ABSTRACT
Carrie, Harold and Edith moved from their comfortable Victorian home in South Hill Park Gardens, Hampstead, with Clara to a large wooden bungalow clad in galvanised iron, painted in red oxide and with an asbestos roof. It had a deep wooden veranda facing the sea. Inside there was a long corridor with rooms off both sides rather reminiscent of an army barracks. The building was perched high up on the cliff edge overlooking Sidmouth and the sea, although it was set back a couple of hundred feet from the cliff face. The address was ‘Clifton’, Cliff Road, Sidmouth. There were no fitted carpets and only a few rugs. The aura of the place was austere, frugal and utilitarian.1 The only remarkable item in the bungalow was the grand piano placed in the annexe, which was played by Robert Collet, Wilfred’s son, when he visited his aunts and uncle and who had inherited Collet Dobson Collet’s flair for music. Elizabeth Nash became Clara’s companion during her last years, and her daughter, Connie, can remember standing unobserved on the veranda listening transfixed as Robert Collet played the piano.2
