Speaker Meeting

On Tuesday 17^th August we welcomed Tony Beaden, our speaker for the evening.

He was introduced by David Dixson as "Lord of Bexhill" a title which Tony explained before going on to talk about the time he spent as a policeman in Uganda between 1951 and 1965.

The land now described as the Manor of Bexhill was granted to Oswald, Bishop of Selsey by King Offa in the year 772 and remained the property of the Bishopric until it was seized by the Count of Eu as part of the land granted to him by William the Conqueror. Then, in 1075 the Bishopric transferred to Chichester.

Five hundred years later the Manor was granted to Sir Thomas Sackville by Elizabeth the first and remained in the Sackville family until it was finally owned by The Hon. Tom Sackville and his sister Lady Arabella Sackville.

During the 1970s a large number of Lordships of the Manor came on the market, many of them being offered at Auction by Strutt and Parker of Lewes, most of which were snapped up by buyers from America, Japan, Russia and others with no connection with Sussex. Tony heard of these transactions and decided that he would try to retain the title of the Manor of Bexhill in Bexhill and then successfully bid anonymously (by telephone) for the title. Even his wife didn't find out about it until much later.

He is quite adamant that he has never sought publicity and that when he dies, his son will succeed to the title and "whatever he does with it will then be his concern.

Tony has written a book "A Policeman's Lot", copies of which he had with him and it describes his life before, during and after his experiences in Africa and which he wrote "so that should his descendants wish to know about his life they would at least be able to find out about it."

Born in Lee Green in 1923 and after leaving school at 15 and being rejected by the RAF for being under age, his first job was with Morris Motors at Cowley, repairing Spitfires before joining the RAF where he served as a flight engineer until 1948 when he joined Hastings Borough Police. Three years of boredom and frustration later and after a particularly unpleasant winter he applied for and was appointed to the Colonial Police and chose Uganda where, in 1951 he became an Inspector on a three year contract. He retired from the Ugandan Police as Assistant Commissioner in 1965 and it was those fifteen or so years that he spoke about in his talk.

His fascinating talk ranged over his (mostly) hair raising, blood curdling experiences, mostly accompanied by his enormous bull terrier Barney, when he encountered all sorts of terrifying adversaries including Mau-mau, black mambas, puff adders, crocodiles, lions, scorpions and senior officers, all of which/whom were overcome or escaped from to his satisfaction.

What an anti-climax it must have been when he retired from the Colonial Police and returned to East Sussex where he rejoined the police force as a police constable in Bexhill.

Following questions from the floor, Rotarian Bill Smith gave the vote of thanks and the assembled members generously showed their appreciation for a most interesting talk.