Historical Figures

We were delighted to see John Camping (Sanderson’s 1985–1990) who visited the College in September. John’s mission was to return a valuable part of one of the 14 corbels on the wide stairs leading to the entrance of the Dining Hall. For the last 31 years, the boy reading a book on the middle column at the top of the stairs has been headless. Thankfully, he has now been reunited with the rest of his body.

Here is the story as told by John: ‘The truth – whilst waiting for a match tea after tennis, I stupidly said “Can you imagine if I knocked the head off!”, and then proceeded to use the

Lawrence Mortimer (Sanderson’s 1958–1963) and his wife Rosie have kindly donated a beautiful wooden statue of the Virgin Mary and child.

This wonderful piece, which stands about 1.5 metres tall, was commissioned in 1944 as a memorial to Michael John Mortimer OL (Lawrence’s uncle), an RAF fighter pilot, who is commemorated in the War Memorial Cloister. Michael was a keen ornithologist, so the statue interestingly features a wren. In folkBavarian style, it was carved by Faust Lang, an Oberammergau woodcarver, whose family had been prominently involved in the famous Passion Play before the Second War. Married to an Englishwoman, Lang decided to leave Germany in the mid-30s to establish a studio in England. Examples of his work from his St Ives studio are still to be found in significant locations, private and public, throughout the UK. The statue stood in the chapel of Elmhurst Ballet School in Camberley, where Michael’s mother (Lawrence’s grandmother) was foundingheadmistress, until the school’s move to Birmingham 60 years later to become the feeder school for the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

We are delighted that the statue has found a new home at Lancing and is expected to be placed permanently in the Lady Chapel. handle of my tennis racket to give it a pretend nudge, and unfortunately, it fell to the floor! I immediately picked it up and put in my pocket and said to my friends “you didn’t see that”. The head has been with me in all my houses throughout London and made it to our house in West Sussex, where I plucked up the courage to return it to its rightful place persuaded by my three daughters and wife!’

We are delighted to have the head returned and fortunately one of the stone masons working on the Chapel was able to put it back properly in its original position (below, right).