You’ll never believe who I just saw…! Part 2
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 2 of 2, takes their suggestions and looks at many of the other famous people who have visited here briefly, or lived in Thorpe and Virginia Water during the same 90-year period. Part 1 looks at the areas of Egham, Egham Hythe, Runnymede meadows, and Englefield Green.
For famous residents in earlier years see our Historic Egham timeline.
Thorpe
Forced to leave his country after the Nazi invasion King Peter II of Yugoslavia came to live in England. After his marriage in 1944 he rented Little Manor in Clockhouse Lane. He bought the house in 1946 and then sold it in 1948 when he went to live in the USA. He and his wife took part in local events including opening a Victory Bazaar at the Literary Institute in October 1945.
Alumni of TASIS include Madeleine Altmann, video artist; Jon Finkel, Magic: The Gathering world champion and Philip Hanson, racing driver.
Thorpe Park
Diana, Princess of Wales enjoyed treating her sons to days out at Thorpe Park in the 1980s. This is commemorated in a plaque at the Park.
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TV illusionist Derren Brown worked with Thorpe Park in 2016 to create Derren Brown’s Ghost Train set in a derelict Victorian railway depot.
Virginia Water
The former King of Siam apparently lived at Greywell House on Callow Hill and at Glen Pammant in Virginia Water before moving to the Wentworth Estate.
Virginia Water was home to Vaclav Nijinsky, one of the greatest ever ballet stars – photographed but never filmed. With his wife Romola and an attendant (who took care of him during his frequent bouts of schizophrenia, he spent the winter of 1947-8 at Great Fosters. While there he was seen by actor Claude Rains, pirouetting down the corridors at night. A member of staff commented that he was “dancing for the ghosts.” [i] In 1948 the Nijinsky family were offered the chance to live in Whinmead, a house Virginia Water Lane where they stayed until the lease ran out in January 1951. Nijinsky died a few months later, of kidney failure, while on a visit to London.
Sarah, Duchess of York was another Virginia Water resident after her divorce, until 1997.
Fort Belvedere, on the Crown Estate, was the favourite home of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII from 1930-36. From 1956-76 it was occupied by the Hon Gerald Lascelles, son of Princess Mary, the Princess Royal. In 1976 it was leased to the son of the Emir of Dubai and is now home to the Canadian billionaire retail magnate Galen Weston and his wife, Hilary, former Lieutenant General of Ontario. The Westons have a close relationship with the British royal family, and have played host to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Queen Noor of Jordan and Princess Caroline of Monaco.
Holloway Sanatorium
Amongst its more famous inmates. Holloway Sanatorium included a former Gaiety Girl Gabrielle Ray. A talented actress, singer and dancer, who appeared in other kinds of theatre including pantomime, she suffered from alcoholism and depression worsened by the philandering of her husband Eric Loder. She was placed in the sanatorium by her relatives in the 1930s and stayed until her death in May 1973 aged ninety.
It also provided a temporary refuge for Tory MP Peter Baker, one of the few MPs to have been expelled from Parliament. A war hero who had won the Military Cross for helping the Dutch resistance, he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1954, apparently from the stress of trying to keep multiple businesses afloat, including four publishing companies. When they fell into financial trouble, he forged signatures on documents to pay off their debts. He was arrested at the sanatorium[ii] and sentenced at the Old Bailey to 7 years imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubbs.
Travel author and humourist Bill Bryson worked as an orderly in Tuke Ward in the early 1970s where he met a nurse who was to become his wife. He described this period in his book Notes from a Small Island. He visited again in the 1990s:
“Imagine my surprise when I crested a gentle slope and found a spanking new entrance knocked into the perimeter wall, a big sign welcoming me to Virginia Park and, flanking a previously unknown vista of the sanatorium building, a generous clutch of smart new executive homes behind”.[iii]
Great Fosters
From 1918-1930 Great Fosters was owned as a private house by Gerald Montagu, grandfather of the playwright Stephen Poliakoff and it was his mother’s childhood home.
