Robert Simpson, Composer and Writer, 1921 – 1997
April 2, 2015
Robert Wilfrid Levick Simpson, internationally renowned as one of the most prolific 20th century composers of symphonies and chamber music, was born at 21 Rosefield Street Leamington in March 1921, where his parents, as officers of the Leamington Spa Corps of the Salvation Army in Park Street had an Army house. Mrs Simpson was Dutch,
Thomas Baker, 1808 – 1864
April 1, 2015
Although known professionally as ‘Baker of Leamington,’ Thomas Baker was born in Harborne, Birmingham, the son of the headmaster of Harborne Free School. He studied in Birmingham under the artist Joseph Vincent Barber, (who had business connections with the Willes family in Leamington), and in 1827 exhibited at the Birmingham Society of Arts. In
John Hugh Hawley and Brunswick House School.
March 18, 2015
In 1856, Mr JH Hawley of the Castle School Kenilworth, announced in the Leamington Courier his intention to set up a ‘Classical and Commercial School’ in Brunswick Place, Leamington. An advertisement in the Courier in November of that year referred to ‘Brunswick House School, most healthily situated outside the town’, where a first class education
Beatrice Whitby, Novelist, 1855-1931
March 12, 2015
Beatrice Janie Whitby was born in Ottery Saint Mary, Devon where her father Charles was in medical practice. The family numbered three daughters and five sons, the oldest of whom, a professional soldier, was killed in the Afghan war of 1880, almost at the same time as Dr Whitby moved to Leamington Spa, where he
Coventry Ribbons, Leamington’s Aid for Destitute Weavers
March 8, 2015
Ribbon has long been regarded as one of the oldest of decorative materials. During the Middle Ages merchants travelled throughout Europe trading ribbons of silk and other expensive fabrics from the East. Geoffrey Chaucer mentions ‘ribbands’ in the Canterbury Tales. Originally only the well-to-do could afford such a luxury item but by the 1800’s ribbons
Leamington’s Basque Connection
February 19, 2015
As a result of the Spanish Civil War, over 4000 children, some only just over the age of six, were evacuated from Northern Spain to Britain in 1937. Suffering extreme hardship, violence, imprisonment without trial, and widespread poverty under the Franco regime, for the families of the Basque evacuees life had become an endless struggle
John Ruskin (1819 to 1900)
February 13, 2015
Was the remarkable life of this man saved by the mineral waters of Leamington Spa at the age of 21? John Ruskin was a writer, artist, art critic and polymath who was precocious at all stages of his life. He championed J M W Turner, the Pre-Raphaelites, Gothic architecture and the Arts and Crafts
The Hon. Alfred Lyttelton: Cricketer, Politician and MP for Warwick & Leamington
January 20, 2015
Two of the attributes of the late Victorians were large families and the multi-skilled “polymath”. There was more to Arthur Conan Doyle than the creation of iconic detective fiction, and to C B Fry who played cricket for Sussex and England who also held a world athletics record, won an FA Cup winner’s medal and
World War One Remembrance
November 13, 2014
The Poppies or Barbed Poppies – The New Memorial in the Jephson Gardens At 11.00 am on 11th November 2014 a memorial was unveiled in the Jephson Gardens, between the Aviary and Willes Road entrance. The memorial will remember all those who played any part in World War One, including the widows and orphans and those who
Seeing is Believing, – but is it?
October 26, 2014
Take a look at the engraving of the Parade in this article and in particular take a close look at the classical portico on the left of this image, the Palladian style building with the Ionic columns. This engraving first appeared in Hopper’s History of Leamington Priors published in 1842 and has been reproduced in
