiose title because it was located at 10 Glebe Villas, which was in fact the church hall belonging to St Leonard’s Church. Aldrington.

In 1936 15-year old Sylvia Camps, who attended Aldrington High School, was made Prefect and House Captain. She also excelled in sports and athletics and won many cups and awards. At school the girls played tennis, netball and stoolball. Years later, Sylvia kept fit by having a dip in the sea off Hove beach almost every day. It must have done her a power of good because she lived to a grand old age and died in 2015. Her parents were probably influenced in their choice of school because Sylvia’s two older brothers, Rex born 1911 and Bernard born 1916, attended Hove High School. They too were sports-minded and they continued to enjoy taking part at sporting events arranged by the Old Hoverian Association.

C.W. Kingston died in 1930 and so his son Revd H.J. Kingston became the next head of Aldrington High School. It was obvious that life would be easier for the management if the two schools were in closer proximity. Indeed it seemed that the amalgamation of the two had already been completed by May 1936 although boys and girls continued to be taught separately. The new establishment was called Hove and Aldrington High School. The school was divided into eight houses four for boys and four for girls but confusingly the same names were used. Thus there was a Genner House (one for boys, the other for girls) and the other three names used were Aldrington, Bolton and Genner.

But Aldrington High School still appeared at 10 Glebe Villas in the local directories. There were no directories published during the war years and then by 1949 the girls department had moved to 47 Clarendon Villas with the boys next door at number 49.

Heads

1884-1887 Thomas Hales

1889 W Demeeres

1890-1907 Benjamin Genner

1908-1911 B Genner and HL Genner

1912-1913 PM Percival

1914-1930 Charles Whitsed Kingston

1931-1951 Revd Herbert John Kingston

1952-1959 JG Hoyle and RH Hoyle

School colours red and yellow

School motto Deus Fortitudo Mea

Sources

Directories

Hoverian November 1936

Information from the family of Sylvia Maud Linney (née Camps, formerly Hawtin)

Recolllections of Greville Redford and John Broomfield

13 May 2022

Hove High School