The Local Heroes project has finished so this blog will no longer be updated. It will remain online as an archive and a place to record the deeds of our 20 amazing heroes, as well as those nominated by the public who didn’t make the final shortlist.
If you wish to contact us (the curators) or leave a comment, please do. We are still here to answer any queries you might have.
We couldn’t include all the people nominated as Local Heroes in the exhibition, and we were sure that there were more out there. We asked visitors to the exhibition if they knew of any heroes from the local area. Here are some of the suggestions we got:
Dave Kemp “Local Geologist and had a prehistoric shark named after him” (nominated by Tim Wood) Gleem “Amazing man and great work with young people” (nominated by Jacky Charman) Mr Sherwin and his dog ‘Shandy’ “Headmaster of Alverstoke Primary School 1950s-60s. Wonderful inspirational man.” (nominated byAlison Lane) John Towse “He put Alex McKee on the ‘Mary Rose’ and has dedicated his life to promoting safe diving and been inspirational in local amateur diving since the 1950s” (nominated by John Bevan) Lesley Burton “Local historian and founder member of Gosport Society. Prolific author of local history books” (nominated by Gosport Society Member) Liz Hendrick “She has provided a successful netball club for the local community. She works very hard to ensure all the children enjoy their time at the club” (nominated by Hannah Hendrick) Eva Phelan “She taught thousands of children and adults to dance and keep fit for over 70 years” (nominated by E Russell) Susan Chambers “I have lived inGosportfor last 3-4 years, I meet her. She helps all kind of people out, never thinks of herself, she always comes last everytime. I think she ought to get a medal for her work” (nominated by Adan) Rachel Selmon “Because she fights for peoples’ rights” (nominated by Molly May) William James Fielder “Because he fought in the World War 2 and survived, he helped people survive!” (nominated by Niamh Glackin Brown) Andrew May “First commoner to file by the Queen Mother’s coffin inWestminster, and local charity man” (nominated by ?) Winifred Pike “My nan is the most caring person I know. She always has a smile on her face and brightens up every day. Her personality and thoughtfulness are an inspiration” (nominated by Charlotte Ratcliffe) Graham & Juliette Hewitt “Do good work for MS and other organisations” (nominated by G A Brett) Leonard Newbold “A young sailor who was on the ‘Campbeltown’ and survived and was decorated for the raid on St Nazare” (nominated by W Saunders) Dennis Godden “Died 15/8/44 whilst on a bombing raid inGermany. He was 20 years of age and came fromGosport” (nominated by J Oliver) Ada May Smith “Founder of the Sunshine School of Dancing in 1926 – for teaching so many people to dance, raising so much for charity, working with E.N.S.A.” (nominated by Martin Young) Reg Coates “Because he does so much for charity” (nominated by ?) Mary Tillman “Mary runs a guide company (for girls with SN). Was a teacher and a Sunday School teacher – also so much for children ofGosport” (nominated by ?) Dee Caffari “Twice around the world – SOLO!!” (nominated by R Hodgson) Graham Hewitt “For all the love and help to disabled people” (nominated by ?)If you know of any local people that you think should be on this list which we’ll keep on file at the Gosport Community Museum Collection, please submit them via the Comments Form on this blog.
Even though the Local Heroes exhibition is now closed to the public, we’ll still be updating the blog. Keep checking back here to see more about our 20 heroes, to see the panels from the exhibition, to find out who else was nominated before and during the exhibition and much more.
We’ll be adding photographs, facts and links. Please get in touch with us through the Comments link if you’d like to find out more about our heroes or if there’s anything you think we should add to this blog.
Jacky Charman, the hero voted by visitors to the exhibition as the Greatest Local Hero, has been interviewed by the Portsmouth News. View the article here…
…Jacky Charman, Rowner Community Development Officer has won the public vote with 148 votes out of a total 568 cast.
Congratulations to Jacky, and to all our wonderful heroes past and present who are part of the exhibition. Just one more week to come and find out about them – it’s open, free to the public, at Gosport Gallery until Saturday 9th April.
Today is the last chance to vote for your favourite hero of the Local Heroes exhibition. At 4pm, the Gallery doors will close and at 5pm, we’ll announce who of our 20 amazing nominees has won the public vote.
We’ll post the results on the doors of Westbury Manor Museum at Fareham, and at Gosport Gallery; we’re doing an announcement at Gosport Discovery Centre (main library building) and it’ll be announced on Portsmouth Live!@5 on Portsmouth Live TV. We’ll also update the blog, so those outside Gosport don’t miss out.
