This starts by considering some puzzles set some years ago about the whereabouts of "The Beeches" on the edge of Wandsworth Common, and an illustrated letter dated 20 December 1877 about a play being performed in a nearby school.
The puzzles are finally solved! We fill out biographical information about the writer/illustrator of the letter, and his illustrious family...
We explores the history of the school and its remarkable head teacher, who actively campaigned to save Wandsworth Common in the 1860s...his wanderlust and missionary zeal leads to his death in Uruguay
Some extraordinary alumni of this school... including the tragic story of a Senior Wrangler ... and his no-less brilliant sister - who was among the first to model airflow over plane wings during WWI and went on to develop the mathematics that still underlies the study of epidemics, as used today in modelling the spread Covid...
And we conclude with the extraordinary story of an enslaved slave prince brought from Africa by Henry Morton Stanley (he of the famous line "Dr Livingstone, I presume?).
And almost certainly quite a lot more on the way.
I came across this story completely by chance. I have been exploring the life and times of the natural history artist Edwin Wilson, who had grown up in "The Beeches" on Trinity Road. I discovered that he (probably) and certain of his brothers (definitely) had been educated at Halbrake School, Park Road (now Elsynge Road).
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Philip Boys (aka "HistoryBoys")