What have the Attenborough Family got to do with Evington?
[Photograph:Leicester City Council-edited]
BBC News, Leicester reported recently on two new heritage panels erected by the City Council in Victoria park to celebrate the deep ties the Attenborough family have with the City of Leicester. A fascinating potted history is covered in the piece.
One panel honours the work of Frederick Attenborough who came to Leicester in 1932 as second principle at University College Leicester before it became Leicester University. He was of course father to Richard, David and John Attenborough, Richard now Lord Attenborough famous as a film actor and director, David now Sir David, broadcaster, writer, presenter and narrator and John, managing director of Mann Egerton’s Rolls-Royce division and later head of the British arm of Alfa Romeo.
The second panel celebrates Fredericks wife and mother to David, Richard and John, Mary, and her efforts to secure the safety and education of refugee children.
As Secretary of the Leicestershire Committee for Basque Children Mary was pivotal in the organisation and fundraising required to ensure the safe reception and care of refugees arriving in Leicester during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and World War II (1939-1945).
Prior to taking an interest in the plight of the Jewish people in Europe during the second world war, and she and Frederick working with other activists to smuggle Jewish children under 17 years old out of Germany, using their Leicester home as a half-way house in the children’s journeys on to safe havens, she was one of the people responsible for the reception and care of 50 children arriving in Leicester to escape the ravages of the Spanish Civil War. These children were given sanctuary at Evington Hall, a grade II listed mansion off Spencefield Lane, Evington. Thus, Evington has a direct connection to the Attenborough family.
(Photograph: avanti.org.uk)
The hall still exists today despite attempts to convert it into flats and sell off land at the site for housing. It is now the Leicester Krishna-Avanti Primary School, a Hindu free school which opened in 2011.
(Source: I-Dan Hunt, Heritage boards honour Attenborough legacy to city, BBC News, 31st July 2025. II-Leicester University Mary Attenborough (1896-1961) | Celebrating our Citizens of Change | University of Leicester). III-Leicester Mercury The stunning Victorian Leicester mansion which has dodged the demolition wrecking ball – Leicestershire Live)
