Hewitt's History Files

Cook was one of the founders of what is now Dell Quay Sailing Club, in Chichester Harbour, and it wants to honour his contribution.

Co-founder the Rev Meredith Baker is remembered in a portrait at the club and club president Dick Tomsett said he would love to find a portrait of Cook to hang alongside it.

"The club was founded in 1925 and Mr W Victor Cook was editor of the West Sussex Gazette, presumably at the time," Dick explains.

"He was also a novelist. I only read about two of his books but I think a lot of them, if not all of them, were based in the mediaeval period and they were all set in the immediate country around here.

"The only one I can particularly remember '“ although I don't remember the title '“ was based on Bramber Castle.

"The books were recommended to me.

"When I was at school in the 1930s, books would be recommended to you by the teaching staff, so they must have been good books."

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette November 28