Preserving the past and heritage of this wonderful village at the heart of the New Forest
Famous People 2
Many remarkable people have lived and worked in Brockenhurst. Many were born in the village, others were attracted by its countryside, environment and gentle way of life. These Brave, Brazen, Brilliant and Bold men and women are recognised and some of their stories appear here.
Mary Ann Ash - School teacher. Lymington Road.
For 52 years Mary Ann Ash was the village schoolmistress. Indeed, for most of the time she was the entire school staff and her cottage, Ash Cottage just south of the level crossing, was the schoolroom. She ran the school there from 1830 until 1863 when it moved to the modern Primary School site in Sway Road (then ‘Wide Lane’) where she continued to teach until 1882. In 1863 the school had 47 pupils, boys, girls and infants, and a long room was divided into three by heavy curtains.
School had to be paid for – in 1882 a labourer paid 2d (1p) for one child per week, or 3d for two or more children. There was a charity to ensure children of poor people could be educated.
Mary never married but devoted her life to the village children. She also arranged large scale pageants and events for royal celebrations. She would arrive in a donkey-pulled cart. Newspaper reports talk of her coordinating up to 250 children at a time for the watching audiences, often in the grounds of Brokenhurst Park.
Mary lived from 1813 until 16 November 1883. She had a reputation for strictness and pupils later said she was very liberal in her use of an ash cane. This was reflected after her death when boys from the village crept up to St Nicholas churchyard and planted the seeds of ash trees around her grave. Their defence later was that it was simply a reflection of her name. One tree eventually grew to more than five metres tall.
The reverse of her gravestone commemorates Mary Ash; ‘The trees whose name in life I bore / Now gather round my grave / They whisper as in days of Yore / Their meaning now I have. / ‘Tis thus, I ween, they sadly say / To us so short a span is given / Then by decay to pass away / But thou are now God’s ash in Heaven.’
Rev. Henry Comyn - Britain’s first ‘census’. Boldre and Beaulieu Road.
Reverend Henry Comyn created what many recognise as Britain’s first ‘census’, albeit only locally. He was Curate to the Vicar of Boldre, the Rev. Thomas Vialls from 1812 until 1820. The united parishes of Boldre and Brockenhurst also included parts of Sway and Beaulieu.
Henry was born in 1777 and went to Westminster School. This was followed by Oxford University where he graduated in 1799, returning in 1806 to complete a Masters degree. He came to Boldre as Curate in 1812 and married in 1814, later having three daughters and two sons.
As well as providing a guide for his successor, Rev. Charles Shrubb, Henry ’s principal concern was the growth of the Baptist church in the parish. One had been recently established in Brockenhurst. He surveyed the parish in 1817, recording in notebooks the location of properties and house-holders name; property ownership and occupation; wife’s maiden name and place of birth (if applicable); children’s birth dates and noted if a family were members of another church (mainly Methodists) of ‘dissenters’.
This 1817 survey predated the first Government census started in 1841, collecting much of the same detail. Henry also drew maps showing properties and details such as roads and public buildings like the workhouses. It was printed, by Galpine printers in Lymington, and copies are in the British Library and Southampton University.
Henry resigned his curacy in 1821, and moved to Ladycross Lodge on the Beaulieu Road. In 1822 he moved to Cornwall as Vicar of Manaccan, and later Sancreed, where he died in 1851.
More recently ‘Comyn’s New Forest’ was edited by local historian Jude James and published in 1982 from Henry’s notebooks.
Lady Winifred Hardinge - Vicereine of India. Tile Barn.
Lady Hardinge didn’t live in Brockenhurst. Indeed, apart from the probability she passed through by train as a child and young adult (the family home was near Ringwood, and they also had a London home) she may never have visited Brockenhurst. But for three years she was arguably the most familiar name associated with the village.
The First World War Indian military hospital was named after her, and the connection attracted King George V and Queen Mary to visit Brockenhurst, among other accolades.
Winifred Selina Sturt (17 March 1868 – 11 June 1914), known as ‘Bena’, was born in London but bought up at Crichel in Dorset. Her father, William Sturt, 1st Baron Alington, was a leading race horse trainer and owner and friends with King Edward VII. Winifred became a Woman of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales in 1893 and continued when the Princess became Queen Alexandra.
In 1890 Winifred (pictured right) married Charles Hardinge, a career diplomat. The marriage was opposed by the family initially as the couple were first cousins and there were questions over Charles’ wealth (or lack of it). He was appointed Ambassador to Russia (pre-revolution in St Petersburg) and later Assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office. He was knighted in 1904.
