Original piece of Horsham’s history revealed by author
Horsham author John Snelling has what could be one of the only surviving original orders of service from the town’s VE Day thanksgiving.
John recalls attending two church services at Horsham Parish Church for Victory in Europe on May 8, 1945.
He said: “I still have the orders of service. The first one appears to be the Horsham Urban District Coucil’s creation and the second one the work of the vicar, the Rev Reginald W.D. Lee, who found a suitable quote from Tennyson for his leaflet.”
The vicar’s leaflet makes reference to ‘when fighting in Europe shall cease’ and quotes Tennyson’s poem, Ring Out, Wild Bells, while the order of service includes the National Anthem and is entitled A Service of Thanksgiving on the Cessation of Hostilities in Europe.
John said: “As only people attending the services would have received an order of service, there may not be many still around.”
A further service, Thanksgiving for Victory and Freedom from Fear, took place on May 13, including an address by Philip Tharp, the headmaster of Collyer’s School.
John said: “It’s interesting that all orders of service modestly omit to include the vicar’s name.
“Trained as a priest at Mirfield in Yorkshire, he arrived in Horsham in 1934 after valuable service in the Diocese of York. Sadly, he died in office in the winter of 1953.”
John makes passing references to Mr Lee and his son Martin in his book, Mixed Fruit from a Sussex Tree. This little bit of history with a personal touch is a unique insight into the changing face of Horsham over the years, through the eyes of a life-long resident whose family has lived in Horsham for generations.
John tells of his close-knit family and his upbringing as a ‘cradle Anglican’, his time at Collyer’s Grammar School and onwards to Cambridge, where he read English.
He also reveals how his first entry into working life was as an editor with London book publishers Cassell, which was at the time publishing Winston Churchill’s memoirs - and John got to meet the man himself.
But his working life in the arts took a dramatic twist to science instead, when he went to work for the firm Ciba, later Ciba Geigy, in Horsham, and he worked his way up to a top post before retiring.
Mixed Fruit from a Sussex Tree is not merely an autobiography, it is an eclectic mix of musings on life, poems, fictional tales and more.
Christina Maude, wife of former Horsham MP Francis Maude, in a preface to the book, says: “As a record of vanished times, small scale and local, it will be an ornament to any social history collection, and it fulfils an important role in the fast-disappearing narrative on which future historians and biographers will come to rely.”
The range of this collection is impressive, encompassing social comedy, local history, the use of different voices and some subtle and moving poetry.
There are pen-portraits of great men and women who made a largely unsung difference to many lives and it serves as a record of vanished times.
Mixed Fruit from a Sussex Tree is available from booksellers for £20.