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Bob Sherlock

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Bob Sherlock learnt to ring at Brasted in about 1936 (being taught by E H Lewis, below) and was tower captain for the final 25 or so years of his life. He died on 29 August 2008, about a month before his 84th birthday. A peal was rung by some of the friends he'd rung with over the years, and, for the first time at Brasted, a proper painted pealboard was produced, together with a brass plaque in his memory. The board was dedicated by our lay reader, Judith Seaward, on the occasion of a Tonbridge District quarterly meeting on 10 April 2010.

Peter Bond

Peter Neville Bond was born in Brasted, the son of a local garage proprietor, Harry Bond (currently Chartwell Kitchens), in 1923. He was taught to ring by Edwin Lewis in 1936, at about the same time as Bob Sherlock. He became a member of the KCACR round about 1938, a year after Bob. He was elected to the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths in 1946, becoming secretary and finally master in 1959. He represented the SRCY on the Central Council from 1954 to 1962.

He served in the RAF during the war after which he trained as a teacher at King Alfred's College Winchester. After leaving Brasted he lived with an aunt at Fordcombe for a while, where he was licensed as a lay reader.

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For a while he lived at Bosham in Sussex, where he put a lot of time into trying to inculcate Grandsire and Plain Bob Doubles into the thick skull of a young lad named Frank Lewis.

Later he moved back to Kent where, as well as being Stan and Ann Jenner's best man, he was ordained at Trinity 1962 after training at Rochester Theological College. He served his curacy at St Augustine's Gillingham before leaving Kent for ever in 1966 to become priest-in-charge at St James' Great Yarmouth.

He moved to Beetley (about 20 miles north west of Norwich) in 1971. There were only four bells at Beetley at that time but Peter and David Cawley (another Kent expat and bell historian) managed to organise two more bells and they did almost all of the actual installation work themselves. Not content with this, they added two more bells to form an octave in 1977.

Due to continued ill-health Peter retired from full-time parochial ministry in 1978, although he continued his work as Norwich diocesan adviser on bells. He died at the early age of 58 on 4 February 1981.

Edwin H Lewis

EHL

Edwin Hugh Lewis was born on 13 June 1881, in Nottingham, and was educated at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He learnt to ring at Trowell in Nottinghamshire, where his father was Rector, joined the Cambridge University Guild when he went up in 1901, and rang his first peal at St Andrew's, Cambridge, in 1902. He was elected a Central Council representative for the Cambridge University Guild in 1908.

After graduating in mechanical sciences, he obtained a post as assistant manager of a firm in Widnes, living for a time in Frodsham, Cheshire. In 1914 he was appointed assistant manager of the Glasgow Iron and Steel Co, with which firm he remained for several years, rising to the position of general manager. During this period, when he was living in Scotland, he had few opportunities for ringing, but continued to take a keen interest in the Central Council and its work, making valuable contributions to the reports of the Towers and Belfries Committee. In 1929, he became a director of a firm in Essex, and moved to Brasted, where he rang and conducted seven peals between 1935 and 1951 (he rang about 270 peals in all).

When Canon Coleridge resigned from the Presidency of the Central Council in 1930, his place was taken by E H Lewis, who had done particularly good work for many years as a member of the Towers and Belfries Committee. His tenure of office as President of the Council lasted until 1957, and he died on 4 September 1963.

There was an embarrassing situation for Lewis as President at the start of the 1937 meeting, when the Secretary reported that the affiliation fees of the Cambridge University Guild had not been paid. As Lewis was a representative of the Guild, it meant that, according to the Council's rules, it was impossible for the President to speak or vote at the meeting! The situation was rectified by electing Lewis an honorary member.

As well as being a very accomplished ringer he was a brilliant linguist and is reputed to have translated The Nine Tailors into Swedish. The photo on the left shows him and his wife Agatha in about 1935.

He also taught Bob Sherlock and Peter Bond to ring.