After the house became a hotel in 1930 its first royal visitors included Queen Mary and, for the Ascot Ball on 19 June 1931, the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of York. A later royal visitor was Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
Probably the biggest single sporting invasion came in May 1968 when Sir Matt Busby installed the management and players of Manchester United in the hotel for a few nights rest and relaxation before they went on to victory in the European Cup Final at Wembley. The day before the game, a Tuesday, some of the players took taxis to Egham where several visited Eric Williams’ menswear shop in the High Street. At dinner that night they enjoyed steak and tomato juice. Next morning six of the group attended mass at the chapel in Salesian College in Chertsey, meeting excited pupils. Nobby Stiles was quoted as saying “We find praying helps to ease our minds before a big game.” Then after watching the Derby on television, they caught a coach to Wembley. Matt Busby described the hotel as “pleasant surroundings, which are just right for relaxing before the match”[iv] and he gave the hotel manager two free tickets for the match.
Wentworth Estate
The 700+ houses on the Wentworth Estate have long attracted the rich and famous.
One of the founder residents was Dame Agatha Christie with her first husband, Archibald Christie. They separated while living there and she sold the house, reportedly to pay the loan she had taken out to pay for it.
Royal residents have included the Sultan of Brunei, Prajadhipok, abdicated King of Siam or Thailand (from 1935 until he died in 1941), the former and current Kings of Malaysia and the King of Oman.
John Hay “Jock” Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) who was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and president of the Museum of Modern Art lived in a large mansion, Cherry Hill, on the Wentworth Estate with his wife Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney (Franklin D Roosevelt’s former daughter in-law). Whitney renamed the property after the exclusive Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, Colorado, where he and Dwight D. Eisenhower often played golf, close to the President’s ‘Summer White House’ and retained it from 1958 until his death in 1982.
Musicians began to move into the Wentworth Estate in the 1970s: Sir Elton John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin, Chris Squire – bassist with the rock band Yes, Gary Numan – electronic music pioneer and Ted Heath – often considered Britain’s greatest post-war big-band leader.
General Augusto Pinochet, former President of Chile, was kept under house arrest in a four-bedroom house on the Wentworth Estate in 1998 prior to his extradition. He was accompanied by police on three shifts, 24 hours a day – such a high level of occupancy led to problems with the cess-pit!
Sports personalities who have chosen to live on the Wentworth Estate have been: Kevin Pietersen, former English cricketer, with his pop star wife Jessica Taylor ( Liberty X); Prince Naseem Hamed, former British boxing world champion; Eddie Jordan, formerly head of the Jordan F1 Team; Andriy Shevchenko, striker for Chelsea F.C.; Trevor Francis, the first £1m footballer; Bruce McLaren, racing driver; Bobby Rahal, American motor racing legend from the Jaguar Formula 1 team and Ron Dennis, the owner of McLaren, who paid almost £30m for his house, probably the most expensive property ever to be sold at Wentworth. And we can’t forget the golfers who have chosen to live close to the world-renowned golf course: Sir Nick Faldo; Thomas Bjørn from Denmark; South African Ernie Els in one of the few thatched properties; Sandy Lyle, Bernard Gallagher and Sam Torrance.
And obviously the course has welcomed most of the world’s leading professional golfers over the years to take part in the Ryder Cup etc.
Many other people have been lured to Wentworth to play a round or two, often for charity. This includes entertainers such as Bob Hope who frequently played alongside his friend and co-star Bing Crosby; comedian Ronnie Corbett; One Direction’s Niall Horan; dancer Anton du Beke; actor Clint Eastwood; football manager Harry Redknapp; footballer Aaron Ramsey; TV presenter Vernon Kay; actor Samuel L Jackson and Sir Michael Parkinson, often alongside former local residents Sir Bruce Forsyth and Sir Cliff Richard. Sir Steve Redgrave and Tim Henman have also swapped oars and tennis racquet for golf clubs.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York has been a frequent visitor and was joined in June 1998 by Prince Charles who presented the prizes for the Alfred Dunhill Celebrity Challenge in aid of the Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation.
And as if this was not enough, who else have you seen?
With many thanks to Bill Godwin, Joy Whitfield and James Wyatt for supplying information and anecdotes.
[i] Skal, David J. & Rains, Jessica (2009) Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice. University Press of Kentucky
[ii] Hutton, Mike (2014) Life in 1950s London. Amberley Publishing Limited.
[iii] Bryson, Bill (2015) Notes from A Small Island: Journey Through Britain. Black Swan.
[iv] Allsop, Derick (2011) Reliving the Dream: The Triumph and Tears of Manchester United’s 1968 European Cup Heroes.