Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Lilley, Henry Thomas

c.1860 - burial, 23 April 1936

Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, he became Senior Science Master at Portsmouth Grammar School. Remembered as ‘a good scholar with wide interests and a remarkable memory’ (Washington and Marsh 1976, 29) in the 1880s and 1890s he wrote books on chemistry and geometrical drawing for Army candidates.  His interests also included Tudor Portsmouth, on which he published a series of articles in the St John’s Ambulance Association Magazine – Portsmouth Centre, c.1894-7.

In 1899, when the British Medical Association held its 67th annual meeting at Portsmouth, he produced A Guide to Portsmouth, Southsea and its Neighbourhood, which made 206 pages and was published by Charpentier.  He is described as its editor ‘in collaboration with a local committee’. This showcased the area to delegates, but was more than a standard guidebook. It included a two-page chronology and commentary on local history, such as the house where Dickens grew up, the accidental explosion in August 1759 in Southsea Castle after sparks from cooking fell onto gunpowder stored by the 72nd Regiment of foot, and the like.

In 1921, with Alfred Everitt he published a book on St Thomas church, Old Portsmouth. He also researched the history of his school and in 1923 published Early Portsmouth Defences. He assisted the Portsmouth journalist and historian W.G. Gates with ‘proof corrections and additions’ for Extracts from the Records of the Corporation for 1835-1927 published in 1928.

At the time of his death in 1936 he was living in Brixton, London.

Sources

Portsmouth Encyclopedia Online

E.S. Washington and A.J. Marsh, Portsmouth Grammar School, 1732 to 1976, Portsmouth, 1976.

Alumni Oxonienses

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Interestingly, he seems to have been the only schoolmaster in the locality who took an interest in its history.  

Relevant published works

• A Guide to Portsmouth, Southsea and its Neighbourhood , Charpentier, 1899 (for the BMA meeting in Portsmouth)

• With A.T. Everitt, Portsmouth Parish Church, 1921, Portsmouth, Charpentier.

• Early Portsmouth Defences, Charpentier, 1923.

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 14 October 2025

Key Words

Portsmouth, Everitt, Tudor period. British Medical Association

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