Blue Plaques

Ernest Joyce (1875 – 1940) Antarctic Explorer

Ernest was a highly decorated explorer awarded the Albert Medal for his bravery during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and the Polar Medal with 4 bars by the Royal Geographical Society, only one other person having achieved this.

Born in Felpham in 1875, his father was a coastguard living in one of the fifteen cottages in Admiralty Road. Ernest began his naval career at the age of 15, when he joined Captain Scott's 1901 Discovery Expedition as an able seaman.

Barbara Harmer (1953 – 2011) First Woman Supersonic Airline Pilot

On 25 March 1993, Barbara made history flying as first officer on a BA Concorde from London’s Heathrow to New York’s JFK airport.

Her family moved to Felpham when she was five years old, left the local school to become a hairdresser shortly after deciding to get involved within the Air industry, from controller at Gatwick to becoming a flying instructor at Goodwood Airport, Barbara then spent the next two years studying by correspondence course for her commercial pilot’s  licence, passing in 1982.

William Blake (1757 – 1827) Painter & Poet

Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, William Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced".

William Hayley (1745 – 1820) Poet, biographer

Born in Chichester, William Hayley was sent to Eton in 1757 and then to Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1762. In 1767 he left Cambridge and went to live in London. His private means enabled Hayley to live on his patrimonial estate at Eartham, Sussex and he retired there in 1774.

The location of this house in Eartham is now occupied by the Great Ballard School. In 1800 Hayley also lost his natural son, Thomas Alphonso Hayley, to whom he was devotedly attached. He had been a pupil of John Flaxman's, to whom Hayley's Essay on Sculpture (1800) is addressed.

Candidate for a future Blue Plaque Cyril Jackson (1746-1819) Dean of Christ Church and tutor to George IV. Currently being researched

SELECTION OF IMAGES & TEXT FROM FUTURE INTENDED PROSPECTUS FOR A BLUE PLAQUE FOR CYRIL JACKSON... Kevin Watson FVCS .....Another source of happiness for William Blake at Felpham was the natural beauty which surrounded him, and which the transplanted Londoner keenly enjoyed. 'A cottage which is more beautiful than I had thought it, and more convenient; a perfect model for cottages,' Blake had written of his new home on his first arrival. It is still standing and is on the southern or seaward side of the village.