H.S. Altham was a Winchester College housemaster (1913-1946), who had a distinguished WW1 record. After the war, he wrote the first history of cricket, which went to at least four editions with E.W. Swanton a later co-author. In 1945, he became joint editor ofWinchester Cathedral Record, becoming sole editor in 1948 and contributing a wide…

Born in Southampton, Anderson’s father was John Ridgerson Anderson a partner in a ship brokerage firm involved with the Australian trade and sufficiently wealthy to be able to send his son to Winchester College. From there Roger went to Clare College Cambridge. Married in 1916, he and his wife Romola had no children. Described as…

Born in Derbyshire, son of a family prominent in civic affairs, Walter Andrew attended Rugby School and qualified as a  solicitor in 1882. 

Ashley-Cooper was born at Bermondsey, in metropolitan Surrey, and lived for most of his life in rural Surrey. When he died his home was at Milford, near Godalming. Throughout his life Cooper’s passion was cricket, in particular the history of the game and the statistics it generated. Ironically, as recorded in his Wikipedia entry, ‘Frail…

In 1960 he became the City Archivist for Winchester after 32 years lecturing at Winchester Training College, later named King Alfred’s College, and then transformed into the University of Winchester, where he is remembered by the Tom Atkinson Building.

The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Rossall School, Lancashire, and University College, London, and studied architecture under Sir Arthur Blomfield. He spent much of his early working life as an architect in partnership with C.W. Long in an office in Trumpington Street, Cambridge. He gained a reputation for medieval architecture through his…

Elinor Aubrey was born in Southampton and until her retirement she spent her whole life in the town. Census records indicate that her father was an ‘elementary school master’ and in the 1901 census return her occupation is shown as that of ‘teacher’ (with the enumerator incorrectly adding the word ‘school’). The 1911 census shows…

This is not the place to repeat the well-documented life of one of England’s most celebrated novelists, but the huge amount of writing about her incidentally provides an intimate picture of her period. Not only does it vividly illuminate life in the north of the county in and around Basingstoke, but also elsewhere, in Bath,…

Frances Awdry was the eighth child of Sir John Wither Awdry Kt, who served as Chief Justice in Bombay before returning home to live at Notton House, Lacock, in Wiltshire. Her brother Vere Awdry (1854 –1928) one-time vicar of Ampfield, was the father of Wilbert Vere Awdry (1911-1997) author of the Thomas the Tank Engine…

Today, the name of F.J. Baigent is best known as the co-author with the Rev J.E. Millard (1823-1894) of the monumental History of the Ancient Town and Manor of Basingstoke, published in 1889. Baigent was already a distinguished antiquarian, whilst Millard had only written minor works on the area when, in 1882, he became a…