A Plaque to Edward Bransfield RN

At 11 Clifton Road.

The plaque was unveiled by Deputy Mayor Cllr Alan Robins with
Rear Admiral Richard John Lippiett CB, CBE, DL, in attendance. 

Music by Salvation Army musicians

Guard of Honour

200 years to the day that Edward Bransfield became the first known person to glimpse and chart part of the Antarctic continent a plaque has been unveiled at his one-time residence, 11 Clifton Terrace. This follows the unveiling, on 25 January, of a memorial at Bransfield's birthplace, Ballinacurra, near Midleton, Cork. See below.

At Ballinacurra

His 2 year expedition in command of the 216 ton merchant vessel Williams is remarkable for being accomplished without loss of life even though Bransfield, then in Valpariso, had been ordered by the Admiralty to sail at short notice, and none of his crew were equipped for icy weather. His remarkable achievements was recognised by later explorers by the naming of Bransfield Strait and Bransfield Basin in his honour.

Bransfield's achievements had for many years been overshadowed by controversy over whether he or the Russian explorer Bellingshausen were the first to discover the Antarctic mainland but this has recently been resolved by author Rip Bulkeley, who following an exhaustive study of the Russian expedition concluded: “Bellingshausen was not the first commander to see the Antarctic mainland.” 

With the unveiling of these two memorials Edward Bransfield's important place in the annals of Antarctic Exploration is finally recognised.

Edward is buried in the Brighton Extra-Mural Cemetery.

Read more.

A Plaque to Sake Dean Mahomed

A plaque to Sake Dean Mahomed, the famous Brighton entrepreneur, now graces the portico of the Queens Hotel in Kings Road where, in the 19thC, he established his highly fashionable and successful Baths.

Davinder Dhillon; Cllr.Alexandra Phillips the Mayor of Brighton & Hove,
and Commander Nick May.

The project was led by the Davinder Dhillon, Deputy Lieutenant Sussex - Chairman of Chattri  Group, and funded by a public appeal and a generous contribution from Sussex Police.

Also with support from:

Dr Bert Williams MBE, Chairman of Black History Group.
Researcher - Duncan Cameron, Local historian.
Queens Hotel Manager - Michelle Doyle

A fascinating display about his life is currently on view in the Brighton Museum.

Sake Dean Mahomed

A Plaque to Margaret Bondfield MP

Britain's first female cabinet minister was commemorated today with a plaque at 14 Church Road, Hove. This follows a successful campaign by the Hove MP Peter Kyle aided by the Women's History Group and the Commemorative Plaque Panel. Unveiling was performed by Rachel Reeves MP, the author of "Women of Westminster". 

Peter was eloquent on Margaret's personal qualities which drove her from the humblest of beginnings to achieve a seat of power to alter society for the better.

Peter Kyle and Rachel Reeves

The unveiling

Margaret experienced the appalling conditions for 'living-in' shop staff at various stores in Brighton and was driven to become a member of the shop-workers' union.

She was elected to the TUC Council in 1918 and became its Chairman and an MP in 1923 and a parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Labour from 1929 to 1931.

The ceremony was closed by the Deputy Mayor Cllr. Alan Robins

A Plaque to Clementina Black

This plaque to Clementina was unveiled today at 51 Ship Street by Ms Frances O'Grady and Mrs Juliet Smith JP. Frances is the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and Juliet is the Deputy Lieutenant of East Sussex.

The unveiling

Addresses were given by Dr. Gerry Holloway of the Brighton and Hove Women's History group, which proposed and progressed the plaque; Dr. Caroline Lucas; Cllr. Nancy Platts, Leader of BHCC;  and Ms Frances O'Grady.

The unveiling was proceeded and concluded by the choir 'Women of Note' singing suffrage songs.

Clementina was, in fact, born a few doors away at 45 Ship Street which was replaced in the 1930s by the listed Post office building. For aesthetic reasons the planning department was unwilling to allow a plaque on the Post Office building. However the site finally chosen does have the advantage of high visibility.

WSPU Plaque unveiled.

The successfully crowdfunded plaque to mark the site of the WSPU offices at the Clock Tower was unveiled yesterday by Caroline Lucas MP.

Site of plaque on 'White Stuff' frontage

Suffragettes in attendance

The weather was fine, a substantial crowd was in enthusiastic attendance and the unveiling was followed by a reception at the Chapel Royal for the 200+ contributors.

For background info see: Help to honour Brighton's Suffragettes.

A Plaque to the Dalziel Brothers

A plaque was unveiled today by the City Mayor Cllr. Dee Simpson at 8 Clifton Place where the brothers wrote their joint memoir 'A Record of 50 Years Work'. 

