INTERVIEW
so as not to be outdone by the rival Lymington
club.
The spirit of the entrepreneur was reflected in
this next generation. Of Sir Charles’s three sons,
who were all brought up at Brook House, Jack
is described by Patrick, his grandson, as having
had nine lives and used every one of them. Jack
Seely was thrilled to the core with danger. He
was a dedicated lifeboat man, becoming the last
Coxswain of Brook lifeboat, and diced with death
many times.
General Jack, as he became, is remembered too
for his acts of heroism in the Boer War. While he
was away fighting with the Hampshire Yeomanry
he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative,
but the shambles with which the war had been
conducted caused him to cross the house to
become a Liberal, under Asquith. He was followed
across the floor by Winston Churchill, with whom
he had fought in the war.
Jack was part of that great Liberal government,
preceding Kitchener as War Minister. However,
just before the First World War the Curragh
Mutiny took place in Ireland, and as senior person
responsible, Jack resigned. In the same year, his
wife died, giving birth to her seventh child. Jack
withdrew from public life, but come the war he
was given command over the Canadian cavalry
and “got into all sorts of scrapes”, according to
his awed grandson. His adventures are recorded in
Galloper Jack, a lively history written by Patrick’s
cousin, Brough Scott (the face of horse racing on
television).
The force of Jack’s charisma is shown when, at
the time of the Great Depression, he went about
persuading people to take a reduction on their
war loans in order that the Government’s finances
could be repaired. For that, and for other public
service, he was made Lord Mottistone.
While Jack was away with the Canadian Cavalry
his father, Sir Charles, had died. The Nottingham
coal estates went to his brother while Jack was left
the estates on the Island. “There wasn’t enough
income coming from the land,” says Patrick. “He
went through his money rather quickly.” Jack
sold the Brook estate and moved to Mottistone
– hence the choice of title. His son John was a
talented architect, known to the Bloomsbury set,
and it was he who took what had been a rather
dowdy farmhouse, its grounds partly subsumed by
a landslide, and, under the guidance of no lesser
figure than Sir Edward Lutyens, transformed it
into the elegant house it is today, in the style of an
Elizabethan manor.
To generate some income Jack took to writing
novels, the titles reflecting the tales of derring-do
which had been so much part of his own life:
Adventure, Forever England, My Horse Warrior,
and Launch, which is about Brook Lifeboat.
The Island's most loved magazine
life
Widower Jack married again, to the widow of
his Principal Private Secretary while he was in
parliament, Sir George Nicholson. His new wife
brought her seven-year-old, John into the Seely
family. Sir John Nicholson Bt grew up to become
the youngest chairman of the Blue Funnel shipping
line, and also ran all the supply lines to the Far East
for Mountbatten’s campaign in Burma.
“So all of this goes full circle. My Grandfather
was Lord Lieutenant in the 1930s, Mountbatten
became Lord Lieutenant, followed by John
Nicholson, and my father