Notable people from Odiham

William Lily (born about 1468)

The grammarian William Lily was born in Odiham around 1468, according to the Victoria County History. In 1512 he became the first high master of St Paul's School in London. His Latin grammar, later known as "Lily's Grammar", was, as the 18th-century writer Thomas Cox put it, "commanded by Act of Parliament in King Henry VIII's Reign, to be taught in all Schools".

Henry Chichele (rector, 1404)

Before he became Archbishop of Canterbury (1414 to 1443), Henry Chichele was Chancellor of Salisbury and rector of Odiham, from 1404.

Thomas Burgess (born 1756)

Thomas Burgess was born in Odiham in 1756 and spent five years at Odiham Grammar School. He became Bishop of St David's in 1803 and Bishop of Salisbury in 1825. He's often named as one of the people behind the Odiham Agricultural Society's push for a vet school (see the vet school story).

Robert May (will of 1694)

Robert May, a mercer of Odiham, left money in his will of 1694 for a free school for twenty boys. The school became Odiham Grammar School, and today's secondary school, Robert May's School, still carries his name. The Odiham Society says pupils lay a wreath on his tomb in the churchyard each year on the anniversary of his death.

Philip Lutley Sclater (1829 to 1913)

The zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1860 to 1902 and the man who first divided the world into its main zoological regions in 1858, lived at The Priory (the old rectory) at the west end of the High Street. The Victoria County History notes him living there in 1911.

Two Victoria Crosses

• The Rev. William Robert Fountaine Addison VC was born in North Warnborough on 18 September 1883 and went to Odiham Grammar School. He won the VC as an army chaplain in Mesopotamia in 1916, carrying and helping wounded men to cover under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire. His family moved to Kent when he was 13, and for years official records wrongly said he was born there, until the chair of the Odiham branch of the Royal British Legion pointed out the mistake. The Odiham Society says he was one of only four chaplains to receive the VC in the First World War.
• Brigadier Manley Angell James VC was born at 140 High Street on 12 July 1896; the family later moved to Bristol. He won the VC at Velu Wood in France on 21 March 1918, the first day of the German spring offensive, holding on against repeated attacks. He was last seen working a machine gun on his own after being wounded a third time, and was taken prisoner. He survived and served again in the Second World War. A blue plaque marks his birthplace.

Both have streets named after them in the village.

Others

• Sir Edward More, who leased the manor from the Crown, founded the almshouses in 1623 and hosted Elizabeth I in 1591.
• Joseph de Bonnefoux, a French naval officer on parole here in 1806 to 1807, left the most vivid account of Odiham in the Napoleonic wars (French prisoners).
• Granville Penn, grandson of the founder of Pennsylvania, was the Odiham Agricultural Society member who helped bring Britain's first vet college into being.

Many of these names turn up on our Odiham heritage trail, an easy hour around the village.

Back to the Odiham history hub.