The History of 27 Lewes Crescent

​27 Lewes Crescent

There is no record of any occupants before the 1851 census, suggesting this was a house that Kemp failed to sell or let – or possibly even to complete – for many years. It is likely that the house was let as a furnished residence throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The 1851 census shows a military connection; Henry Bathurst (1809-1881) was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Scots Guards who had served in the Peninsular War as military secretary to the Duke of Wellington. He was in Kemp Town with his wife Emily, their four servants and his only child, also Henry, who at 18 was a second lieutenant in the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Younger Henry went on to serve with distinction in the Crimean War, being severely wounded in the arm at the Battle of Alma in 1854 and subsequently decorated.