Town's first plaque commemorates TV pioneer

Set on the corner of recently-built Baird Court, Station Road, the plaque commemorates television pioneer John Logie Baird, who spent the last 18 months of his life in Bexhill and died in 1946, aged 57.

Mr Baird had a high opinion of sea air, according to his son Malcolm, and the family moved to 1, Station Road after their house in Sydenham was bombed.

He divided his time between researching the world's first cathode ray tube for colour television in London, and relaxing in Bexhill.

He died shortly after a stroke in June 1946, one week after the BBC resumed its national television service.

The blue plaque was put up last week. Replacing the original brass plaque (the whereabouts of which is still unknown), was a condition of the planning application, said Tim Hickling, Rother District Council's head of planning.

Julian Porter, curator of Bexhill Museum, said: "I can't remember any other plaques in the town. Bexhill is a bit short on plaques, we tend to have graphic boards.

"That's not to say there aren't lots of places that deserve them, but it's also whether the resident wants a plaque on the outside of their house."

Other contendors for a Bexhill blue plaque:

Spike Milligan - The comedian was stationed here from 1940-1942. Most of the first volume of his war memoir, Adolf Hitler - My Part In His Downfall, is set in Bexhill, which he affectionately nicknamed a graveyard above the ground.

Eddie Izzard - The A-Lister took time off his latest sell-out tour to return to his childhood town on Thursday, cutting the ribbon of the newly refurbished Bexhill Museum.

Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg - the penultimate colonial governor of Guyana died aged 60 in Bexhill. He is still honoured by the Ghanaian government.

Alex Sanders - High priest of the Wiccan religion, named King of the Witches by the devouts of his 101 covens, lived his later years in Bexhill Old Town.

Harry Grindell Matthews, an English inventor who became nicknamed Death Ray Matthews in the 1920s after he claimed to have created a ray that would shoot down aeroplanes and ignite gunpowder. He began his experiments in a lab set-up on Lord De La Warr's estate in Bexhill.

Desmond Llewelyn - the Welsh actor who played Q in many of the Bond film, resided here until 1999, when he died in a car accident.

Do you know any buildings deserving a blue plaque? Leave your comments below.