As Porter explains at the begining of one of his autobiographical publications ‘the Porter family had been settled in Rugeley, in Staffordshire, more than a hundred years’ before he was born there. Leaving school in 1852, his father, a tailor, was keen for John to enter the legal profession. However, his son had other ideas…

1907 – 1987 Isabel Sanderson was born in 1907 to a Suffolk farming family. In 1914, the family with all the farm animals and gear were taken by train to Alresford station. Then a short journey took them to Abbotstone Farmhouse, part of the great Tudor mansion built by the Marquess of Winchester*. After Perin’s…

1907 – 1987 Isabel Sanderson was born in 1907 to a Suffolk farming family. In 1914, the family with all the farm animals and gear were taken by train to Alresford station. Then a short journey took them to Abbotstone Farmhouse, part of the great Tudor mansion built by the Marquess of Winchester*. After Perin’s…

Ken Sawyer was born in Enfield, the eldest child of Albert Frederick and Ada Elizabeth Sawyer; his father worked in banking in the city. Sawyer’s life before Milford-on-Sea is rather a closed book, other than the 1939 Register which recorded him in Merton working in the gas industry and in Civil Defence. His wife, Margaret,…

Thomas Shore is no stranger to the Hampshire Field Club, which he founded with two others in 1885. He was the son of an architect, born in Wantage, and at some time acquired a Department of Science and Art Certificate, described as a ‘lowly qualification’. Clearly a late developer, after working as a schoolmaster in…

Henry: christening, 17 January 1796; 25 November 1860. Julian: christening, 6 January 1798; burial 2 January, 1886 Dr Henry Slight (from: https://historyinportsmouth.co.uk/people/early-historians.htm) These two brothers were both medical practitioners, Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, and were active in cultural life in Portsmouth. In 1818 they were amongst those who founded the…

Ken Sawyer was born in Enfield, the eldest child of Albert Frederick and Ada Elizabeth Sawyer; his father worked in banking in the city. Sawyer’s life before Milford-on-Sea is rather a closed book, other than the 1939 Register which recorded him in Merton working in the gas industry and in Civil Defence. His wife, Margaret,…

02.01.1832 – 21.04.1913 He was a druggist and chemist with a shop at 113 High Street in Old Portsmouth. After retirement he became curator of the Borough Museum, then in the Town Hall, next to the Dolphin Hotel.  According to the journalist historian, William Gates, who acknowledged his influence, he was: ‘A man of genial…

Thomas Shore is no stranger to the Hampshire Field Club, which he founded with two others in 1885. He was the son of an architect, born in Wantage, and at some time acquired a Department of Science and Art Certificate, described as a ‘lowly qualification’. Clearly a late developer, after working as a schoolmaster in…

Henry: christening, 17 January 1796; 25 November 1860. Julian: christening, 6 January 1798; burial 2 January, 1886 Dr Henry Slight (from: https://historyinportsmouth.co.uk/people/early-historians.htm) These two brothers were both medical practitioners, Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, and were active in cultural life in Portsmouth. In 1818 they were amongst those who founded the…