Posts
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
The ATS girl who worked in the bunker
One of the very happy outcomes of my "Churchill's Secret Reigate" talk was a phone call from a lady in the audience who has found this little gem.
In a 4-page document we can see a photo and read about Eileen Olive McKerron, nee Graves. She describes in exact detail her uniform issued, her daily tasks and memorable moments between 11/12/1942 and July 1945. How exciting to be posted in her home county, in the signal office tunnelled out of the chalk hills, up steep steps and narrow paths and the whole area disguised with camouflage material. Inside the tunnels were the cipher room, the office, the radio room, the switchboards and the teleprinter room - all in constant use and with urgent, important messages. When the news of the success of the invasion of Normandy reached them, the office staff felt that they had done really valuable work.
She even chronicles as memorable moments the cycling in Surrey with most signposts missing, and watching the 'doodlebugs spluttering overhead'.
You can read this rare document here:
http://www.atsremembered.org.uk/mckerronsheetpdf.pdf.
In a 4-page document we can see a photo and read about Eileen Olive McKerron, nee Graves. She describes in exact detail her uniform issued, her daily tasks and memorable moments between 11/12/1942 and July 1945. How exciting to be posted in her home county, in the signal office tunnelled out of the chalk hills, up steep steps and narrow paths and the whole area disguised with camouflage material. Inside the tunnels were the cipher room, the office, the radio room, the switchboards and the teleprinter room - all in constant use and with urgent, important messages. When the news of the success of the invasion of Normandy reached them, the office staff felt that they had done really valuable work.
She even chronicles as memorable moments the cycling in Surrey with most signposts missing, and watching the 'doodlebugs spluttering overhead'.
You can read this rare document here:
http://www.atsremembered.org.uk/mckerronsheetpdf.pdf.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Churchill's Secret Reigate photobook
I am getting ready for my 2nd lecture about 'Churchill's Secret Reigate' next Saturday. Over 100 people have reserved free virtual tickets and there are limited spaces with good visibility.
This will be videoed fortunately, since publishing any research is a challenge. A few notable Churchillians, friends and military historians have seen the potential and are offering great support.
Would you like to view my souvenir photobook free of charge? Please scroll down to see the link. It's of little consequence compared with the material I'm able to share in my talk. If you'd actually like to purchase it, then I will send £4 for each copy to CHASE Children's Hospice, since I gather the small amount of Govt. funding has just been cancelled.
It was a treat this week to hear from Eric Sykes' agent regarding my research. His message is that Churchill was always his hero and I am very welcome to include an extract from his autobiography about his experience of Reigate during WW2. Certainly, it is an honour to do so. Eric Sykes was in the RAF stationed at Gatton Park. His book recounts how he was in radio signals and barely saw any aircraft, let alone women, but describes beautifully, the day he first walked all the way down the hill to Reigate and saw the Canadian effect of their troops that were over here. I think that all this time, he didn't realise that Reigate Hill was actually the HQ of South Eastern Command and exactly where Monty was in charge. It says a lot for the disguise techniques that I describe in my lecture. Eric Sykes has also documented his experience of D-Day after leaving Gatton, and later on, years later, meeting up with a fellow Canadian and introducing him to Vera Lynn. The message to me was that he was "thrilled"about my news.
So do take a look. On page 25, right at the end, is a poem by a good friend of mine who has a knack of encapsulating a great story, in a nutshell. The previous pictures have no caption so you can make up your own story if you are inspired to do so. Please notice Winnie the Pooh on page 2.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
The secret tunnels of Reigate Hill
I learned recently that "our" Reigate Hill underground Battle HQ known as Monty's Hideout was the inspiration for the secret tunnels of South Heighton on the South Downs for the Navy - started and completed soon afterwards in 1941.
Geoffrey Ellis describes this as follows:
'Col. FH Foster DSO OBE TD RL RIBA CRA 4 Corps Troops Royal Engineers disclosed how he designed the subterranean labyrinth after visiting Montgomery's headquarters at Reigate."
Haven Life, March 2006 page 19.
Take a look at the photos - it's a magnificent story of perseverance and restoration. The South Heighton site was eventually recognised as being of National Importance by English Heritage.
www.secret-tunnels.co.uk
A little snippet of information I like is that one of the secret entrances was disguised a chicken coop.
