An African slave buried at Brighton

The grave of 12-year-old Tom Highflyer is not easy to find.  It is amongst the steep, dark overgrown slopes of the Woodvale extra-mural cemetery at Brighton.  I had heard of him and wanted to visit the grave and pay my respects which I did this morning. The headstone reads  IN MEMORY OF TOM M.S. HIGHFLYER RESCUED FROM…

A SUSSEX KIWI REMEMBERED

Today I attended the ANZAC service at the Cross of Sacrifice at Eastbourne’s Ocklynge Cemetery.  There was a short but moving service and a Māori hymn was sung. Wreaths were laid at the foot of the soaring Cross-of Sacrifice, which indicates a cemetery has more than forty war-graves – this cemetery has over a hundred.   After…

The War Memorial that Moved

 In the 1950s my great-uncle Reginald Gordon took photographs of a memorial. The negatives were recently developed and I realised they were taken at Birling Gap near East Dean (East Sussex) and show the Robertson War Memorial.  The memorial was erected by the National Trust to commemorate the gift of £50,000 by William Alexander Robertson,…

Reserved for Greater Misery

Henry Lushington is remembered at St Mary’s Parish Church, Eastbourne with a massive memorial which includes his bust. Henry’s life was short but action packed.  He was the son of Mary and the Reverend Henry Lushington,  the vicar of Eastbourne and resident of the Manor House.  In 1754 at the tender age of sixteen, Henry left Sussex ,…