Wells Leaflet
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He eventually completed his degree externally and immediately began his writing career, turn - A Midhurst Society Publication ing out fiction and political studies. He travelled widely, met world leaders and became an important influence wherever he went. H.G. WELLS MIDHURST STORIES & MIDHURST Wells never forgot Sussex and in his Experi - ment in Autobiography (1934) wrote: "The broadening out, backing up and - There are mentions of the chemist's shop and confirmation of my mind at Uppark and the Grammar School in The Dream (1924). Midhurst were immensely important in my Stedham (named as Iping) is the setting for develop ment." He made The Invisible Man (1897), South Harting as use of these experiences Siddermorton forms the location of The in his writings, many of Wonderful Visit (1895), while Uppark appears which contain enchant - briefly in The World of William Clissold ing vignettes of our area. (1926), In the Days of the Comet (1906) and The Passionate Friends (1913). Tono-Bungay (1909) is perhaps his finest novel, for which he drew on THE END his life in a large country house and his time at Wells died a few weeks short of Mr Cowap's. The strange his 80th birthday. His obituaries title is the name of praised his gifts as a writer of a patent medicine. genius and an interpreter of Midhurst is renamed Wimblehurst, Uppark science before his time, but becomes Bladesover and South Harting is condemned his racial and reli - Ropedean. gious intolerance. erbert George Wells (1866-1946), world Hfamous novelist and political thinker, had Love and Mr Lewisham (1900), another auto - We remember him as a lover of Midhurst. boyhood links with Midhurst and with biographical tale, charts George Lewisham's Uppark, now a National Trust property. He is progress from assistant school master in commemorated here in Midhurst by three 'Whortley' to the Normal School of Science blue plaques: in North Street outside the and his life thereafter. The Midhurst Society, promoting new ideas and supporting our heritage to help Midhurst become a better place to live, Grammar School that he attended and on his work and enjoy. Like to know more? lodgings over a sweet shop, and in Church Midhurst is the background of several of Wells' www.facebook.com/themidhurstsociety/ Hill at the former chemist's (now a dentist) short stories. It appears as Sussexville in Mr www.midhurstsociety.org.uk/web/ which inspired Tono-Bungay . Marshall's Doppelganger, The Plattner Story Membership enquiries: [email protected] and The Man Who Could Work Miracles. Midhurst was the town that always remained Holmwood in The Apple is probably Midhurst. Text by Bridget Howard © The Midhurst Society 2018 in his heart. Printed by KerryType, Midhurst, 2018 HIS EARLY LIFE an unpaid assistant teacher. Wells confronted his mother with the news, but she was loath Wells (known as Bertie) was the fourth and to forfeit his £50 apprenticeship fee, particu - last child of ill-educated parents who had met larly since she could not afford his keep at in 1850 at Uppark where his mother was a Midhurst. H.G. wrote to Byatt again and was maid and her future husband a gardener. now offered a salary of £20 for the first year After marriage they moved to Bromley to and £40 annually thereafter. Sarah was won open a china shop which eventually went over and H.G. returned to the Grammar bankrupt. H.G. was born in Kent and at 13, School in September 1883, lodging with because of family poverty, was sent to work another teacher over a sweet shop next to for a draper in Windsor. After two months he the Angel Hotel in North Street. was delighted to be dismissed and went back to live with his mother, Sarah, who had now He was now in heaven. He enjoyed teaching returned to Uppark as the housekeeper. He Church Street (Church Hill), Midhurst 1910 and in his spare time soaked up new knowl - spent Christmas 1880 there, glorying in its edge at a prodigious rate. He laid down a library, before he was shipped off to be a the smattering of Latin that was needed to course of study for himself, giving up sleep pupil teacher at his uncle's school in Somer - handle prescriptions. His employer therefore and recreation to meet his own timetable. He set, but after only a few months the asked the headmaster of the Grammar won prizes for the school and Byatt encour - establishment was closed by government School, Horace Byatt, to give him lessons in aged his hunger for learning. inspectors and Wells was back at Uppark, the evenings at his own home near South reading voraciously. Pond. Wells found it all too much, working The Government at this time was trying to by day in the shop and having coaching at attract high-flyers to be science teachers and night, so he left after only a month and for Wells won a scholarship of a guinea a week the third time went back to Uppark. By now (and a railway ticket) to the Normal School of its owner had lost patience with the house - Science—now Imperial College—in South keeper's shiftless son and forbade him the Kensington. house. Unemployed and homeless, H.G. sought help from Horace Byatt who accepted him as a IN LONDON full-time student and allowed him to live in his home. Six weeks later, however, Sarah, His studies began in September 1884 and his Uppark c.1905 unable to afford the school fees, decided that tutor was the famous Professor Thomas he should be apprenticed at the Southsea Huxley, who expounded the theory of evolu - Drapery Emporium—the basis for The History tion devised by his friend Charles Darwin. of Mr Polly (1910). The two years that Wells Wells idolised Huxley and passed the exami - spent there were the low point of his nations brilliantly until his tutor retired the IN MIDHURST boyhood. He was intensely unhappy and following year. H.G. then lost all enthusiasm thought he had left the world of books for science: he was never going to be a His mother, frantic for him to learn a forever. teacher. He absented himself from lectures, respectable trade, apprenticed him, in becoming fascinated with socialism, litera - January 1881, to Samuel Cowap, a chemist in Eventually he wrote to Mr Byatt asking if ture and the intellectual life of London. He Midhurst's Church Street (now Church Hill). there were any possibility of going back to failed his finals in 1887 and left college with Although young H.G. enjoyed it, he lacked school and was told that he could return as no qualifications..