You’ll never believe who I just saw…! Part 1
Did you see Bing Crosby having a drink at the Eclipse pub (now Prezzo) or Michael Caine driving his car ALF 1E through Egham? Some of our museum correspondents did!
The current exhibition ‘Location, Location, Location‘ includes a gallery of over 50 film and television people who have lived or stayed in our local area since the first film was made here some 90 years ago. This has attracted the interest of visitors keen to share all the celebrities they’ve seen in the area, even only once.
This article, Part 1 of 2, takes their suggestions and looks at many of the other famous people who have visited here briefly, or lived in Egham, Egham Hythe, Runnymede meadows and Englefield Green during the same 90-year period. Part 2 looks at the areas of Thorpe and Virginia Water.
For famous residents in earlier years see our Historic Egham timeline.
Egham
Beryl Cook, nee Lansley, the artist known for her exuberant postcard-style art, was born in Egham on 10 September 1926. Her parents separated when she was 4 and she moved to Reading with her mother.
Joe Slark, from Egham, was a professional boxer who was active between 1929 and 1941.
In 1998 the girl band B*witched shared a two-bedroom house in Egham.
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother visited Egham Museum on 5 December 1980. (Find out more about this and other Museum history in our 50th Anniversary Film.)
Egham Museum, P2363
Film star Will Smith was seen tucking into a chicken spinach salad in Prezzo at the base of Egham Hill in June 2017.
Surrey and England cricketers Zafar Ansari and Matt Dunn (England Under 19 team) began their careers as Colts with Egham Cricket Club, Matt having been born in Egham and Zafar a former pupil of St John’s Beaumont School. Egham Cricket Club has also hosted 4 benefit games; for Monty Lynch, Ian Greig, David Ward and Alec Stewart. The Alec Stewart game famously ended in a tie when, with the scores level, Alec Stewart and the Surrey team invited all the youngsters watching to assist them in the field and the last few balls were played out with over 100 fielders on the pitch.
The Duke of Kent formally opened the new Orbit Leisure Centre in Egham on 5th March 2019.
Strode’s College boasts famous alumni such as Paul Casey professional golfer, Adrian Genziani Olympic rower, members of Hard-Fi rock band, Steve Lillywhite CBE record producer (U2 etc.), Aubrey Manning zoologist and broadcaster, Dennis Pacey footballer, Mark Stephens CBE lawyer and broadcaster and Timothy J. G. Harris, historian. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited as part of the school’s Tercentenary in 2004.
Egham Hythe
Magna Carta School has produced: Alice Upcott and Edward Upcott who were part of Spelbound, which won Britain’s Got Talent on UK TV in 2010 and Harvey Elliott, a Footballer for Liverpool FC who broke the record for the youngest player in the Premier League when he came on for Fulham FC against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 88th minute.
Runnymede
The Runnymede Pageant of 1934 was attended by some 90,000 people including the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) and the Duke and Duchess of York (the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth).
The current Queen visited Runnymede in 1953 to unveil the Air Forces Memorial and again in 1965, with the Kennedy family, to open The Kennedy Memorial. More recently, the Queen attended the 800th commemoration of the sealing of Magna Carta at Runnymede in June 2015.
Englefield Green
Holcombe Douglas “Hopper” Read (1910-2000) was an English cricketer who played in one Test in 1935 when he was regarded as the fastest bowler in the world. His employers subsequently threatened to sack him if he continued to play 3-day matches. Apart from one appearance for Marylebone Cricket Club against Ireland in 1948 he then played mainly in Saturday games for Englefield Green Cricket Club. According to Wisden his career wickets (219) comfortably exceeded his runs (158); he once made eight successive ducks.
From 1938-48 racing driver Woolf Barnato, who also played first-class cricket as a wicket-keeper for Surrey, lived at Ridgemead House with his family, including his daughter Diana Barnato Walker. She was a celebrated pilot who liked to practise landing and take-off speeds by driving down the Egham bypass in her silver-grey Bentley!
From 1939-1947 the statue of Eros was an unexpected visitor when it was moved for safekeeping to the London County Council’s temporary headquarters at the Runnymede Campus on Cooper’s Hill.
St John’s Beaumont School welcomed Olympic swimmer David Wilkie in 1993 to open a new swimming pool and the Queen in October 2009 to launch a new sports centre.
Former pupils of Scaitcliffe, now Bishopsgate School, include Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo, the former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain; patron of the Arts and architecture connoisseur Bim Afolami MP; and Michael Holroyd, biographer, who describes it in his 1999 book Basil Street Blues.
Royal Holloway
Since its grand opening by Queen Victoria, Royal Holloway has enjoyed many royal connections. Queen Elizabeth marked the college centenary in 1986 with a visit to open the new Earth Sciences building (Queen’s Building). She returned in 2014, with the Duke of Edinburgh to celebrate the award of a Regius Professorship to the Music department to mark her Diamond Jubilee.
In 2017, Princess Anne, The Princess Royal officially opened the Emily Wilding Davison Building.
Royal Holloway postgraduate student Sophie Christiansen won three gold medals for equestrianism during the summer 2012 Paralympics in London. She was Britain’s first triple gold medallist at the Paralympic games.
Others of the innumerable famous alumni include comedian Robin Ince, opera singers Dame Felicity Lott, Sarah Fox and Susan Bullock, politicians Norman Baker, Dame Janet Fookes, Stewart Jackson, Tess Kingham and Victoria Prentis, composer Joby Talbot, rapper/record producer Example, and live artist Tania El Khoury.