Now then, how about its inspiration, here in Reigate?
Geoffrey Ellis describes this as follows:
'Col. FH Foster DSO OBE TD RL RIBA CRA 4 Corps Troops Royal Engineers disclosed how he designed the subterranean labyrinth after visiting Montgomery's headquarters at Reigate."
Haven Life, March 2006 page 19.
Take a look at the photos - it's a magnificent story of perseverance and restoration. The South Heighton site was eventually recognised as being of National Importance by English Heritage.
www.secret-tunnels.co.uk
A little snippet of information I like is that one of the secret entrances was disguised a chicken coop.
Now then, how about its inspiration, here in Reigate?
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Reigate's famous centenarian parrot, Charlie
It had to happen.
I gave my illustrated talk on "Churchill's Secret Reigate" in November to a very appreciative audience of Churchill Fellows, Churchill fans and local people, with the promise that I would repeat it in January for those we didn't have enough seats for that day.
Many thanks to Major-General Jamie Balfour for introducing me and to Randolph Churchill who spoke to us afterwards, and there was time for several questions.
Perhaps it was inevitable. I had carefully avoided the subject of Charlie the parrot because I know that Winston Churchill's daughter Mary, Lady Soames, had commented several years ago that it was too tiresome for words!
However, this is what people wanted to ask about.
Yes, I was very non-committal in my replies but, knowing that I shall be doing the talk again to a larger audience, and also publishing my research some time soon, it seemed like a GOOD IDEA to go and do a little bit of investigating of my own about Charlie the parrot.
So off I went on a dull and dreary afternoon to Heathfield Nurseries on Reigate Heath where Charlie lives. It is a beautifully tranquil setting with its trusty old greenhouses, pots of bulbs, a huge, health-giving aloe vera plant and bucketfuls of deep yellow and orange chrysanthemums. It shares its name with Heathfield, the spacious mansion next door that was the home of movie magnate and miller, J Arthur Rank. His father Joseph was the richest man in England, by the way, so he would have had his pick of excellent locations in which to make their family home. A devout Methodist and Sunday School Superintendent, J.Arthur was also a great fan of Churchill. He was one of the group of people who contributed to the purchase of Chartwell some time post-war, so that Churchill could live out his days there. But I digress.
To my delight, I met the manager of the Nurseries, Sylvia. She already knew about the talk I had given - her customers had been talking about it! She simply gave me the story of Charlie the parrot so there seems to be a simple explanation of why there have been so many denials and rumours over the years. I see there is even a Wikipedia page about Charlie (and as usual it needs a bit of modification to set the record straight).
This is what I gleaned from my conversation with Sylvia.
For a start, Charlie is a female. She is a blue and gold macaw. She is not the same Charlie Parrot that lived at Dabner's pet shop in Redhill, nor the Charlie Parrot that lived at the Reigate pet shop, Gay Dogs (the name has since been changed...). In the words of Monty Python, both of those Charlies are deceased, no more.
She has lived at Heathfield Nurseries since about 1995, and she shares her light and airy modern conservatory with her good friends Rosie, an African Grey and Daisy, a Bare-eyed Cockatoo. They certainly all look pretty perky and in good health, with the radio playing music in the background. In warmer weather, Charlie is happy to go walkabout around the nurseries and doesn't ever fly off, so it appears that she is very settled there in her old age of about 106, and is counting her blessings, perhaps! Rosie often snuggles up to her affectionately. In all this time Charlie has been a single girl - no mate and not had a chance to breed. Her glistening rich blue head feathers are a bit of a contrast to her rather bald chest because she has developed a habit of plucking out those feathers. According to the vet, she is unlikely to stop now. Perhaps it's a fashion statement.
So how did she come to live in Reigate? What tales would she tell us if she could? These days, she is keeping quiet.
Sylvia assures me that Charlie was one of the birds bought for Winston Churchill's menageries at Chartwell from Mr Dabner's pet shop in Surrey Street, Croydon. This outdoor location at Chartwell could explain why Lady Soames doesn't recollect seeing the macaw there.
She showed me a large black and white photograph of Churchill from the Getty archives, with a cockatoo on his left shoulder and a macaw - Charlie?, on his right. This had been given to her by one of the newspapers that featured the story a few years ago.
