Local History


training on Salisbury Plain, half of the men in the battery, including Captain Vernon Hilton, went to Bengal, India where it was based throughout the war. Vernon Hilton’s service record shows that he was transferred to France in March 1917, twice mentioned in dispatches, gassed and wounded. He was promoted to the rank of Major in the field, and was fortunate to survive a war in which three of his brothers, all officers in the Middlesex regiment, were killed.


When the First World War started in August 1914 the brewery was still in the Hilton’s ownership. At the start of the war there were about 15 employees but as more volunteered or were conscripted into the military only a few of the older brewery staff remained. To make matters worse George Slatter, the head brewer, was unwell. When Vernon Hilton left for India the solicitor who acted for the brewery and close friend, Kenneth Johnstone was given ‘power of attorney’ for his affairs. By the time that the war reached its 3rd year Kenneth Johnstone was managing the


collided with a car on a bend near Two Bridges...”


brewery on a day-to-day basis. With little prospect of Vernon Hilton returning for some time, if at all, he no doubt concluded that the future of the brewery rested in his hands. In late 1916 the brewery was bought from the Hiltons by Kenneth Johnstone and Henry Soltau, another local solicitor. Johnstone is believed to have acted partly out of friendship towards the Hiltons and partly out of concern (as the clerk to the rural district council) that a major outlet for local barley could be lost to the detriment of the rural economy if the brewery were to close. The Tavistock Brewery went on to survive until 1926.


On the 22nd May 1918 in a very quiet ceremony at St Mary’s Church, Kensington, Major Vernon Bartlett Hilton R.F.A., son of Mr and Mrs E. F. Hilton, 6 Cumberland House, Kensington Court married Sibyl Irene


“ motorbike


Brewery Advert 1913


Brodrick, daughter of Mr and Mrs Charles C. Brodrick, Lynbridge House, Tavistock.


Sibyl Brodrick,


born in 1891 at Tavistock was the younger daughter of Charles Cumberland Brodrick, a well- respected physician and surgeon with premises in West Street, Tavistock. Further research of newspaper records shows that Vernon Hilton had known the Brodrick family for many years. He was a guest at the wedding of Sibyl’s older sister Evelyn Daisy Brodrick to Captain Hughes in July 1904. His gift to the couple was a pair of silver candlesticks.


Sibyl then


aged 14 was chief bridesmaid at this wedding. The couple had shared interests in sport particularly golf, tennis and badminton. In April 1912 Vernon Hilton received treatment from Dr. Brodrick for severe bruising sustained when his motorbike collided with a car on a bend near Two Bridges.


Vernon Hilton did not return to


Tavistock and after his dreadful wartime experiences may have found it difficult to re-adjust.


In the


immediate post-war period the Hiltons lived at Watergate Bay, Newlyn East, near Newquay, Cornwall. Vernon Hilton was at one time secretary of Carlyon Bay golf club near St Austell, Cornwall. The Western Morning News of the 22nd November 1927 refers to a Cornwall


Professional Golfers Alliance held in wet conditions at the club which was attended by 26 teams from all over the county. It states that ‘Major Hilton, the popular secretary of Carlyon Bay, made all the competitors feel particularly welcome, and he and Mrs. Hilton did everything possible for the rain- soaked competitors’. For Sibyl Hilton surfing on the north Cornwall beaches became a new interest.


In 1928 Vernon Hilton joined the


firm of Sutton & Phillips Ltd., consulting brewers and manufacturing chemists, Stowmarket, Suffolk, as their technical representative for Scotland, Ireland and the North of England. Vernon and Sibyl Hilton moved to live at ‘The Divot’, Gosford Road, Longniddry, Scotland where their social life evolved around the local golf club. Vernon Bartlett Hilton died aged 74 in December 1952. Afterwards, Sibyl moved down to ‘Trossachs’, Leverlake Road, Widemouth Bay, near Bude where her home was within a short distance of the surfing beach. She lived there until her death aged 82 in December 1973


I am indebted to Caroline Gill, of Swansea, a great niece of Vernon and Sibyl Hilton for family information.


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