Don’t worry if you haven’t had a chance to visit yet, there’s still a week to go before the exhibition closes for good. We hope to see you at the Gallery before next Saturday!
We’ve been asked to publish a full list of the 20 Heroes chosen to feature in the exhibition. These incredible people were nominated by the public and selected by a Community Panel. The exhibition features photographs, sound recordings and iconic objects relating to these Heroes – but it’s only open until the 9th April.
Do come along to Gosport Gallery and have your say…
| Ray Reece | Round-the-world cyclist | Gosport |
| Nat Gonella | Jazz trumpeter and band leader | Gosport |
| Norman Holbrook VC | WW1 submarine captain | Gosport |
| John Deane | Diver and inventor who discovered the Mary Rose | Gosport |
| James Lind | Naval surgeon who led the way in curing scurvy | Gosport |
| Henry Cort | Inventor and entrepreneur | Gosport |
| Vic Hutfield | Engineer and inventor | Gosport |
| Jacky Charman | Rowner Community Development Officer | Gosport |
| Maj. Robert Smith-Barry | ‘The man who taught the air forces of the world to fly’ | Gosport |
| Mayor Bob Nobes | Town planner who revolutionised post-war housing | Gosport |
| Peter Twiss | Recordbreaking pilot | Fareham |
| Alice James | Local historian | Fareham |
| Chris Draper | Archaeologist and educator | Fareham |
| William Price | Philanthropist | Fareham |
| Hon. Mrs Mary Victor Bruce | Aviation and powerboat pioneer | Fareham |
| Mary Wilkins Ellis | WW2 pilot in the ATA | Fareham |
| Tony Alexander | Lollipop man | Fareham |
| Patricia Kelly-Blyth | Foster carer | Fareham |
| Sir William Randal Cremer | Nobel Peace Prize winner | Fareham |
| Tommy Green | 1932 Olympic gold medallist | Fareham |
Peter Twiss' autobiography
We have just received a lovely letter from former World Ultimate Speed record holder and Local Hero Peter Twiss and his wife Jane. They have not been able to visit Gosport Gallery but wanted to wish the project well.
In 1956, Peter flew the Fairey Delta FD2 across Fareham and Gosport at 1,132mph – becoming the fastest person on the planet, the first person EVER to exceed 1,000mph and the first person ever to travel faster than the earth itself rotates – literally “Faster than the Sun” – which was the title for his fascinating autobiography.
Peter now lives locally in Titchfield. You can find out more about Peter Twiss as well as the other Local Heroes by visiting Gosport Gallery before the 9th April.
Remember, your last chance to vote for your favourite Local Hero will be the 31st March – so make your vote count by visiting the exhibition today!
We’ve been asked to add more information on Vic Hutfield, the aviation pioneer from Gosport who built his own plane in his garage in the very earliest days of unaided flight.
Vic Hutfield's RAS monoplane (c) Hutfield family
Hutfield built his famous RAS monoplane in 1909, the same year that Bleriot became the first person to fly over the English Channel.
Vic’s family have collected a lot of photographs, audio material, press interviews, video and written memories and have made them available at http://www.hutfield.info/.
If you would like a copy of the full video which is currently unavailable on the website, please contact us through this blog or the comments form at www.hants.gov.uk/localheroes and we can pass your details on to the Hutfield family.
As part of the visit to the exhibition, we’re asking visitors to vote for their favourite of the 20 Local Heroes featured.
Since the exhibition left Fareham, we’ve held a half-way count and we can reveal that the two front-runners are both living community heroes, one from Fareham and one from Gosport. It seems people have been turning out in their droves to support their local champions.
Gosport and Fareham are almost neck-and-neck in terms of number of votes cast.
Why not come along and judge for yourself who should be named the greatest hero of them all? The final results will be announced on April 1st at 5pm on Portsmouth Live TV, posted on the door of Gosport Gallery and announced at Westbury Manor Museum in Fareham.
Getting the panels up, originally uploaded by gosportfarehamheroes.
Tim, the ever-dependable Premises Supervisor gets drilling to get Local Heroes up and ready to open on Saturday.
Getting ready for Local Heroes, originally uploaded by gosportfarehamheroes.
Hard at work, the Local Heroes team prepares Gosport Gallery for the opening of the exhibition on the 5th March.
