Strange that snooty Eastbourne was Friedrich Engels’ favourite holiday destination!

I agree with Ian Turner (letters, last week) that Friedrich Engels’ liking for Eastbourne and his frequent holidays in the town should be acknowledged.

Reinstatement of the plaque recognising this historic link, currently in exile in a Manchester museum, makes sense, but perhaps space might also be found for a modest display in the Beachy Head Centre – soon to be overhauled and renamed the Beachy Head Story.

Eduard Bernstein, the socialist academic and friend of Engels and Marx, wrote in his diary: “About five or six miles off Beachy Head, in the year 1895, the Avelings (Edward Aveling, partner of Marx’s daughter, Eleanor), the old Communist Leaguer Friedrich Lessner, and myself, on a very rough day of autumn, cast into the sea the urn containing the ashes of our friend Friedrich Engels.

“Engels, who died on the 8th of August, had directed, in a letter enclosed with his will, that his body should be cremated and the ashes thrown into the sea.

“And since we knew of his predilection for delightful Eastbourne, the sea off Beachy Head was chosen as the most suitable spot for the execution of this portion of his last will and testament.”

Strange to think that snooty Victorian Eastbourne was the favourite holiday location of the co-author – with Karl Marx – of The Communist Manifesto.