Sir Harry died on 13th August 1936, in his private suite at the Albion Hotel, of cancer, after many months of illness.

His funeral was attended by hundreds of people, too many to be accommodated at the funeral service itself. The roads were lined with onlookers as they watched the cortege make its way from Harry’s Royal Albion Hotel on the seafront, to St Peter’s Parish Church at York Place. London Road was also thronged with mourners as the funeral procession made its way from the church to the churchyard at Cuckfield, where Harry was laid to rest.

Peers, boxers, celebrities and representatives from all walks of life attended the funeral service. Two large motor coaches and several cars were needed to carry the huge numbers of floral tributes, one of which was sent from his good friend Edward, now King of England.

The passing of Sir Harry marks the closing of a chapter in the history of Brighton…. Brighton has lost her greatest ambassador, and the realm of sport one of its greatest figures.”

– The Brighton Herald

Harry is buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield, near his country home Apple Tree Cottage in Ansty. The burial plot is marked by a two-metre high granite monument that bears the inscription, “In Memory of my Beloved Husband Sir Harry Preston, born February 19th 1860, died August 13th 1936”.

News of Sir Harry’s death was reported in local tabloids and around the world, including in the New York Times and Sydney Morning Herald.

His great tournaments for hospitals brought him his knighthood. But those who knew him best will testify that the origin of those spectacular entertainments was his own sensitive sympathy with suffering humanity.”

– The Guardian

See also An Obituary.

Harry’s second book “Leaves From My Unwritten Diary“, was written in 1935 and published in 1936. In it, he explains that dates meant little to him, so that when he was asked to write his memoirs he did not have a diary to refer to.

“The truth is I have kept a swing door for more than half a century, and through it have passed all sorts and kinds of people. Between many of them and myself there has been struck the magic spark that kindles that best of all things – friendship. And if I number princes among my friends as well as politicians and pugilists, it is because one dash of sport makes the whole world kin.”

The book was dedicated to his daughter; “To MY DAUGHTER NANCY and her generation – the younger generation“.

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The high point of Harry’s life came on 12th July 1933 when he was knighted by King George V at Buckingham Palace for his services to charitable causes and sport.

It’s thought Harry raised around £30,000 for Sussex hospitals, and in excess of £100,000 for charities in total. That’s the equivalent of more than 7 million pounds in today’s money!

The following year in 1934 his wife, Edith, was presented at court and Nancy, their daughter, followed suit in 1935 aged 21.

In 1928 Harry published his first book, ‘Memories‘

“The world has been walking through my swing door for half a century now, and this fact – added to my keen interest in all kinds of sport, and especially in boxing, which has brought me into contact with all sorts of distinguished people, celebrities and good fellows – must be my chief excuse for thinking that perhaps I can tell some stories which may possibly interest and amuse others besides my personal friends. In the last twenty years I have declined a good many offers from publishers who were optimistic enough to think that my recollections would interest people; and it was only in the spring of this year that I at last decided to succumb to an invitation. After all I have arrived at the age of sixty-nine. I add this, also, to the list of my excuses.”

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