In 1910, Sir Charles was appointed Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, and also Viceroy of India. His wife, Lady Winifred, accompanied him to India.
The following year they presided over what many regard as the most lavish royal visit in history when King George V and Queen Alexandra visited. The visit included the Delhi Durbar of 1911, during which it was announced that the capital would move from Calcutta to New Delhi. This was controversial on both sides.
In 1912 the Viceroy and Vicereine narrowly escaped death, when a bomb was thrown at an elephant they were riding into Delhi to celebrate the Capital’s move. An attendant holding an umbrella to protect them from the sun was killed and the Viceroy was wounded in the back and shoulder (the bomb was packed with gramophone needles) but Lady Hardinge escaped injury. She was commended for her bravery but later reports said she never totally recovered from the shock.
In general their time in India was successful. Lord Hardinge oversaw social reforms and was positive towards the emerging future leader Mohandas Ghandi. Lady Hardinge did considerable work to improve the welfare of Indian women. However, in 1914 she returned to London for an operation on a cancerous growth. She was operated on in the first week of July but died a week later, reportedly from the shock of the operation. She was 46 years old. Her husband, Lord Hardinge, was informed by a telegram sent to India where he remained Viceroy for the next two years.
It is not known who put Lady Hardinge’s name forward for the Indian military hospital established at Tile Barn and local hotels at the end of the year (following the start of World War One). One possibility is that the commemorative name was suggested by Queen Mary, who was Patron of the Committee of the Ladies of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, which initiated the hospital project for Indian soldiers. The 520 bed Lady Hardinge Hospital gained international attention and her name did much to gain recognition and note for the village of Brockenhurst. Today she is commemorated in Delhi, giving her name to India’s leading medical school for women.
Charles Hardinge, who in the early 1920’s was Great Britain’s ambassador to France, is also noted as one of only two people to have been knighted six times. At the time of his death in 1944, he was Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, KG, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, ISO, PC, DL.
John Howard - Philanthropist and Prison Reformer. Mill Lane.
John Howard, (2 September 1726 - 20 January 1790) was a noted prison reformer. He lived at Watcombe House (also known as Brockenhurst Lodge) between 1758 and 1761. This house stood on a hill south of Mill Lane in what is now Brockenhurst Park.
John Howard inherited considerable wealth from his merchant father (died 1742) and travelled widely in Europe. He became High Sheriff in Bedfordshire in 1773. As part of his duties, he inspected Bedford jail and was appalled by the unsanitary conditions there. He was also shocked to learn that the jailers were not salaried officers but depended on fees from prisoners. Some prisoners had been acquitted by the courts but were kept in prison because they had not paid their fees.
In 1774 John persuaded the House of Commons to pass two acts that discharged persons should be set at liberty in open court and that discharge fees should be abolished; and that justices should be required to see to the health of prisoners. However, despite being approved these acts were largely ignored and John Howard complained that the acts had not been “strictly obeyed.”
John Howard was a noted philanthropist and while he lived in Brockenhurst that included distributing Bibles (and sometimes food) to local homes. Many cottages stood in what is now Brockenhurst Park through which the local roads to Lymington and Beaulieu ran. These were largely demolished after John Morant acquired the estate in 1776, and later diverted the highways away from his new home.
John also installed a bell on the hill which was rung when he heard of the intended arrival in the village of the Portsmouth Navy press-gangs, conscripting crew for the naval ships. On hearing this warning bell the young men of Brockenhurst would hide in Hollands Wood until they received word that the press-gang had moved on.
Howard continued to travel widely, touring Scotland, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, often visiting local prisons. He spent the last years of his life studying means of preventing plague and limiting the spread of contagious diseases.
Travelling in Russia in 1790 and visiting the principal military hospitals, he reached Kherson in Ukraine. In attending a case of camp fever that was raging there, he contracted the disease and died.
John married twice – both wives predeceased him. The Howard League for Penal Reform is named after him.
Edward Morant - Businessman and Politician. Brokenhurst Park.
Edward Morant (born 1730) was a British politician and plantation owner who sat in the House of Commons for 26 years from 1761 to 1787. Edward was the son of John Morant of Jamaica and his wife Mary Pennant, daughter of Edward Pennant, chief justice of Jamaica, and was baptised on 10 December 1730.
