5. Brass plaque on north wall of north transept:

In Memory of JAMES ALLEN / FREEBORN HOWELL / Born 24 March 1887 / Formerly pupil at the Royal / Naval Academy, Bognor ; who / lost his life 5 November 1904 / when the ship “Brier Holme, on / which he was apprenticed, went / down off Tasmania. This tablet / is erected by his schoolfellows / July 1905. / Eric Gill, Sculptor, Artist and Type-Face designer and his brother MacDonald, cartographer and also a pupil of the Royal Naval Academy, designed the plaque.

We are hugely indebted to Caroline Walker, great-niece of MacDonald and Eric Gill (her grandfather was their brother Evan) who is undertaking research on Macdonald Gill; her research on Macdonald Gill’s ledgers now gives us the information on when the plaque was created and and also reveals that the plaque below for Gabbet was also by Macdonald Gill.

Macdonald Gill ledger 15 entry 08 24/9/1905Macdonald 

Gill ledger 20 entry 83 for 6/5/1910 (refurbishment/ painting?)