Introduction News and acquisitions
News
Ernest Grant Longman
Grant was born on 18th March 1932 and died peacefully on Sunday 21st March after
a six-months'debilitating illness. He is survived by Maureen whom he married in 1957, and their two children.
He was a local historian whose newspaper articles and talks made his name familiar to many.
He was co-founder with Bryen Wood of Bushey Museum Trust. For many years they
were joint Curators.
Born in Watford, Grant lived in Bushey and attended Watford Grammar School.
He had wanted to become a biology teacher, but because of poor health,
his father persuaded him to enter the Civil Service.
He spent forty years at the Treasury, and in later life gained a master's degree in
historical geography with a dissertation on the agrarian history of SW Herts,
published in 1977 as A Corner of England's Garden.
Grant made a special study of Hubert von Herkomer. In the late 1970s, he helped
to link Bushey and Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria, near Herkomer's birthplace.
He also wrote a series of booklets on Bushey's social and art history.
Grant was a painter, a musician and composer, a knowledgeable naturalist, a local historian
and prodigious author and lecturer. Until shortly before his death he was collaborating with
Professor Tom Williamson of the University of East Anglia on a history of Hertfordshire,
due to be published shortly.
He was an enthusiastic motor-cyclist, presenting a somewhat intimidating figure on arrival
to give a lecture. On the occasion of a visit to a girls' school, the headmistress
saw him arrive on his powerful motor-bike, in black leathers and helmet.
Horrified, she demanded to know where he was from and what his business was.
When he said he was from the Treasury and had come to give a natural
history lecture, her attitude changed.
Grant's Baptist faith was a dominant force in his life.
He ran a youth club at Beechen Grove Baptist Church and later was a prison visitor
at The Mount at Bovingdon.
Grant was a gentle man with an endearing blend of the scholarly and humorous,
a twinkle in the eye never far away. In the early 1980s, he spent a few uncharacteristic
weekends on an extended pub crawl with fellow local historians
Bryen Wood and Tim Groves. The results were published by the Bushey Museum
Trust as From the Wheatsheaf to the Windmill. Many
of the pubs it featured, like two of its authors, are sadly no more.
The Museum has just been given a painting by Marguerite Frobisher of a
house in Hartspring Lane, Aldenham close to the border with Bushey. The painting was commissioned by Kathleen Wallhouse and it depicts the family home. It was donated by Mr Frears, her son-in-law, after the death and at the express wish of his wife Barbara, Kathleen Wallhouse's daughter. The Wallhouse family had moved around quite frequently, as the father was a water engineer, but they particularly enjoyed living near Bushey.
Kathleen Wallhouse had trained as an art teacher, and was keen that her daughters, Barbara, and her elder sister Gwyneth, should also develop their artistic talents, so lessons with Marguerite Frobisher were arranged
Mr Frears' wife had many memories of Marguerite Frobisher. Amongst them was that the latter had a fear of thunderstorms, and would remove her hairpins whenever there was a storm, fearful of the metal pins attracting lightning! Apparently when painting in watercolour she would always call for 'more water' and her pet parrot, Polly, adopted the cry 'more water! more water!' It was also known to wolf whistle - presumably picked up from American soldiers who were stationed locally. He said that people used to hear the parrot wolf whistling and wonder about this little old lady!
Mr Frears,who now lives in Bath, did not know where the house was, but
thanks to some detective work by Nik Oakley in 1940s telephone
directories, we were able to track it down.
The Cherries, by Marguerite Frobisher
Ernest Grant Longman
Grant was born on 18th March 1932 and died peacefully on Sunday 21st March after a six-months'debilitating illness. He is survived by Maureen whom he married in 1957, and their two children.
He was a local historian whose newspaper articles and talks made his name familiar to many. He was co-founder with Bryen Wood of Bushey Museum Trust. For many years they were joint Curators.
Born in Watford, Grant lived in Bushey and attended Watford Grammar School. He had wanted to become a biology teacher, but because of poor health, his father persuaded him to enter the Civil Service. He spent forty years at the Treasury, and in later life gained a master's degree in historical geography with a dissertation on the agrarian history of SW Herts, published in 1977 as A Corner of England's Garden.
Grant made a special study of Hubert von Herkomer. In the late 1970s, he helped to link Bushey and Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria, near Herkomer's birthplace.
He also wrote a series of booklets on Bushey's social and art history. Grant was a painter, a musician and composer, a knowledgeable naturalist, a local historian and prodigious author and lecturer. Until shortly before his death he was collaborating with Professor Tom Williamson of the University of East Anglia on a history of Hertfordshire, due to be published shortly.
He was an enthusiastic motor-cyclist, presenting a somewhat intimidating figure on arrival to give a lecture. On the occasion of a visit to a girls' school, the headmistress saw him arrive on his powerful motor-bike, in black leathers and helmet. Horrified, she demanded to know where he was from and what his business was. When he said he was from the Treasury and had come to give a natural history lecture, her attitude changed.
Grant's Baptist faith was a dominant force in his life. He ran a youth club at Beechen Grove Baptist Church and later was a prison visitor at The Mount at Bovingdon.
Grant was a gentle man with an endearing blend of the scholarly and humorous, a twinkle in the eye never far away. In the early 1980s, he spent a few uncharacteristic weekends on an extended pub crawl with fellow local historians Bryen Wood and Tim Groves. The results were published by the Bushey Museum Trust as From the Wheatsheaf to the Windmill. Many of the pubs it featured, like two of its authors, are sadly no more.
The Museum has just been given a painting by Marguerite Frobisher of a house in Hartspring Lane, Aldenham close to the border with Bushey. The painting was commissioned by Kathleen Wallhouse and it depicts the family home. It was donated by Mr Frears, her son-in-law, after the death and at the express wish of his wife Barbara, Kathleen Wallhouse's daughter. The Wallhouse family had moved around quite frequently, as the father was a water engineer, but they particularly enjoyed living near Bushey.
Kathleen Wallhouse had trained as an art teacher, and was keen that her daughters, Barbara, and her elder sister Gwyneth, should also develop their artistic talents, so lessons with Marguerite Frobisher were arranged
Mr Frears' wife had many memories of Marguerite Frobisher. Amongst them was that the latter had a fear of thunderstorms, and would remove her hairpins whenever there was a storm, fearful of the metal pins attracting lightning! Apparently when painting in watercolour she would always call for 'more water' and her pet parrot, Polly, adopted the cry 'more water! more water!' It was also known to wolf whistle - presumably picked up from American soldiers who were stationed locally. He said that people used to hear the parrot wolf whistling and wonder about this little old lady!
Mr Frears,who now lives in Bath, did not know where the house was, but thanks to some detective work by Nik Oakley in 1940s telephone directories, we were able to track it down.
The Cherries, by Marguerite Frobisher