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Slemsman Index: H

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Reginald Hills

Reginald John Taylor Hills

1913-c.1914

The eldest of two boys, Reginald John Taylor Hills born in 1896 in Bromley, Kent, to John Masters and Eliza Beatrice Hills.  He and his brother, Noel, initially grew up in Bromley but sometime after 1901 his family moved to Windsor. In 1908, when he was twelve, Reginald, a pupil of the Royal Free Schools, was given the first Windsor Municipal Scholarship, worth £75 per year.  By 1910, Reginald was a student at Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), where he was reported to his come first in his class and to have been awarded the prestigious Quintanin prize.  In 1911, Reginald’s exam results allowed him to be awarded a County Scholarship, to be tenable at Windsor County Boys School (later Windsor Grammar School.)

 

Reginald was also an early member of the Scouts and a founding member of the 1st Windsor Scout Troop. In 1911 he was one of the first in the district to achieve the Kings Scout Award, which had been introduced in 1909 and remains the highest possible award a Scout can achieve.  In 1913, he was made provisional Assistant-Scoutmaster of the 1st Windsor troop and on his departure to Manchester took a similar role in a local troop there.

Reginald left Windsor in 1913 to attend St Anselm Hall, with the intention to prepare for Matriculation and a University education. However, the First World War changed everything. By November 1914, despite being underage, Reginald had joined the 1st Life Guards. As far as can be ascertained, he never went back to education. After the war, Reginald remained with the Life Guards, and during his time there published work in a variety of places including the Cavalry Journal, the Dragon and the Boys Own paper.  He also his published several books, including ‘Something about a Solider’ (1934), on which the Sunday Times wrote ‘Corporal Major Hills… has done his job well’  

In his personal life, Reginald married Gladys Pickett in Hertfordshire in 1919 and they had two daughters, Yvonne and Jacqueline.

Reginald retired from the Life Guards in the 1930s but, following the outbreak of World War II, was given an emergency commission as quarter master in the Cavalry in December 1939.  In October 1940, he was transferred to the GCHQ Liaison Regiment (Phantom) as the 1st Quartermaster, a role given to him against the wishes of the Regiment’s commander Colonel Hopkinson and kept, according to Reginald, thanks to his ability to purchase waterproof clothing for the regiments motor cyclists.  In February 1941, Reginald was granted command of the ‘HQ’ Squadron and from October 1944, was the commander of ‘L’ Squadron.

 

After the war, Reginald published ‘Phantom was there’, which tells the story of Phantom Squadron.  Several further books, including ‘The Life Guards’, followed. Reginald died in Winchester in 1976, at the age of 80.

Hills_Snip.jpg

George Arthur Heard

1919-c.1922

B.A. Modern History

George Arthur Heard was born in Wanstead, Essex, in 1891. He was the eldest son of Arthur Heard but, after his father’s early death, he and his younger brother Leslie were raised by their mother Florence, a stationer and toy dealer.   George had intended to prepare for ordination prior to the First World War, but instead found himself in the R.A.M.C (Royal Army Medical Corps), serving with the 46th Field Ambulance.  After the end of the war, George became a student at the University of Manchester, studying Modern History, and was recorded as a resident of St Anselm Hall in 1921.

 

On graduating, George completed his theological training at the London College of Divinity and was appointed curate of St. Andrew’s, Streatham, in 1923, after which he was curate at Byfleet, Surrey. In 1929, George was given the living of St. Andrews, Thornhill Square, Islington. In a surviving description of the parish’s situation, he noted that the church had managed in 1934 to end the year without a deficit for the first time but also that as families moved away and teachers moved to new districts it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a congregation.

 

Shortly after his move to St. Andrew’s George was joined by his mother who made a significant contribution to the church’s women’s work. When she died in 1932, George’s Slems contemporary Thomas Ralph was one of several vicars who contributed to the funeral.  In 1935, George married Mable Price, with whom he had two sons.

 

Between 1940 and 1948, George was the rector of Moringthorpe, Norfolk and from 1948 to 1961 was rector of Willand, Devon.  George died in Exeter, Devon, in February 1976, at the age of 84. He was outlived by Mable, who died in 1997 at the age of 91.

George Heard

Thomas Heath

c.1920-c.1922

Thomas Heath was born in High Wycome, Buckinghamshire, in 1898, and was the second youngest of eight children born to Charles Heath, a chair maker, and Ada (nee Jackson.)  He grew up at Shaftesbury Avenue, High Wycombe, with his parents and his seven siblings.  Later his niece, Marjorie, and his stepmother Martha also joined the family.

Thomas served in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry from September 1916. Just a few weeks after he had joined the Army Thomas’ elder brother Charles, who had been in the Royal Engineers, was killed in action. He was 21 years old.  Thomas himself received gas wounds in September 1918.

