Famous People from Bexley

D

Dahl Roald

Roald Dahl (1916-90), author of books for adults and children, lived in Hurst Road, Bexley. Many of his stories such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) have become classics. He also wrote screenplays, for the Bond film You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming), and Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, from his own work. During World War II he joined the RAF (14 of the 16 men he joined up with later died in air combat) He fought in the North African and Mediterranean campaigns before being invalided home in 1942 and later transferred to Washington as Assistant Air Attaché. He wrote of his war experiences and this set him on his successful career as an author. For 30 years he was married to US Film actress Patricia Neal. They divorced in 1983 and he subsequently married Felicity Crosland, to whom he was married until his death at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

Dashwood, Francis

Sir Francis Dashwood (1772-1828) purchased Hall Place, Bexley, about 1772. It remained in the ownership of the Dashwood family until 1926 although it was used as a boarding school in the early 19th-century, before being leased to various tenants. A Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was a descendant of the notorious Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer (1708-81) founder of the Hellfire Club at which, it was alleged, satanic worship took place.

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D’Erlanger, Baron Emile

Baron Emile D’Erlanger (1866-1939), a banker, musician, music lover and patron of the arts, was an early protaganist of the project to build a Channel Tunnel. He rented Hall Place for some years in the 1890s and lived at ‘Falconwood’, near Shooters Hill. His father, also Emile, helped Richard Wagner get his music performed, financing the first performance (which proved to be a flop) of Tannhaűser at the Paris Opera and donating works of art to the Crown for Hampton Court Palace.

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Donaldson, Walter

Walter Donaldson (1907-73) the snooker and billiards player lived for some years in Grosvenor Road, Belvedere. Born in Coatbridge he was the first Scottish born player to make an impact on the snooker world. In 1947 he defeated Joe Davis who had been world snooker champion continuously from 1927. He was described as ‘a steady grinder but one of the greatest long potters of his or any other time’. In 1950 he again became world champion but in the mid-fifties he became disillusioned with the sport and retired to Buckinghamshire. He is notoriously famed for breaking up the slates of his billiard table to make crazy paving.

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E

Eccleston, Bernie

Bernie Eccleston (Bernard Charles Eccleston) the Formula 1 motor racing patron, lived in Danson Road, as a boy. Born in Ipswich in 1930, his father was a trawler skipper, and Bernie grew up in Wangford, near Southwold and then Bexleyheath. He began to race motorbikes in the immediate postwar era. As a teenage he started buying and selling motorcycle spare parts and built up a business that became one of the country’s largest motorcycle dealerships. In 1957 he bought the Connaught Formula 1 team, and became one of the most important figures in the sport, becoming a founder of the Formula 1 Constructors’ Association in 1974. He won for the association the right to negotiate TV contracts – which started the big money flowing into the sport.

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