Alton Papers, no. 22

Publication Date: 2018

Cost: £3.00 (+p&p if ordering by post)
Where to buy: Curtis Museum or by post - see How to Order page.

Articles:

• Chawton’s WWI Dead - the First and the Last
  Author: Violet Hunt
  ​The first article looks at the first and last of Chawton’s men to die in the First World War. Col. Sir Evelyn Bradford’s mother was Elizabeth Adela Knight, a relative of Jane Austen and he was sadly killed when a German shell burst near him on 14th September 1914 - only a few weeks after war was declared. The last name to be added to the list was that of Reginald Allison. Entering the newly formed Royal Air Force on 23rd October 1918, he died on pneumonia in Kent just over two weeks later and was buried Shorncliffe Military Cemetery.
• The Dodo Link between Alton and Mauritius and the Story of Dodo Discoveries
  Author: Edward Hepper
  This tells of the history of sightings of this curious bird, how some of its bones came to Alton and the connection with our Curtis family and Museum. There are depictions of dodos from the 1600s with more from the following centuries. Thomas Curtis, son of the William Curtis after whom Alton’s Museum is named, went out to Mauritius to visit a member of the family but, sadly, left before the bones were discovered. Luckily ‘some of the most perfectly preserved dodo bones in the world’ were presented to our Museum by George Clark in 1867.
• Frank Trimming - Alton Born and Bred
  Author: Sally Furey (née Trimming)
  Luckily Frank’s memories were recorded and here he tells of his childhood at the turn of the 20th century at the eastern end of the town. There was fishing in Kings Pond, riding on the back of horse-drawn cabs, watching football and cricket matches between Courage’s and Crowley’s and learning to swim in the River Wey. Frank’s first job was doing a paper round and then he cut the grass at the Recreation Ground. The local memories cease when he leaves Alton in 1911.
• At Least We are Grateful - Alton Emergency Hospital​
  Author: Jane Hurst
  The finding of items including a photograph and a poem written by soldiers who were in ‘Alton Hospital’ in October 1940 led to the uncovering of the story of the Alton Emergency Hospital. Later in the war, it was taken over by the Canadians. Many will remember the building together with its wooden huts which later became the Alton General Hospital in Anstey Road.
• 1939 - ‘Buy it in Alton’​
  This volume ends with a short note on the start of rationing after the declaration of war in 1939. The weekly allowance of bacon was 4oz (113gm) per person and the same amount of butter. Alton’s Chamber of Commerce then promoted the slogan ‘Buy it in Alton’.