He was educated at John Roysse's Free School in Abingdon (now Abingdon School). He graduated at St Mary Hall, Oxford on 7 March 1747 becoming Doctor of Civil Law. Morant's father died when he was three and when he came of age he inherited family estates on the island of Jamaica; they were put at 8,159 acres (3,302 ha). Several places on the island take the family name including Morant River, Morant Point and Morant Bay.
Edward married firstly Eleanor Angelina Dawkins, widow of William Dawkins and daughter of Edward Yeamans of Liguanea, Jamaica, on 10 June 1754. She died two years later. He left Jamaica for England in 1759 and married Mary Whitehorne Goddard, daughter of James Goddard of Conduit St, London on 22 April 1762.
In the 1761 general election Edward had been returned as Member of Parliament for Hindon in Dorset. In the 1768 general election he stood for re-election at Hindon, but his own agents withdrew their support just before the poll and he came third.
In February 1770 he purchased Brokenhurst House for £6,400, along with two adjoining estates. He also bought a large part of the town of Ringwood. He began to move in the foremost political and social circles. The annual income from his estates in Jamaica from 1733-1791 reportedly averaged £20,000.00 (£3,000,000.00 in 2023).
Edward next stood for parliament in 1774 when he was put up by his friend the Duke of Bolton for Lymington and was elected MP. As he was unlikely to be returned again for Lymington, he quickly arranged to stand at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight in the 1780 general election and was returned as MP in that and the next election in 1784.
He supported the 1783 East India Bill and the Peace of Paris. He vacated his seat in 1787. He was described as a thoroughly independent Member and honest, never being open to bribery (though there were doubtless attempts).
On 16 July 1791, Edward Morant was driving in Kensington when his horses took fright. He was thrown from the carriage and was carried home senseless. He died on 27 July 1791. His son Edward Morant was a cricketer. His successors remain Lords of the Manor of Brokenhurst to the present day and owned the park and house itself until the 1960s.
Professor William Penny. CBE FRAS FIME - Electronics inventor. Beachern Wood.
William (’Bill’) Alfred Penny (born on 8 August 1925) was the key scientist in developing the black box flight recorder which improved the safety of air travel.
As a teenager and leaving school during the Second World War, William started work as a junior at the research Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. William worked in a team developing instruments for the performance testing of aircraft, measuring air turbulence, humidity, the frost point and icing. While doing his day job Penny was also studying part-time for professional qualifications in aeronautical and mechanical engineering.
Universally known in later life as ‘the Prof’, William left Boscombe Down and moved into the aerospace industry, working at Kelvin Hughes, which developed and manufactured aircraft instruments. While there as an assistant chief engineer, he met instrument maker Jim Giles. In the mid 1950’s William Penny and James Giles launched a company together, Penny & Giles, based in Christchurch.
A basic black box, a voice recorder only on discs, had been invented in 1954 by an Australian scientist. Three years later Penny & Giles produced the first black box with magnetic recording. Richard developed transducers which could also measure air speed, altitude, acceleration and control surface positions, information which could then be recorded magnetically in the “high survival potential” device known as the black box data recorder, as well as the pilot’s voice.
In 1963 the UK Ministry of Aviation decided to make made it mandatory for civil aircraft carrying passengers to be equipped with accident data recording systems and Penny & Giles were perfectly placed to supply the systems’ sensor and recorders. These improvements vastly increased the amount of data available to air accident investigators following a crash, leading to advancements in air safety
Over the decades the company developed technologies and products for a diverse range of markets which included professional broadcasting and recording, motor controllers for powered wheelchairs, paperless chart recorders and tracker balls for computer interfacing.
William bought Beachern Wood House at auction in September 1972 and lived there with his wife Beryl. In 1989, he was appointed CBE for services to industry, and in 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bournemouth University.
By 1992 the company employed 1,200 people. William had a “hands-on” approach to engineering and developing new products, and won the Queen’s Award to Industry that year.
Apart from running the company, William also lectured at City University in London and at Bournemouth University. In 2002, Penny & Giles was bought by US-based Curtiss Wright, but William continued to work there as a consultant.
A keen yachtsman, golfer and musician William had a farm at Cranshaw in Scotland where he enjoyed breeding cattle. He played the clarinet and saxophone and performed in various dance bands, meeting his wife Beryl through one band where she was the pianist. He moved to Scotland permanently in 2016 following the death of both his wife and daughter. He died there aged 95 on 15 June 2021.
These are just a handful of the remarkable people who have lived in Brockenhurst. More than 100 others are recorded in the Brockenhurst's Brave, Brazen, Brilliant and Bold book, available in the village shops, and by post.
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