The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.3 | Dec 2023

Member’s article

Hyde and Stead Specials

1955) was headmaster of Romsey C of E Boys School (in what is now the library in Romsey), having previously been master and then head teacher at Stratton, Gloucestershire. Harry was originally from Ramsgate, Kent where he had started his teaching career in the typical manner for the period as a pupil teacher, before progressing to teacher at the National School in Ramsgate. He then went to St Mark’s Training College, Chelsea in 1884 for 2 years for formal teacher training, before taking the appointment at Stratton. In 1886 he had married Ellen SYKES , daughter of George SYKES a confectioner and mineral water manufacturer of Ramsgate. After teaching for 20 years at Romsey, in 1923 Harry retired, returning to Ramsgate. Here he became involved in various local education committees, became an alderman, and eventually served as Mayor of Ramsgate for 1935 - 1937. This latter role led to him serving as one of the honorary ‘Barons of the Cinque Ports’ at the Coronation of King

George VI in 1937. He was also entitled to perform the same role at the present Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1952 but was too ill to attend, deferring to the then current mayor. The story of Harry’s later life in Ramsgate, along with George SYKES ’ story of a Yorkshire born confectioner in Ramsgate, are perhaps something for future articles in the Kent Family History Society magazine. When the photo was taken William Percy HYDE (1868 - 1954) was a hay, straw and corn dealer at 26 The Hundred, Romsey (now part of a Coop Supermarket). William Percy had been born in Nether Compton, Dorset, the son of a farmer and Innkeeper – another William (1835 -1909). On retiring from running the Inn in Nether Compton, the elder William and family moved to Kings Somborne, Hampshire, where his wife Ellen, nee GRUNCELL (1836 – 1918), had been born. Sometime before 1891 William Percy had become a Cheesemonger’s assistant in

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