A new installation in Leicester’s Victoria Park unveiled this week celebrates the many and varied accomplishments of the family Attenborough.
In the minds of many in the UK, the name “Attenborough” is synonymous mostly with the world famous natural history television personality and researcher. Yet these heritage boards aim to showcase the wider family’s work, and their connection to the city of Leicester.
One panel focuses on the work of Frederick Attenborough. Born in 1887, this patriarch became a leading light in the history of University College. He ran the Borough Road Training College in Isleworth from 1925 to 1932 and then from 1932 to 1951 he was the Principal of what would become the University of Leicester. It is this Attenborough who a seventeen story part of the central campus is named after.
The board also features his three sons, the famous actor Lord Richard Attenborough – Accomplished RAF pilot and famous Hollywood actor, widely recognised for his roles in such films as Miracle on 34th Street and Jurassic Park, John Attenborough a senior executive for Rolls Royce and Alfa Romeo and successful financial advisor, and Sir David Attenborough, the accomplished documentarian whose voice has been explaining the natural world to global audiences for decades.
On the board’s other side is a tribute to Mary Attenborough, Frederick’s wife and powerhouse of a person in her own right. Much like the other members of the family, she was determined to not let accomplishment slip her by. In 1934 she helped establish the Soroptimist Club, and later worked for the National Council of Women, Leicester branch and the Leicester Women’s luncheon club.
Later in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War, Mary Attenborough was heavily involved in the sheltering of 50 unaccompanied Spanish children refugees at Evington Hall in Leicester. This kindness would continue into the 1940s where she and her husband took in two Kindertransport Jewish refugees escaping the Nazis.
This particular act may have been the kindling of David Attenborough’s later interest in the natural world, as one of these two children gifted him with a piece of amber containing preserved fragments of creatures from times long past.
Peter Soulsby, the mayor of the city of Leicester said the Attenboroughs were “synonymous” with Leicester and commented upon the way he had been “struck by their warmth” for the people of the city.
More information about the Attenboroughs and others of significance to Leicester’s history can be found on the website StoryOfLeicester.info
