Here will appear extracts from Pastfinders' monthly  newsletter ~ "RETROSPECS" along with any recent discoveries and items of local historical interest found by our Members.

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Harold Edward Annison - Olympic swimmer 

Frederick Elliott Annison married Minnie Cumbers in 1891 at Croydon.  Their first daughter, Phyllis Minnie was born in 1892 followed by Gwendoline Maude Christie in 1893.  Their first son Harold Edward Annison was born on the 27 December 1895 in Croydon followed by another son Reginald Clement in 1898 and later in 1907 another daughter, Elsie Madeline.

Frederick was described in various census as a Colonial Broker/Agent and could afford to have a governess for his children.  He was a keen cyclist and swimmer and encouraged his children accordingly.  The children became members of the Croydon swimming club and Harold, in 1910, became the 100 yards junior champion of the Southern Counties as well as winning the Championship of London cup and the ‘Field’ Challenge cup.  By 1913 Harold was competing at International level for England and was known as the fastest boy swimmer in the world. 

Harold served in the Royal Navy during the first World War and also married Rose Honor Barnes in 1916 and a son, Peter Honor, was born the same year.  The marriage was short as Rose filed for divorce in 1918.  In 1919 he married Lydia Rose Doughton and their son, John Harold was born 1921. 

Harold continued with his swimming after the war and won every Amateur Swimming Association championship apart from the five miles.  He represented Great Britain at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp and 1924 in Paris in the 100 mtrs., 400 mtrs., and 1500 mtrs. freestyle and in the 4 x 200 relay where he won a Bronze medal at Antwerp.   As well as individual swimming, Harold and his brother, Reginald, played water polo, with Harold playing at International level.  In 1932 the London Film Productions made a short film featuring Harold.  In 1934 Harold became the first manager of the swimming pool in West Street, Brighton.

In July 1934 Frederick Annison moved to Lancing and bought Brown Gables in Mill road.  In 1936 he bought Mill Cottage and nursery on the east side of Mill Road where Harold lived.  Frederick died in January 1940 at Brown Gables and left instructions for his ashes to be thrown into the sea from the Palace Pier, Brighton.  He left £84,505.

Harold moved into Brown Gables after his father’s death and continued with the nursery business but it appears he was separated from Lydia and assumed divorced as he married Olive M Jack from Lancing in 1948.  Harold died on the 27th November 1957.  The nursery site was sold by Olive in March 1960 to Cowley Bros. where the bungalows and Norbury Drive were built.

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Lancing Parish Hall is 100 years old

In March 1912 the Lord of the Manor, J. M. Carr Lloyd, gave to the village a quarter of an acre of land on which to erect a Parish Hall.  Plans were drawn up by Mr Otto Doll, an architect who lived at Faust Haus who gave his services for free.  The estimated cost was £1250 and a loan was needed but due to the Local Government Board requesting a Public Inquiry in 1913 and then the onset of war the building work did not start until March 1915.  The Worthing Gazette of 10 September 1913 has a report of Otto Doll submitting plans for the new parish hall, but a report in the Worthing Gazette 28 May 1914 shows that some members of the parish council were unhappy with Otto, the son of the vice-chairman, Henry William Doll.  Otto resigned as Hon. Architect due to the “aggressive attitude of some members of the council,” and he requested his tenders and plans back. 

A new architect, Mr H M Potter of Worthing, was appointed and builders, Frank Sandall & Sons of Worthing, were accepted with the lowest quote of £1168.10s.6d.  The building was described as having a large hall that could seat 300 people, 60 feet long with a width of 20 feet, dressing rooms and reading rooms and a well-appointed kitchen.  As well as having a gallery at the north end and a platform with floodlights and curtains suitable for theatrical performances, there was an apartment suitable for meetings etc.  Radiators and gas lighting had been installed.  A ladies cloakroom would be added later. 

Further delays were caused by a shortage of steel for the girders but the hall finally opened on the 17th November 1915.  A marble plaque was erected marking the occasion and is still there.  

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William Hall entertains President Kruger 

William Hall was born in Brighton 1833 to parents William Hall and Mary Savignac.  In 1858 he was in Canada where he married Elizabeth Swannick Barton on the 8th of June.  Their first son, William Hamilton, was born there in 1859.  They had returned to England by 1861 when their second son, John Henry Sussex, was born, followed by Mary Barton in 1862, Frederick Savignac in 1864, Elizabeth Swannick in 1866, Grace Ethel in 1870, Edward Bassano in 1872, Helena Invicta in 1874 and Madelaine Ennis Mae in 1876. 

He trained as an architect as seen in the 1851 census but by 1861 he is shown as a Parliamentary Agent.  The 1871 census shows him living in John Street, Shoreham, and as a retired architect and engineer at age 37!  The 1881 census shows the family living at Penstone, Lancing, when William was said to have “no profession, trade or calling” although he was one of the Shoreham Harbour Trustees, a member of the firm Hall and Partners (Ltd), of the Dundee Dredging Company and of the South of England Marine Insurance Association and a member of the Brighton Corporation.   In the 1880’s William tried unsuccessfully to stand as a Member of Parliament for the Gladstone Liberals. Penstone was built in 1875 most likely for William and his family.

On the 11th January 1884 when William was a member of the Brighton Corporation, he and his wife hosted a lunch reception at the Dome in Brighton for delegates from the Transvaal, including President Paul Kruger, who were in England to sign the London Convention.  It had been hoped the Mayor and other councillors would attend but the event was boycotted by all but a few junior members of the council but in all about a hundred people attended.  After lunch Mr Hall invited President Kruger and the other delegates back to his house, Penstone, in Lancing.  While there the party were escorted around the area visiting Sompting and Cissbury. 

Just a few weeks later in April, his young son Edward died followed by his wife. 

In 1895 Penstone was for sale which was probably the time William moved to Texas where he had a ranch and where he died in 1900.

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The Grey Ladies

This grave has been recently re-discovered when volunteers were clearing St. James the Less cemetery in West Lane.

So who were the Grey Ladies?  They were the daughters of William Pitt Manson and Margaret Jones, neé Donaghue.  William and Margaret married on the 11th May 1842 at St Pancras, they had six children, William Pitt (jnr) in 1843, Susanna Ross in 1844, Thomas Edward Donaghue in 1848, Margaret Ann Catherine in 1849, Frederick William in 1850 and Catherine Neville in 1852.

William was a successful Barrister-at-Law, a second counsel to the Mint and General Post Office, and sometimes correspondent for the Times newspaper but on the 19th November 1862 he died suddenly aged about 44 years.  The family were comfortably off so the daughters did not work and lived in Muswell Hill but by the 1901 census Margaret and Catherine were staying at the College of Grey Ladies, Dartmouth Row, Lewisham. 

The College of Grey Ladies was set up about 1893 by the Bishop of Southwark to form a Sisterhood of volunteers to do parochial work such as Sunday school teaching, visiting parishioners, particularly looking after the women and children and the poor.  A house was obtained and up to about 20 ladies, mostly of independent means, lived.   A report by the Bishop states  “The object and aim of the College is to provide a homelike resting place for hard workers, and those things which make healthy bodies, intellectual minds, fresh sympathies, and above all, souls trusting in the peace of God”  The idea caught on and colleges were started in other towns.

The two sisters retired to Lancing about 1925 and lived in Trellis Cottage, Manor Road where they became keen supporters of North Lancing church and members of the North Lancing Women's Institute.  They were joined by a niece, Freda Manson, who became President of North Lancing W.I.  There may have been a connection to Lancing as their brother Frederick William married at St James in 1885.

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