Born and bred in Portsmouth, John Sadden (aka Sedden) attended Milton Junior Boys’ School and Southern Grammar School for Boys which at this point in its complex history (1946–63) was located on the present site of Portsmouth College because its original site (on land known as ‘the Wilderness’ between Victoria Road North and Fawcett Road, had been damaged during WWII. Leaving at sixteen, he worked at a variety of different jobs before returning to full-time education as a mature student at Portsmouth Polytechnic (now the University of Portsmouth) in the days when higher education was encouraged and supported by grants and there were no tuition fees.

John gained a first class honours degree and qualified as a teacher before working in public, education and other libraries and qualifying as a chartered librarian. He is now the part-time archivist at the Portsmouth Grammar School. As John Sadden, he has written and compiled many local history books, including Gosport from Old Photographs, Portsmouth Through Time, The Portsmouth Book of Days, and Portsmouth: In Defence of the Realm. His wonderful novel, Mudlark, published by Puffin under a thinly-disguised pseudonym in 2005, draws brilliantly and inventively on his extensive research into the social history of Portsmouth during the First World War.

If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions about the map entries please contact the Map Director Dr Mark Frost, English Literature Department, University of Portsmouth: mark.frost@port.ac.uk