Sir Alfred Dyer

Sir Alfred Dyer (9 February 1865 – 15 November 1947) was a British journalist, chief executive, and Conservative Party politician. In the course of his long career, he held a great number of offices in the Hastings borough.

Life Born at Dover on 9 February 1865 and educated privately, Dyer served his apprenticeship with Messrs. F. J. Parsons LTD at their Hastings office, where he was later chief executive officer, and then went to take up a journalistic career in the Midlands and the West of England. It was while he was on the staff of an Exeter paper that he met his wife, Edith Kate Havill, who was a member of a well-known family in that city. For several years, he was editor of the Gravesend and Northfleet Standard, and he then joined the staff of the Daily Mail for a time as reporter and then as sports editor and subsequently night editor.

Dyer resigned his Fleet Street post to become editor of the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on the death of the first editor in 1902. With the full support and encouragement of his employers, the new Observer editor began a vigorous press campaign to revitalise the town. The Observer became the mouthpiece of the Progressive League and Dyer lost no opportunity of urging upon the Hastings Borough Council and readers of the day his wish for bolder policies in the town's affairs. The development of Hastings as a centre of bowls is largely due to his advocacy.

Dyer was one of the founders of the Ex-Service Men's Club formed immediately after the First World War, and for some time was its honorary secretary. Later, he successfully appealed for funds to provide for the local branch of the British legion, and was appointed an honorary member of the Legion and became one of the trustees of the local headquarters. He took a keen and active interest in movements to alleviate distress among local unemployed in the years between the wars.

For twenty-five years he was chairman of the Hastings and St. Leonards Conservative Association, retiring from the position in July 1946. During his period of service, nine Parliamentary elections, including two by-elections were held in the borough, in all of which the Conservative candidate was successful. Dyer was a member of the Executive Council of the Primrose League and for a time served as Deputy Ruling Councillor. He was also keenly interested in the local parliament, in which for many years he held the position of speaker.

Dyer also held several important positions in Freemasonry. He was Past Provincial Grand Warden of Sussex and Past Master of the Hastings Lodge, of which he was secretary for twenty-five years. He was for many years chairman of the Hastings Masonic Hall Company and was an honorary member of the St. Michael's, Andredesweald and St. Richard Lodges, P. Z. of the Emulation Chapter No. 40, Royal Arch Masons, and one of the founders and first Principal of the Hastings Chapter. He was also Past Most Wise Sovereign, Albion Chapter, Rose Croix.

Death Sir Alfred Dyer died on 15 November 1947 in the Buchanan Hospital in St Leonards-on-Sea, survived by his son and daughter. He had been in failing health for some time following the death of his wife on 4 March 1946.

Tribute was paid by the Mayor of Hastings, Alderman F. W. Chambers, who said it was fitting that they should recognise the great loss the Bench, the town, and the country had suffered. Chambers relayed from his own experience that Dyer had brought to his task on the bench a mind always balanced, always cool in judgement, always fair, always impartial. He contributed in very marked degree to all good causes in the town, and many people and many societies mourned his loss, as his fellow magistrates did.

At a meeting of the National Union of Journalists, branch chairman A. J. Marshall said that not only was Dyer a very well-known journalist, but he was a most public-spirited man, who did a great deal of work for his town outside his office. Many of the members had been associated with him in a professional capacity for a number of years, and all those who knew him admired his high integrity as a journalist, and had learned to regard him with affection and esteem. The meeting stood in silence, and it was agreed that a letter be written to Major W. H. Dyer, Corporation Publicity Officer, who was a member of the branch, expressing sympathy with him and the other members of the family in their bereavement.

Dyer remains the only editor of a Sussex newspaper upon whom a knighthood has ever been bestowed.