Much of the research for the plaque was carried out by Dr. Bethan Stevens of the University of Sussex. In her words; " The Dalziels had enormous cultural power at a key moment in history, shaping the way people visualised things. They produced landmark images, including all of the many illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice books of 1865 and 1871 as well as the numerous pre-Raphaelite illustrations to Edward Moxon's landmark edition of Tennyson's Poems (1857).

The Dalziels often worked with draughtsmen, household names such as John Tenniel, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Arthur Hughes and Frederic Leighton. The final image was always a distinctly collborative production between the draughtsman and the engraver."

It is also possible that the brothers were instrumental in Lewis Carroll's choice, for 11 years, of 11 Sussex Square for his summer sojourns. 11 Sussex Square is also marked with a plaque.

A Plaque to Lt. Jacqueline Nearne

This plaque originally unveiled at a special ceremony in November 2106 has found its permanent home at Jaqueline's birthplace, 32 West Hill Street.

She moved with her family to France in 1923. When France fell, she made her way back to England  and joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry.  Nearne's fluency in French quickly brought her to the attention of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) where, in 1942, she trained as a courier for the French Resisitance.

On 25 January 1943, she was parachuted into France to work for the 'Stationer' circuit in central France and maintained contact with SOE networks in the Paris area. She carried spare parts for radios inside a cosmetics bag. After fifteen months in the field, she finally returned to Britain in April 1944.

In 1946 she played "Cat", a character based on herself, in the RAF drama-documentary School for Danger, 1948, about the wartime training and deployment of SOE operatives.

A Plaque to Minnie Turner

The first of a series of plaques planned to commemorate the centenary of a significant period in the Women's Suffrage movement was unveiled today at 13 Victoria Road. Minnie Turner ran her boarding house Sea View as both holiday destination and refuge for suffragettes recovering from imprisonment, hunger-strikes and forcible feeding.

Minnie was present exactly 100 years ago today when suffragettes marching to Parliament were violently attacked by police for six hours. Also present were several of her former guests and, in particular, her boarder, Mary Clarke, the WSPU organiser for Brighton, who later tragically died.

Minnie Turner was for 12 years the Honorary Secretary of a branch of the Brighton Women’s Liberal Association and a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In 1908, frustrated at the government’s refusal to grant women the Vote, she joined the militant WSPU.

Minnie expressed great pride that more of the suffragette leaders and speakers had stayed with her than in any other home.

The plaque was funded by the City Council with a contribution from the Brighton & Hove Heritage Commission.

Members of the Women's History Group who researched and proposed the plaque.

A Plaque to Captain Trotobas

The plaque to Captain Trotobas, unveiled at a special ceremony in the Corn Exchange in November 2016 has found its final resting place at his birthplace in North Place, Brighton.

Trotobas joined the British Army in 1933. After WW2 broke out, he served in northern France, was wounded and evacuated from Dunkirk.  Having been educated in France he spoke fluent french and, back in England, volunteered for the S.O.E. In September 1941 he was one of six agents parachuted into Vichy-controlled France.

After only a month he was arrested, but escaped in July 1942 and made his way back to Britain via Spain and Portugal. Two months later he again parachuted into France to create a new circuit,  in and around Lille. From May 1943, he began sabotage operations in which he personally participated.  On the morning of 27 November 1943 the enemy forced their way into his lodgings in Lille and in the subsequent shoot-out, Trotobas was killed instantly.

Editor's note. This plaque was ceremonially unveiled in North Place on 27 November, 2018.

A plaque to Prince Kropotkin

Following a two year campaign by students of the University of Sussex a plaque to this many-sided man was unveiled today at 8 Chesham Street, a house now occupied by a Russian historian, Mrs Barbara Seville. 

Kropotkin was a respected intellectual with a world-wide reputation and an audience that included Lenin and Tolstoy. Fascinating details of his life were revealed in addresses from Alderman Francis Tonks, Dr.Gordon Finlayson and Ph.D student Valentinos Kontoyiannis. 

Mr Kontoyiannis described Kropotkin's visit to Brighton Aquarium where he observed an upturned crab which teams of its fellow crabs were attempting to right. Kropotkin went on to write "Mutual Aid", in which he theorised that a society could be organised by individuals working in co-operation. This was in opposition to Thomas Huxley's then prevailing theories on the importance of competition in the evolutionary process.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP for Kemptown spoke of the lasting relevance of Kropotkin's ideas and philosophy.

