Cholesbury - Notable People

Notable People

Hawidge Mill (also known as Cholesbury Mill), as it strides the boundary between the two villages, became associated with members of two artists' groups, the Bloomsbury Group and the lesser known London Group around the time of the First World War. Gilbert Cannan used the mill tower as a studio and with his wife Mary Ansell frequently invited friends to stay or to rent cottages nearby. These included Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry who were having an affair and lodged next door at The Gables as did Mark Gertler who between 1915–16 painted Gilbert Cannan at his Mill depicting Cannan outside the Mill with his two dogs. The black and white one had belonged to J.M. Barrie and was the inspiration for Nana in the book Peter Pan Others visiting included D. H. Lawrence, Lady Ottoline Morrell, Compton Mackenzie, Bertrand Russell, the historian G. M. Trevelyan, interior decorator Dora Carrington, Lytton Strachey. The Cannans left the mill in 1916 and it was subsequently rented by the celebrated American actress of the day, Doris Keane.

John Haden Badley born 1865, a progressive educationalist and author who founded Bedales School now located in Steep, Hampshire in 1893, lived in Cholesbury after retiring in 1935, having served as Headmaster for 42 years. After the death of his wife, Amy he returned to live in the grounds of the school until his death in 1967. General Robert Money after a distinguished military career during the First and Second World War lived in the village from the 1950s until his death in 1985.

In the churchyard there are at several gravestones of interest. One commemorates David Newton who died in 1878, a Royal Marine who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. There are adjoining gravestones of two sisters Margaret Lowenfeld a pioneer of child psychology and psychotherapy who died in 1973, her sister Helena Wright known internationally for her campaigning work in birth control and family planning who died in 1982, and their cousin's wife Claire Loewenfeld who wrote books on herb gardening and nutrition and died in 1974.