c1912
Dr Dudley Willis Collings,
WMB (London), MRCS (England)(K1924)
Note: Dr Collings was a physician and surgeon. The UK Medical Register records him living in Ascot in 1911. He evidently purchased 'The Mount' soon after this. He became the town's Medical Officer of Health during the First World War, practising from rooms at No 3 Queen Street, and later moving his surgery to his home (K1925). In 1933, he became the founder and first curator of Southwold Museum. He was married to Theresa (nee Bond). Their son, Hubert Dennis Collings became assistant curator of the Raffles Museum in Singapore and a well-respected traveller, archaeologist and an eccentric and eclectic collector of artefacts. In his youth Dennis became a good friend of Eric Blair, better known as 'George Orwell'.
The friendship endured despite the fact that, in the 1920s, Eric had a now well documented, passionate love affair with Eleanor Jaques who was later to become Dennis's wife.
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