You may have heard of a connection between Sir David Attenborough, his elder brother Lord Richard Attenborough, and Sawley.
They never lived in Sawley (despite Wikipedia claiming Richard Attenborough lived at Bothe Hall – don’t believe everything on the Internet!). But their mother was from Sawley and Richard came to support the Sawley Carnival and later opened the Memorial Hall.
David Attenborough came to Sawley in 2024 to unveil a blue plaque at Rye Hill Close on Tamworth Road, near Bradshaw Street, the home of his maternal grandparents – Samuel Clegg and Mary Bradshaw.
Their father, Frederick Levi Attenborough, came from Stapleford, where his family ran a bakery. Frederick became a teacher and lodged for a while in Bradshaw Street, while working at Long Eaton School, where Samuel Clegg was the headmaster. He left Sawley to study at Cambridge University and went on to join the staff. In 1922, whilst a fellow at Emmanuel College, he married Mary Clegg and their first son, Richard was born there a year later. In 1925 Frederick and Mary moved to Isleworth (West London) where Frederick took over the training college. David was born in Isleworth in 1926. Frederick then became the principal of University College, Leicester in 1932 and the family lived there for the next 20 years.
Mary Attenborough (nee Clegg) also led an eventful life. In January 1914 (aged 17) she left Sawley to study at the Sorbonne in Paris, but her studies were cut short by the outbreak of WW1. She later gained a degree at (what became) Nottingham University.
In the 1920s and 1930s she was busy raising 3 children and being the wife of a college principal. In the late 1930s she took on a pivotal role in organising local support for child refugees from the Spanish Civil War. During WW2 she helped Jewish children fleeing Nazi Germany and later adopted two sisters. She died in a car accident in London in 1961.
