Washington Singer

Born in Yonkers, New York he was the third child of Isabella Eugenie Boyer and sewing machine magnate, Isaac Singer. The family moved to England when Washington Singer was still a child. He was raised at Oldway Mansion at Paignton on the Devon coast.

A Thoroughbred horse racing enthusiast, he won the 1905 St. Leger Stakes with the colt Challacombe, trained by Alec Taylor, Jr. and the 1932 2,000 Guineas with Orwell. The Washington Singer Stakes race at Newbury Racecourse is named in his honour.

He became a benefactor of a number of causes and was a substantial donor to the University College of the Southwest of England, which later became the University of Exeter. One of the university's buildings, which is home to the Department of Psychology, is named in his honour.

Singer lived at Steartfield House, Paignton (now the Palace Hotel).[1] On 21 July, 1915 he married Ellen Mary Longsdon, widow of Alfred Allen Longsdon, who had been drowned at Le Havre while driving his ambulance earlier that year. On 25 July, 1927 they adopted Mary's youngest son, Grant Allen, in the name of Grant Allen Singer (1915–1942).

In 1903, Singer purchased Norman Court, West Tytherley, Hampshire,[2] an 18th-century country house[3] with a 20,000-acre (81 km²) estate that included the Hampshire parishes of Buckholt and Frenchmoor, and in Wiltshire the village of West Dean and parts of Farley and Pitton. The estate was inherited by his son Grant but he was killed in action during World War II at the 1942 Second Battle of El Alamein while serving with the Royal Armoured Corps, 10th Royal Hussars.

Sold by his widow in 1952, Norman Court was the home of the private Norman Court Preparatory School from 1955 until 2012.[4] Since 2013 it has housed a Montessori school.[5] The building was recorded as Grade II* listed in 1986.[3]