NEWS RELEASES
Hurst's Return to Horsham
4 March 2009
In the week the world’s press reported on the conviction of 5 Serbian leaders in former Yugoslavia for war crimes, Sir Cecil Hurst, one of the architects of war crime trials, comes home to Horsham. Sir Cecil was at the birth of a lasting change in foreign affairs.
War crimes and courts of international justice are ideas of the twentieth century and Sir Cecil was one of the leading stars in the movement that turned an idea into reality. On his retirement as President of the International Court of Justice at The Hague he was presented with a superb oil painting. This oil painting has now been lent to Horsham Museum - a fitting home for one of Horsham’s most celebrated sons.
Sir Cecil, who originally lived at Park House, was legal advisor to the Foreign Office at the end of World War One and became heavily involved with the Treaty of Versailles as well as the International Court of Justice, becoming President of the Permanent International Court. In 1940 Sir Cecil was elected President of the Grotius society, the leading society of international lawyers, and argued for making international law accessible and understandable to all. This was an important point at a time when people around the world were being called to fight for such legal rights.
It was on his retirement as President in 1948 that the Grotius society presented Sir Cecil with this oil painting by William Dring A.R.A., of Sir Cecil seated in the robes of an International Court judge. Sir Cecil died in 1962 and it is his grandchildren that have lent this portrait to the Museum. Antony Hurst, one of Sir Cecil’s grandchildren, commenting on the painting said that it was an extremely good likeness.
The painting is a significant and outstanding loan to the Museum as it portrays one of Horsham’s most important and noted sons. Whilst law books and case law may appeal to lawyers, and the actual laws created have, as in this case, world wide consequences of international importance, this portrait is understandable by all.
Along with this loan the Hurst family have also lent two silhouette miniatures of Sarah Hurst and Capt. Henry Smith, her eventual husband. These will form the centrepiece of a stunning temporary exhibition in May when we recount in words drawn from her own diaries the tale of a clandestine love between Sarah, a 23 year old tailor’s daughter, and a dashing captain. It is a match that broke the conventions of society at that time.
For further information please contact Jeremy Knight, Curator.
Horsham Museum
9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959 Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
www.horshammuseum.org