MP who laid foundations of the National Gallery
THE National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square has thousands of beautiful paintings but only two portrait busts. These are both situated in the entrance hall – one is of Sir Paul Getty who gave more than £50 million to the gallery, and the other is of Seaford MP George Agar-Ellis.
George James Welbore Agar-Ellis was born in 1797 in central London, the only son of Viscount Clifden and Lady Caroline Spencer. He was educated at Westminster School and later at Oxford. At the age of 21 he was returned as the Whig (Liberal) MP for the rotten borough of Heytesbury, Wiltshire, where his father had previously served. Two years later he was elected in Seaford and a short time later he married Lady Georgiana Howard.
While MP for Seaford, Agar-Ellis supported a parliamentary bill to allow Roman Catholic emancipation. However, he took little interest in party politics of the day, preferring to use his position to promote literature and the arts. In 1824 he was the principle campaigner to obtain the art collection of John Julius Angerstein, the Russian-born London merchant. Angerstein had a spectacular collection of art including works by Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt and Titian. Agar-Ellis arranged for 40 of these paintings to be purchased for the nation at a cost of 57,000 and these works formed the basis of the National Gallery.
Agar-Ellis was also a writer and, again while MP for Seaford, he researched the history of the Man in the Iron Mask. In 1826 he lost his Seaford parliamentary seat but was returned in Ludgershall in Wiltshire. In 1830 he was appointed as the Chief Commissioner for Woods and Forests but the following year he was made a peer, taking the title of Baron Dover. At this time he purchased a house close to the Admiralty in Whitehall which had formerly been the home of Lord Byron and the French Ambassador. This was just a short walk from the newly opened National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Agar-Ellis died in Dover House in 1833 at the age of 36. Dover House is now the home of the Scottish Office.
You Stupid Boy!
IN writing about the visit to Seaford to film Dad's Army last week I failed to question an obvious source – the local newspaper reporter of the time. Kevin Penfold is now the Assistant Editor of the Sussex Express but nearly 37 years ago (he doesn't look that old!) he attended Seaford Head as a cub reporter to cover the story. Kevin remembers the Dad's Army cast playing football on the windswept hills near Hope Gap. He spoke to John Le Mesurier and Ian Lavender as well as James Beck who played the spiv, Private Walker. The producer of the film, John R Sloan, had filmed in Seaford the previous year when the Esplanade Hotel was used for filming scenes from the thriller A Fragment of Fear starring David Hemmings and Gayle Hunnicut.
The Dad's Army cast stayed in Seaford for three days. Kevin remembers both watching the filming and seeing the film when it was released at Easter 1971. His only regret was failing to get autographs of the cast of what has become one of the best-loved comedies ever shown on British TV.
KEVIN GORDON
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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