Valentinos Kontoyiannis & Alderman Tonks

Chair of the Plaque Panel, Roger Amerena: Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP: Dr.Gordon Finlayson

Commemoration of Ernest Beal VC

The centenary of the death in action of Brightonian Ernest Beal was commemorated yesterday by the unveilings of a tablet at the war memorial and a blue plaque at his birthplace in Lewes Road.

Before the ceremony

Band of the Brigade of Ghurkas

Unveiling of the stone by the Lord Lieutenant of E. Sussex

The commemorative stone.

Last Post

The Victoria Cross Guard of Honour

Pupils from the Fairlight School 

Civic procession from St. Martin's to the birthplace

Salvation Army Band

Mace-bearer symbolising the authority of the City Mayor

Ernest Beal's Victoria Cross

Side wall of 148 Lewes Road. (Plaque unveiled by the High Sheriff of East Sussex.)

Some of the congregation

Examination of the Mace

Descendants of Ernest Beal

L-R, The High Sheriff of East Sussex, City Mayor, Chairman of the Plaque Panel and the Mace-bearer.

Help to honour Brighton's Suffragettes

Photo taken in 1914 of some Brighton Suffragettes with their parasols outside the office, selling the weekly newspaper called "The Suffragette". From left to right: Miss Reid, Mrs Goodier, Miss Gye, Mrs Brandon, Miss Rae, Mrs Bouvier (taken from Diana Atkinson's "The Suffragettes in Pictures")

In 1907 Christabel Pankhurst, who founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), with her mother Emmeline, announced at a large meeting at the Dome "the Suffragettes have their designs on Brighton".

In this centenary year of the 1918 People's Representation Act giving certain women the right to vote, please help to commemorate the Suffragettes of Brighton by raising a “blue plaque” at the location of the WSPU office. The office was one of the most active regional offices being close to the London HQ. By 1908 they had one of the first WSPU banners, which was embroidered with the Brighton coat of arms.

Mary Jane Clarke, the younger married sister of Emmeline Pankhurst, was the paid organiser of the Brighton office from 1909, when it opened at 8/9 The Quadrant, North Street near the Clock Tower.

Statues and plaques for suffrage women are appearing all over the country this centenary year (1918-2018) #Vote100 to their memory. Let's make sure Brighton doesn't miss out by making a donation at Justgiving.

For more information please visit facebook page Brighton Suffragettes #Vote100

West Blatchington windmill restoration wins award.

Watercolour by John Constable

The Grade II* listed West Blatchington windmill has been awarded the 2017 Public & Community Award from the Sussex Heritage Trust.

The  announcement  follows a £100k restoration  -  a joint project by Brighton & Hove City Council’s Property & Design Team,  Fowler Building Contractors,  Baqus Construction Consultancy Ltd and  CTP Engineers, in consultation with The Friends of West Blatchington Windmill which contributed half of the funding.

The award, a commemorative plaque, was attached to the Grade II* listed structure, at a special ceremony last week.

The judges commented: “The Mill is a fantastic heritage asset, a museum both of its own history and of windmills in general. The Friends of West Blatchington Windmill are to be commended for their effort, energy and enthusiasm in its preservation, without which it would almost certainly have been lost.

The 74- week long restoration project, led by the council’s Property and Design team, saw specialist contractors carrying out structural repairs to the fan tail and gearing mechanism, reefing stage decking and supports. 
Weatherboarding  and flint walling were also repaired and the mill and barn repainted in a traditional colour to replicate the original tarring. Existing materials were reused where possible and work was careful programmed to minimise disruption and ensure safe access for the general public attending classes in the attached barn.

West Blatchington Mill, which was beautifully illustrated by John Constable in a watercolour 1825, is open to the public on Sundays and Bank Holiday afternoons from May to September. School parties and other groups are shown round at other times by appointment.

The ABBA plaque

In Church Street.

The Brighton & Hove Commemorative Plaque Panel (CPP) was not involved in the design or siting of the new ABBA plaque.

The CPP has, since 2006, standardised on glazed ceramic plaques on account of their high legibility and resistance to weathering. The ABBA plaque appears to have an enamelled surface. This has a high gloss surface which reflects light and washes out the lettering unless the viewer carefully positions him/herself. The blue/white contrast is also poor.

A CPP plaque on Pavilion Buildings

It is also somewhat surprising that Listed Building Consent was granted. A building like the Dome could be legitimately associated with many famous people and notable events. Will other requests for plaques be refused or will the Dome end up peppered with blue spots? It was to avoid this situation that the Mir Dast plaque was sited in Pavilion Buildings, outside the Pavilion Estate.