Seaford Museum

ROyALTy iN SEAFORd

The Platinum Jubilee of our Queen led us to search our archives to see what connections Seaford has had to royalty.

King’s Mead School, one of the many independent boarding schools in Seaford, was where two future kings were educated. Rama X (photo left), controversial King of Thailand and deemed to be the wealthiest monarch in the world, was named ‘Vajiralongkorn Borommachakkrayadisonsantatiwong Thewettham- rongsuboriban Aphikhunuprakanmahittaladunladet Phumiphonnaretwarangkun Kittisirisombunsawang- khawat’ according to Wikipedia. He was educated here in the 1960s prior to going on to Millfield. A couple of years later the future King Muwenda Mutebi II of Buganda joined King’s Mead school. Ronald Edward Frederick Kimera Muwenda Mutebi II born 13th April 1955 and often called King Ronnie (photo right). He went on to Magdalene College, Cambridge. In the archives we have this record of the future King of Greece, Constantine 1 with his wife Sophie and their daughter on Seaford beach in 1905. The photo above was taken by Princess Victoria. Although Queen Elizabeth has never visited Seaford, Newhaven was fortunate enough to have a visit from the Queen 60 years ago, in 1962. More recently, in 2013, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited East Sussex. They started by visiting the fisheries in Newhaven then on to Harvey’s Brewery in Lewes. It is probable that the main reason for the visit was the opening of the new East Sussex Record Office, The Keep, in Falmer on 31st October that year. This world class centre for archives nestles in the shadow of the Amex football stadium and is open to all (see their website for details). Here in Seaford the only British Royal family recorded royal stay was Edward VII who stayed at The Esplanade Hotel in 1905 and we will cover the Esplanade and his visit in a later edition. Since 1905, the only royal visit to Seaford was by George V and Queen Mary in 1935. They were staying in Eastbourne and came over to visit one of their godchildren, who happened to be a pupil at King’s Mead school. Unfortunately it seems they failed to phone ahead as the pupil in question was away on a school outing. It was reported that they did not stay around and headed back to Eastbourne! Thus ends our rather minimal record of royal visits. They don’t know what they’re missing!

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