Thomas joined the University of Manchester in 1920 and was a resident of St Anselm Hall at the in 1921.  Having graduated in 1922 with a B.A. Thomas completed his ordination training at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He was made deacon in 1924 and priest in 1925. Thomas’ first appointment was curate of St Thomas’, Werneth, in Oldham, Manchester.  In 1927, he received a new curacy, this time to Bickenhall with Marston Green, Birmingham. 

After serving in Birmingham for two years Thomas was sent to South Africa to perform chaplain duty under the Rector of King William’s Town, in the Diocese of Grahamstown, with a specific duty to the Diocesan Hostel for Boys. He departed England in October 1929 on the Saxon. Although he returned for periodic visits, Thomas served the rest of his ministry in South Africa.  He married Ruth Parsons in 1934 and had at least two children.

Thomas Heath
Rev Montague Holmes_edited.jpg

Montague Holmes

Gartness Hostel 1919-1921

St Anselm Hall 1921-1922

Montague Holmes was born in Brimington, Derbyshire, in 1895. He grew up in the village with his parents John and Frances and his younger brother Frederick.  Montague’s father, John, ran the family butcher’s shop in the High Street, which he had inherited from Frances’ father. As a young man, Montague attended Chesterfield Grammar School although little is known about his time there.  During the 1st World War Montague served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the King’s Royal Rifles. In November 1918, at the Brimington Thanksgiving and Memorial Service, it was Montague who read the Roll Call of 750 Names of local men serving in the Army and Navy.

 

On leaving the Army, Montague passed through the Knutsford scheme to attend the University of Manchester, initially being a student at Gartness before transferring to St Anselm in the 1921 merger.

 

Montague was ordained as a deacon at Newport Cathedral in July 1925, with his first appointment being Holy Trinity Church, Abergavenny, where he served as curate under Canon David Weatherill.  In 1930, Montague returned to his home county of Derbyshire, where he was licenced to the curacy of Pleasley and given the additional appointment of priest-in-charge of Christ Church, New Houghton.  This was followed an appointment as Vicar of St Mark’s Mosborough from 1936 to 1959. Whilst there, in 1952, he gained local notoriety for failing to arrive at the wedding of Harry Brammah and Shelia Wilson, which he was supposed to be officiating, the local vicar being away camping with the Boy Scouts. He later apologised, saying “I am terribly grieved to have caused so much pain.”

 

Montague’s final appointment was the living of St. Peter’s, Burton Pidsea and Humbledon with St. Lawarence Elsternwick, to which he was appointed in 1958. In 1964, Montague retired to a bungalow in Worthing. He later moved to a nearby nursing home, where he died in September 1970.

Montague Holmes

Thomas Henry Houghton

1919-1921

Thomas was born in 1892 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, the second child of five children born to Arthur William Houghton and Martha Kate Willis. His father was a priest, and Curate of Aldeburgh at the time of Thomas’ birth. In 1894, the family moved to Trowbridge, Wiltshire, where Arthur was Curate of Holy Trinity Church. During their time there Thomas’ younger siblings Kathleen and John were born. In 1899, a new appointment for Arthur as Secretary to the South-Western District of the Church Pastoral Aid Society in Bristol meant a further move for the family. Whilst in Bristol Thomas’ youngest sibling, Eva, was born.  The family moved again in 1901 when Arthur was given the position of Vicar of St. Stephens, Elton, Bury, Lancashire.

 

During their time in Bury, Thomas and his older brother Arthur were enrolled for a short period at Bury Grammar School, from January 1904. The boys left within a year (Thomas in July and Arthur at Christmas) and were probably then educated at home.

 

During the First World War all three Houghton brothers (Arthur, Thomas and John) served in the Royal Marines Medical Unit. Whilst Thomas and John survived the War, Arthur was badly injured in December 1917 in an accident when he boiled what he thought was Water but transpired to be Water and Petrol. He was taken to the 48th Casualty Clearing Station where he died the following day.

 

Thomas was discharged from the Army in March 1919 and became a member of St Anselm Hall in October 1919, a date which probably coincided with the start of his studies at the University of Manchester.  Ultimately, however, Thomas did not take his degree at Manchester but left St Anselm Hall in June 1921 and obtained a B.A. at Durham. There he was a resident of St. John’s College. Having completed a diploma in theology at the University of Durham in 1924, Thomas was ordained and served for a year as his father’s Curate at St. Stephen’s, being particularly noted for his work with the boy scouts, before offering for missionary work.

 

As a missionary, Thomas volunteered to serve the Isoko people, in modern day Nigeria, responding to a call to fill a gap created by the senior missionary having a breakdown and several of his colleagues dying of blackwater fever (a complication of malaria.)  Shortly after his arrival, however, Thomas also succumbed to Blackwater fever and he died on 18th March 1927.

Thomas Houghton
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