OBITUARY: STEPHEN FORTESCUE (1921-2020)

 

Stephen Fortescue, solicitor, historian, author, campaigner, local politician and last surviving founder of our Society, died peacefully on 8 August age 99 in Devon. 

Born 17 July 1921 in Streatham, south London, the son of a solicitor, he spent his earliest years there. In 1938 his parents moved to Halfway House, Childs Hall Road, Great Bookham. Opposite was an old orchard which his father bought and had a house built, Pond Meadow, Preston Cross. They moved in on 20 December 1939. Stephen would remain in the area for decades.  

He qualified as a solicitor in 1946 and joined both the Surrey Archaeological Society and the Leatherhead and District Countryside Protection Society. He was invited to join the Committee of the latter and supported the formation of a local history and archaeological society. This was constituted on 16 October 1946 as the Leatherhead & District Local History Society. Stephen became treasurer and remained in that role until 1966. He would later become Chairman 1974-1980 and President 1990-1996.

During his chairmanship, the Society reached membership of 350. To encourage further growth he investigated buying Hampton Cottage in Church Road, Leatherhead as a museum. In 1978 it came on the market and he negotiated a purchase price of £7000. A client advanced the full amount  to be repaid after 20 years but later refused repayment. Hampton Cottage was refurbished and Stephen arranged for the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey to open the Museum formally in 1979.

He was well known in the local community as a property owner as well as running his legal practice. In 1959, as a committee member of the Bookham Residents Association, he was asked to stand for Leatherhead Urban District Council as an independent. He was subsequently elected to four council committees and in 1964 became Vice-Chairman of the Council itself, holding the office for two years before taking over as Chairman in 1966.

In the 1960s he backed the project to build a new theatre on the site of Leatherhead’s Crescent Cinema. Leatherhead Council agreed a grant of £10,000 and Stephen handed over the first instalment in 1968. He became a theatre trustee and was active in fund-raising for what became the Thorndike and later Leatherhead Theatre.

Stephen retired in 1986 but never gave up many voluntary activities. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, in the 1970s he wrote a string of detailed local history books on Bookham and the vicinity which now provide a crucial source for researchers. He was also a keen supporter of The Children’s Society, founded by his grandfather, his namesake. His first wife Mary, died in 1991 and was buried at St Nicolas Church, Great Bookham. He later remarried and lived very happily with Henrietta in Awliscombe, Devon. He was a much loved father to Ann and Stephen, grandfather to Alex and Vicky, and step-father to Stephen and Adrian.