It’s looking great so far, and with even more to see than at Fareham, we think we’ll do these 20 amazing people justice.
Come along and see us – it’s free admission. We’re open Mon-Sat 10am-4pm.
Local Heroes has been a huge success at Westbury Manor Museum in Fareham, and now moves to the second leg of its journey – Gosport Gallery. Work is currently underway setting up for the opening on Saturday 5th March (10am-4pm). The exhibition will then be open – free admission – Monday to Saturday, 10am-4pm until the 9th April.
Map of central Gosport showing Gosport Gallery
Gosport Gallery is a bigger space than the gallery at Westbury Manor Museum, so expect some additions. We’ve added more iconic objects such as the largest collection of Nat Gonella LPs in the world, stunning Victorian watercolours of the earliest finds from the Mary Rose and some tongue-tangling rap lyrics, written especially for this exhibition by the Rowner Music Lounge. Visitors will also be able to add their own Local Heroes suggestions to our archive and of course the visitor vote continues to see whether Gosport or Fareham can claim the greatest hero of them all.
We hope to see you at Gosport Gallery during March as it’s only open for one month and isn’t travelling anywhere else after that.
If you’ve been into the exhibition or seen the photo in the Portsmouth News here, you’ll have seen the bicycle ridden around the world by Ray Reece in 1971. Sadly Ray passed away in 2009 but his widow Sally and his friend Eric have been helping us find out more about this exceptional feat.
Eric Thomas has kindly told us a lot more about the components of Ray’s bicycle, for those cycling enthusiasts out there:
| Frame | Ellis Briggs Intl (no transfers as they refused to sponsor him) | Yorkshire, UK |
| Chainset | Stronglight Cotterless | France |
| Pedals | Lyotard | France |
| Gears | Cyclo-Benelux | UK |
| Bars / stem / seat pin / toe clips | GB Component | UK |
| Saddle | Brooks Leather | UK |
| Brakes & levers | Weinmann | Switzerland |
| Wheels | 27” x 1.25” steel rims, large flange alloy hubs | UK |
| Mudguards | Bluemels | UK |
| Chain / 5-speed block | either Sedis
or Regina |
France
Italy |
The exhibition has made the papers! There’s some great coverage and a picture of Erica Munro (the Gosport Museum Officer) with some Ray Reece exhibits.
Ray was a Gosport man who cycled around the world in 1971. He was the first man to do so and his feat got him into the Guinness Book of World Records. His widow, Sally, has kindly lent us a lot of the things Ray took with him on his journey – including his bicycle – and his amazing story is told in the exhibition along with 19 other remarkable local people.
The story appeared in the Portsmouth News on January 27th, and is available online here.
William Price, who in 1721 left money for a charitable school to be set up in Fareham in his name, is one of our 20 finalists. Prices Grammar School in Fareham (the direct descendent of Price’s charity school) carried this philanthropist’s name until 1989.
Neither Hampshire County Council Museum Services nor the Society of Old Priceans have a picture of this man. In the course of our research for the Local Heroes exhibition, we were unable to find a likeness of Price. Do you have one, or know where one might be? We would be very grateful if anyone can point us in the direction of a portrait of this man whose name, if not his face, is still held in such high regard.
Find out more about William Price at the Society of Old Priceans website here. To contact us, please either leave a comment or click the ‘Comments Form’ link at the bottom of this page.
20 heroes were chosen from Gosport and Fareham by members of the public. Keep checking back on this blog to find out more about the finalists, such as…
Lt N D Holbrook VC (c)Royal Navy Submarine Museum
NORMAN DOUGLAS HOLBROOK : visit the exhibition to learn about his incredible heroism which earned this submariner the Victoria Cross during World War 1. He even has an Australian town named after him! See his Royal Navy jacket and a replica VC made for him by his fellow sailors during the Navy’s campaign in the Dardanelles in 1914. You can find out more about him at the website for Holbrooks Printers in Portsmouth where he was once Chairman. http://home.btconnect.com/holbrooks/history.php
Local Heroes is now open at Westbury Manor Museum (Fareham) until 26th Feb. It’s free to go in, and the museum has a great café too if you want to stay for a while.
Opening hours are Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm.
Come along and vote who you think is the greatest hero of all the 20 local people featured in the exhibition. The winner will be announced on April 1st while the exhibition is at Gosport Gallery.
At the start of Local Heroes project, we made a video explaining what it was all about. It’s on YouTube, but you can also now see it here on the blog…
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