Person Page - 398

A wedding of considerable local interest took place at Holy Trinity Church, Tunbridge Wells, on Saturday, when Miss Edith Doyle Sewell, daughter of the late Rev. H.D. Sewell, M.A., Vicar of Headcorn, Kent, and of Mrs Sewell, 12, Calverley Park Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, was married to Mr J.W. Tyndale McClellan, son of the Rev. J.B. McClellan, M.A., Principal of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. The Rev. B.J. Stather Hunt, Vicar of the parish, officiated, assisted by the Rev. J.B. McClellan, father of the bride-groom. The Church was very prettily decorated for the occasion with palms and white chrysanthemums. Dr. Hathaway, organist of Tonbridge Parish Church, presided at the instrument.
     The bride was charmingly attired in a dress of ivory satin, the bodice draped with Carrickmacross lace, the gift of her sister, Mrs. J.C. Knocker. She carried a bouquet of white carnations, lilies of the valley, heather, and orange blossom, and wore a pearl and diamond star, the gift of her mother. There were four bridesmaids, Miss Joy Cave and Miss Kitty McClellan (nieces of the bridegroom), Miss Doris Candy and Miss Enid Candy. They wore white silk frocks, trimmed with Valenciennes lace, with lace caps and wreaths of pink Banksia roses. Shepherds' crooks with bunches of pink roses and ribbons were carried; and gold and pearl brooches, the gifts of the bridegroom, worn. Master Harold Knocker, nephew of the bride, acted as page, wearing a white satin suit with three cornered hat and plume. The bridegroom's gift to him was a gold tiepin. Mrs Sewell, mother of the bride, wore a dress of vieux rose Oriental satin, with velvet toque and ostrich feather of the same shade. Col. Smith was the best man. After the ceremony, a reception was held at 32, Calverley Park Gardens, and subsequently Mr and Mrs McClellan left for Switzerland, the bride travelling in a costume of plum coloured velvet, with pale blue silk hat.^4,5

News of the death in Switzerland of Mr. St. George Stephen Tyndale McClellan was telephoned to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. T. McClellan, at their home, The Cottage, Horsmonden, on New Year's Eve.
The last victim of an Alpine accident in 1933, Mr. McClellan lost his life at noon on Saturday in the Bernese Oberland.
He was attempting the traverse between the Kleine Scheidegg and the Mannlichen, above Wengen, with a group of ten English and Belgian tourists. A well-known Swiss Alpinist preceded the party, and finding the snow dangerous warned them not to follow him. Mr. McClellan apparently did not hear the warning and went forward on his skis.
He was swept away by an avalanche and his body was recovered after two hours search in six feet of snow.
"He loved the mountains and it was the way he would have chosen to die," wrote one of the many friends who shared with Mr. McClellan's family in their grief. Another wrote: "It was a wonderful death, swift and easy - a sudden rush of whiteness and then a great peace." Mr. McClellan was known in Horsmonden as a very able tennis player. He had an agreeable personality, and his parents have received innumerable letters couched in the highest terms of affection and admiration.
Mr. McClellan, who was on holiday at Horsmonden only last autumn, was born at Nairobi. Kenya Colony, on St. George's Day. April 23, 1909. He was educated at Chillon College, Switzerland, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he took an Honours degree in History in 1931.
Choosing teaching as his profession, he tutored privately in England for a few years, and in the autumn of 1936 took a post as assistant coach at Chateau d'Oex. Switzerland. After two happy years of congenial work in the country he loved so well, he had just been appointed to a mastership at Chillon College when the accident occurred which ended his short career.
In accordance with the parents' wishes, a service was arranged in the English Church at Grindelwald on Monday night, when prayers were offered by the Rev. Selwyn Cox and Mr. Gilbert played the organ. Mr. Henri Graf, one of Mr. McClellan's Swiss ski-ing friends, helped to carry him into the church, and several other in friends were present. On Tuesday morning there was a most impressive service at Grindelwald. which was attended not only by every adult visitor in the hotel at which he was staying, but also by many friends from Switzerland and France.
The bearers were Mr. Gottfried Bohren, chief of the guides. Mr. Robert Schlee, Mr. Henri Graf and Mr. Hans Hauser.
The service was choral and included the hymns "O God, our help" and "Sun of my soul." Mr. Gilbert played Chopin's Funeral March and the Nunc Dimitis as the cortege left the church.
Among the 57 people present were Mr. King, principal of the Chateau d'Oex. and Mrs. King.
Wreaths were sent on behalf of his mother and father, Cherry and John. Mr. and Mrs. King, the Hanser Famlly and his friends at the hotel.
The cremation took place at Berne to a moving organ accompaniment, and was attended by Miss Copland, Mr. John Moore, Mr. Hans Hauser, Mr. Schlee, Dr. and Mrs. T. J. Drakeley and Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Knocker, of Southborough. Kent.
The ashes were flown over from Switzerland on Wednesday by Mr. Schlee, leader of the winter sports party to which Mr. MrClellan was attached.
The interment took place at Brenchley yesterday (Thursday), when the Vicar (the Rev. A. P. McNeile) officiated. The service included the 24th Psalm and Mr. Walter Neal played two compositions by Bach, of whose whose music Mr. McClellan had been very fond.
The immediate mourners were Mr. J. W. T. Mcclellan. C.M.G. and Mrs McClellan (parents). Brig.-General J. W. S. Sewall, C. B., C.M.G., and Mrs. J. W. S. Sewell, Colonel E. P. Sewell. C.M.C., D.S.O., and Mrs. E. P. Sewell, Mrs. Algernon P. Sewell and Lady Cave (uncles and aunts, Mr. Douglas Sewell, Miss Olive Sewell and Mrs. Shirley Knocker (cousins).
Mr. J. E. McClellan. a younger brother, who is in Zanzibar, was not able to attend.
Others present included Brig.-General O. E. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bowring, Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Bridges, Mrs. Morley, Mr. F. Locket, Mr. and Mrs. E. Meeres, Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Philpott, Mr. F. H. Baber, Miss Levett, Mr. W. Dods, Miss Smith. Mr. Bagge and Niece, Mrs. Austen, Mr. D. Drury and Mr. E. Bromley.
Flowers were received from his Mother and Father; John; Phoebe and Joyce; Ann and Arthur; Aunt Maud and Uncle Evelyn; Margaret and Richard; Henry; Betty, Joan and Peter; Winifred and William; Zebee and Vivian; John; Aunty May, Uncle Jack and Betty; his Godfather. S.S.B; Fay Knocker; Aunt Frieda. Douglas and Olive; M. C. C. and Frank McClellan; Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Bridges; Mr. and Mrs Arthur Bowring and Tom; Mr. and Mrs E. W. M. Meeres and John; Mr. E. C. Crewe Read; Brigadier-General and Mrs. J. W. S. Sewell; Brigadier-General G. E. Smith; Mt. and Mrs. J. G. Philpott; the Locket Family; Lady Clarke; S. E. Gregory; Mr and Mrs. Harold Payne; Mrs. W. Smith-Marnott and All at Broadford; Miss Levett and Mr. R. Levett; Lieut.-Colonel H. T. and Mrs. McClellan; Harriet; Bromley; and George Creswick, Felix Crowder, Geoffrey Griffiths, Dick Gundry and Kay Jones, Sidney Sussex College 1928-1931 (" With deepest sympathy and pleasantest recollections of a charming friend"). Kent & Sussex Courier, January 6, 1939.