WGC Heritage Trust YouTube Channel

The Welwyn Garden City Heritage Trust Youtube Channel was launched with an online talk on Sir Theodore Chambers - Welwyn Garden City's Third Man presented by Geoffrey Hollis, with added thanks to: Tony Skottowe, Quintin Chambers, David Fraser and Frank Puranik. Click here to view.

Sir Theodore Chambers was chosen by Ebenezer Howard in 1920 to be the first Chairman of the Company that built Welwyn Garden City. He held that post until 1948 and became its last Chairman when it was nationalised by the government and subsumed into Welwyn Hatfield New Town. It is widely accepted that his skills, contacts and drive were key to getting the town built. This talk covers his life and achievements which went far beyond Welwyn Garden. It contains previously unseen pictures contributed by family members, and home videos of visits to a son living in British Columbia, obtained from Canadian National Archives.

Geoffrey Hollis has previously researched Louis de Soissons, the Garden City’s Chief Architect, for a talk also sponsored by the WGC Heritage Trust. He discovered that Louis’ parents had falsely passed themselves off as the Count and Countess de Soissons, when both were from Poland. Sir Theodore came from solid upper middle class stock with a long pedigree – but there were still some surprising facets to his life which the talk reveals.