Frank Surgey - a short history 1890-1974

Born before the invention of telephone, brought up in Victorian Finchley, a student of architecture and interior design in London and New York, a fighter pilot in World War I, a renowned shot, sailor, fisherman and family man, who rose to the very top of his chosen field to became one of the most respected authorities in the antiques world.

Frank was born on 23 March 1893, the youngest son of Thomas Gaisford Surgey, Stockbroker, and Ellen Borlase Surgey (ne Eady), and brother to Thomas, Ernest, Herman and Leslie.

Little is recorded of his early years but, in 1913, he left school at 18 and joined the well-known interior decorating firm, White Allom, learning his trade on schemes which included Buckingham Palace. He studied architecture in his spare time and, at 20, went to New York as Sir Charles Allom’s assistant, working on the decoration of steel magnate Frick’s mansion. Here, he also trained as an architect and studied at the Frick Museum.

The following year, at the outbreak of World War I, Frank came back from America to join the British army in France. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corp as a fighter pilot in the 45th Squadron, surviving numerous dog-fights and a number of crashes. When the war ended, he returned to White Allom before starting his own interior design business.

Frank, with his trademark straight-stem pipe and pair of Holland & Holland shotguns, was reputed to have been a very good shot, appearing sometimes alongside King George V, against whom he also sailed in the big cutter races on Sir Charles Allom’s White Heather, challenging the famous royal racing yacht Britannia.

On the 7th June 1922, he married Molly Clark and their first wedding anniversary saw the birth of the first of their three children, David. Edwin followed in 1925 and daughter Jane in 1929.

Around this time, Frank was joined by the flamboyant extrovert Murray Adams-Acton. Together they formed Acton Surgey Ltd , specialising in architectural renovation, interior decoration, and antique furnishings and fittings, with showrooms in Mayfair and at Weycroft Abbey near Axminster, Devon.

In 1925 Frank began to supply and advise Sir William Burrell, the shipping magnate who owned Hutton Castle near Berwick-upon-Tweed – an association that lasted 30-years. During the early 1930s he collected the furniture, tapestries, lighting, fireplaces, doors and panelling of what was to become the world-famous Burrell Collection, now one of Glasgow’s major tourist attractions. Frank was appointed President of the British Antique Dealers Association in 1933 and made an Honoray Lifetime Member in 1951.

The family grew up in a series of beautiful houses and in the company of some unusual pets which included several monkeys, an enormous Airedale, a few jackdaws and a brown bear called Bobby. Their favourite holiday haunts were on the coasts of Norfolk, Dorset, Devon and the Isle of Wight. Molly and Frank travelling to Venice in 1930.

In 1936, tragedy struck as Molly died of Hodgkinson’s disease at the age of only 36 and life went on hold for everyone. No holiday is recorded the following year but the family has happier memories of renting a holiday cottage for the next two summers on an island in the Thames at Boulter’s Lock near Maidenhead.

A month after the outbreak of World War II, Frank married Winifred Strangeways, a research scientist on tropical diseases at Cambridge. They moved to Blackburn in Lancashire to run an aircraft parts factory until the end of the war. Their daughter, Pamela, was born there in 1942 and son John in ’46.

In ‘47 the family moved back south to Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Frank returned to Glasgow at Sir William’s request to search for a site for a museum to house the complete Burrell Collection which Sir William had bequeathed to the city. Frank also drew up architectural plans for the building but these were eventually abandoned after Burrell’s death in ‘58 in favour of those from a Scottish architect.

In 1950 Frank bought a beautiful, red-soiled Devon farming estate, Pascoe House near Bow, Crediton, complete with its home farm, Appledore, and herd of pedigree dairy Shorthorn cows. They farm there for nine years before retiring to West Grimstead, near Salisbury, Wiltshire and then to Branscombe Park, Bournemouth. His five children are all married and produce eleven grandchildren.

On 17th March 1980, Frank died a few days before his 88th birthday in Market Harborough, Leicestershire where he and Winifred had moved to be closer to daughter Pamela and her family. It marked the end of an era – an exhilarating lifetime of change, opportunity and achievement, the like of which may never be seen again.

© Copyright of Lifechart 2007