People 15 - Leamington History Group

Sir Terry Frost

August 11, 2026June 6, 2013

Leamington has nurtured a number of artists who have gone on to enhance their reputations and enjoy popular acclaim.Thomas Baker, Fred Whitehead and Charlie Johnson-Payne all had considerable reputations. Terry Frost was one of the most significant British abstract painters of the twentieth century and always maintained close links with Leamington through his long career. … Read more

Sir Frank Whittle

August 11, 2026June 5, 2013

Frank Whittle (Left, in his study)holds the distinction of having invented a piece of equipment that would have a world-wide application and which would fundamentally change the world in which we live. He was the inventor of the jet engine. Young Frank came to live in Leamington in 1916 when his father Moses bought a … Read more

Sir Bernard Spilsbury, 1877 – 1947

August 11, 2026May 22, 2013

Few if any of those waiting for their prescriptions in a south Leamington chemist will know that the father of modern forensic medicine was born in the flat upstairs. On 16 May 1877 the manufacturing chemist James Spilsbury’s first child was born in the flat above his shop at 35 Bath Street, Leamington Spa (4th … Read more

Edith Mary Warr

August 11, 2026April 18, 2013

Edie, aged 100, recalls lively episodes from her long life in Leamington – her workdays, her husband’s bands, their motorbike and sidecar.

48 minutes. 47MB file.

The Manners-Sutton sisters

August 11, 2026April 17, 2013

In the early years of the 19th century the new town of Leamington Priors was seen as a fashionable place for well-connected members of society to settle. Few families who came to live here had a more aristocratic ancestry than the five Manners-Sutton sisters who came to Leamington sometime in the 1830’s. The sisters were … Read more

The Free Czechoslovak Army

August 11, 2026April 17, 2013

During the Second World War, the Free Czechoslovak Army (FCA) was based in Leamington Spa and a memorial fountain in the shape of a parachute in the town’s Jephson Gardens records their stay. It also commemorates one of the most daring undercover missions of the war which was carried out by Czechoslovak paratroop agents. The … Read more

A Wise Bequest: Henry Wise’s unplanned contribution to the development of Victorian cricket – the Wisden Legacy.

August 11, 2026April 8, 2013

Henry Wise, Royal Gardener to Queen Anne and King George I, and garden designer to many of the great families of the time, was born in Oxfordshire in 1653. When he retired from London in 1709, he had become a very wealthy man. He settled in Warwick, buying himself a house and garden in the … Read more

The Bone family of 9 Spencer Street

August 11, 2026April 8, 2013

1700s William and Sarah Bone lived in Saltisford Warwick in the late 1700’s. They were married around 1790 with their first child being born in 1793. Their fifth child Hannah was born on 21st April 1805. Sarah outlived William and died in Saltisford in 1848 aged 82 1805 Hannah Bone remained all her life in … Read more

Ron Ransford

August 11, 2026April 5, 2013

Ron Ransford is a very well-known figure in Leamington. For many years, his family ran a building/demolition/recycling business in the town, and Ron has personally “seen off” a number of old Leamington landmarks during his working life.If you want to know where some significant artefact or piece of equipment from a long-vanished Leamington building, Ron … Read more

A Titanic Survivor: Florence Agnes Angle née Hughes

August 11, 2026April 5, 2013

8th March 1876 – 20th August 1969 Florence Agnes Hughes started working life as an asylum nurse at Hatton Hospital, married William Angle, a Minton tile fixer from Staffordshire, at Warwick in the autumn of 1906, and emigrated with him to America, in search of a new life. They must have made a striking couple. … Read more

Ethel Harraden

August 11, 2026April 5, 2013

Ethel Rosalie Harraden (Mrs Frank Glover) – 1857-1917. Ethel Rosalie Harraden was born in Islington, the older daughter of Samuel Harraden, a London and Calcutta Agent, and also a musician. She was reputed to have begun composing at the age of five, and later studied at the Royal Academy under Sir Sterndale Bonnett and Dr Dorell. … Read more

Eva Sabin’s Wartime Memories

August 11, 2026April 5, 2013

A few memories of a child in wartime by Eva Sabin, nee Kilby. I grew up in Kilby’s shop in High Street. We lived above the shop with my grandparents who owned it. My first recollection of the Second World War is a Sunday morning in the shop with my mother listening to the speech declaring … Read more

People

Sir Terry Frost

Sir Frank Whittle

Sir Bernard Spilsbury, 1877 – 1947

Edith Mary Warr

The Manners-Sutton sisters

The Free Czechoslovak Army

A Wise Bequest: Henry Wise’s unplanned contribution to the development of Victorian cricket – the Wisden Legacy.

The Bone family of 9 Spencer Street

Ron Ransford

A Titanic Survivor: Florence Agnes Angle née Hughes

Ethel Harraden

Eva Sabin’s Wartime Memories

Able Seaman Stanley James Cotton

Behind the Names: Leamington’s War Memorial

The Pump Room Gardens Bandstand

Leamington History Cafe: First Generation Punjabi Leamingtonians

Leamington History Group Walks Victoria House Tour

Eleven-Eleven-Eleven: One Moment in Time