Twigg, Herbert James Thomas, 1900-1957 Born at Sheerness Kent, he became an engineering apprentice in Sheerness Dockyard from 1915-1922. His co-operative career commenced in 1919 when he became a member of the first education committee of Sheerness Economical Co-operative  Society. He spent two years at the Co-operative College, obtaining the co-operative honours diploma, the diploma in co-operative secretaryship and a variety of prizes. After a short time with the Co-operative Wholesale Society audit department in London, he moved to Manchester and the Co-operative Bank, gaining more prizes in banking examinations. In 1931 he joined the Co-operative Union as assistant labour adviser before moving to Plymouth Co-operative Society as general secretary and chief executive officer in 1941. He served the co-operative movement nationally, and the city of Plymouth locally for the rest of his life. He was a prolific writer on co-operative subjects, writing textbooks as well as contributing to various co-operative journals

 There is  a cornerstone  on the flour mill reading, "Pioneers of Co-operative Production - this stone was laid by Mr. W.J. Penney, president, on the 8th of May, 1875". It was the foundation stone of the first steam powered flour mill on the Isle of Sheppey (near the corner of Broad Street and Railway Road). According to "Co-operative Centenary 1816-1916: History of the Sheerness Economical Society Ltd.", prepared by W. Henry Brown (1918), the inauguration of the mill was a great occasion: "There was a tea to which the members and dealers (non-members) were invited. The band of the 13th Kent Artillery Volunteers played stirring music as the crowd gathered."

This is an extract from  D.H Lawrence the early years 1885-1912 by John Worthen published by Cambridge University Press

THE FAMILY OF D.H. LAWRENCE IN SHEERNESS

“In 1858 George Beardsall was taken on as a fitter at Sheerness Dockyard on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, their first son George was born in Sheerness in 1859. Lydia (Lawrence’s mother) was born in 1851. In Sheerness the family lived in Marine Town. It appears they tended to live rather beyond their means: they had pretensions which their actual income of around £90.00 a year could barely support. How it may be asked could a hired dockyard worker with a wife and five children earning 5s8d a day afford to live in the smartest and newest of Sheerness’s five towns.(My underlining) The answer is that they could not. But with an instinct for choosing the right place George had taken the family to the very edge of Marine Town, to an unpaved cul de sac of tiny two up two down cottages. The house was no more that nine feet wide. Here the Beardsall family of two adults and five children somehow managed to house a lodger as well. They must have been desperate for his rent. To add to their overcrowding and to their financial difficulties two more children, Mary Ann and Ada were born in Sheerness in 1862 and 1868……..Lydia Beardsall would have liked to be a teacher. She had worked unsuccessfully as a pupil- teacher in Sheerness when she was 13; she apparently tried to start a school there, and seems to have taught a little later (unqualified, apart from her time as a pupil-teacher) in a Dame’s school”

                               HENRY RUSSELL

THE REGIMENTAL MARCH OF HER MAJESTY'S ROYAL MARINES

A Life  on the Ocean Wave Regimental Quick March
The music of the Regimental March is derived from two songs composed during the first half of the 19th Century which remained popular and in print until about the First World War. The bulk of the march is taken from Henry Russell’s 'A Life on the Ocean Wave' published in the 1840's. Henry Russell was born into a Jewish family, Henry Levy, at Sheerness on 24 December 1812 and died in London, 8 December 1900. He was at one time a pupil of Rossini at Bologna and Naples, and went to Canada about 1833, and from thence to USA where he was organist of the Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY. He returned to England in 1841. In 1897, Henry Russell wrote to Mr. George Miller, Bandmaster RMLI, Portsmouth Division (later Major/Director of Music) and said 'A Life on the Ocean Wave' was composed by me some 60 years ago, whilst in America. The origin of the song emanated from Epps (Epes) Sargant, the poet, walking with him on the Battery, New York, watching the ships in the harbour. The scene before him gave him an idea that induced him to write the words, 'I set them to music and the song ultimately became one of the most popular in England and America'. Henry Russell composed over 800 songs and in his book of reminiscences 'Cheer Boys, Cheer' has outlived nearly every other melody, with perhaps the exception of 'A Life on The Ocean Wave'.. Examples in this collection include: The Newfoundland Dog, Far far upon the sea, Life on the wave, The main the flowing main, The lady leaves the banquet hall and I’m afloat I’m afloat. He was father of William Clarke Russell, famous as author of sea-novels and biographies, of Sir Herbert Russell the war correspondent, and of Sir Landon Ronald the composer.

 Lord William Penney

THE LORD PENNEY Of EAST HENDRED, O.M., K.B.E, Ph.D., D.Sc. F.R.S. Sir William Penney was the first Director of British nuclear weapon research. He was born in 1909 in Gibraltar where his father served as a Sergeant in the Army Ordnance Corps. His academic studies began in Colchester continued at the Sheerness Technical School and continued as a student at Imperial College, London. He then went to the University of Wisconsin for his Masters (1931-33) and Trinity College Cambridge for his PhD (1933-36) He returned to Imperial College as Assistant Professor of Mathematics in 1936.

Sir William became well known for his research work on atomic physics and as author of several articles on the theory of molecular structure. He was one of about 20 British scientists who went to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in 1944. A mathematician and explosives expert, he made measurements of the first nuclear test explosion on July 16, 1945.

He also served on the Target Committee, which met during April and May 1945 to select the Japanese cities upon which to drop the atomic bombs, and flew in the accompanying B-29 bomber that photographed the explosion of the Fat Man bomb on Nagasaki. Afterwards he went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to survey the damage.

In January 1947, Clement Attlee appointed him Chief Superintendent of Armament Research at the Ministry of Supply and placed him in charge of designing, producing, and testing the British atomic bomb. The first atomic weapon test occurred on October 3, 1952, in the Monte Bello Islands off the northwest coast of Australia. From 1953 to 1959, he directed the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, where British weapons are designed. He also supervised development of Britain's hydrogen bomb. He personally led the scientific team for the first British A-bomb drops at Maralinga.

In the period 1959 to 1961, he was the Atomic Energy Authority's Member for Research and it was in that role that he had the task of defining a strategy for computation within the Authority. He was Deputy Chairman of the Authority in the period 1961 to 1964, and became its Chairman in 1964 at which stage he gave up his role as Chairman of the Atlas Computer Committee.

He was created a Baron in 1967 when he became Rector of Imperial College, a post he held until his retirement in 1973.

He died on March 3, 1991 at the age of 81.