In 1965, when Mr Churchill had passed away, Charlie was returned to Mr Dabner and she lived there in the pet shop in Croydon for the next thirty years.
HOWEVER.... if you remember Surrey Street from all those years ago, as I do, you would recall a thriving open street market, bulging with fruit and veg, and ringing with the raucous sounds of the traders and market boys that jostled for business. Dabner's pet shop would certainly not have been able to offer a peaceful, serene outdoor setting that Charlie was used to. She would have had to endure prodding and teasing, and no doubt, many lessons in swearing, the cursing of Hitler and Churchill impressions from those mischievous young lads! How undignified for such a glamorous and high class bird used to much more refined versions of the English language!
And what was the result of this bad company for all those years? She must have become more and more unhappy. Sadly she was repeating profanities that we won't go into here. Unfortunately she became rather spiteful too in her behaviour, which was hardly surprising under those circumstances. By about 1995, Mr Dabner knew that Charlie needed somewhere peaceful with fresh air, and where better than his son-in-law, Mr Oram's nurseries in Reigate?
And we have a happy ending. Yes, the music and fresh air, good company and loving care in Reigate have cured her! She no longer swears. She is evidently a popular bird with her feathered friends and the public alike - and so she should be after her long and colourful life.
How silly everyone was to believe that it was Churchill that had taught her to swear, when it was likely those foul-mouthed cheeky 'monkeys' on the Surrey Street market were having fun at her expense. It is a shame their taunts made her so ill and unhappy but there is a lesson to be learned there, don't you think?
I hope this version of events is a lot closer to the truth, and no need to be included in my talk on Churchill's SECRET Reigate. After all, it is in the public domain and Charlie is world-famous!
I took a photo of Sylvia with her picture of Churchill, and will return in the warmer weather to meet Charlie close up. I look forward to taking some colour photos when she is out and about, enjoying some of our English sunshine on Reigate Heath.
I gave my illustrated talk on "Churchill's Secret Reigate" in November to a very appreciative audience of Churchill Fellows, Churchill fans and local people, with the promise that I would repeat it in January for those we didn't have enough seats for that day.
Many thanks to Major-General Jamie Balfour for introducing me and to Randolph Churchill who spoke to us afterwards, and there was time for several questions.
Perhaps it was inevitable. I had carefully avoided the subject of Charlie the parrot because I know that Winston Churchill's daughter Mary, Lady Soames, had commented several years ago that it was too tiresome for words!
However, this is what people wanted to ask about.
Yes, I was very non-committal in my replies but, knowing that I shall be doing the talk again to a larger audience, and also publishing my research some time soon, it seemed like a GOOD IDEA to go and do a little bit of investigating of my own about Charlie the parrot.
So off I went on a dull and dreary afternoon to Heathfield Nurseries on Reigate Heath where Charlie lives. It is a beautifully tranquil setting with its trusty old greenhouses, pots of bulbs, a huge, health-giving aloe vera plant and bucketfuls of deep yellow and orange chrysanthemums. It shares its name with Heathfield, the spacious mansion next door that was the home of movie magnate and miller, J Arthur Rank. His father Joseph was the richest man in England, by the way, so he would have had his pick of excellent locations in which to make their family home. A devout Methodist and Sunday School Superintendent, J.Arthur was also a great fan of Churchill. He was one of the group of people who contributed to the purchase of Chartwell some time post-war, so that Churchill could live out his days there. But I digress.
To my delight, I met the manager of the Nurseries, Sylvia. She already knew about the talk I had given - her customers had been talking about it! She simply gave me the story of Charlie the parrot so there seems to be a simple explanation of why there have been so many denials and rumours over the years. I see there is even a Wikipedia page about Charlie (and as usual it needs a bit of modification to set the record straight).
This is what I gleaned from my conversation with Sylvia.
For a start, Charlie is a female. She is a blue and gold macaw. She is not the same Charlie Parrot that lived at Dabner's pet shop in Redhill, nor the Charlie Parrot that lived at the Reigate pet shop, Gay Dogs (the name has since been changed...). In the words of Monty Python, both of those Charlies are deceased, no more.
She has lived at Heathfield Nurseries since about 1995, and she shares her light and airy modern conservatory with her good friends Rosie, an African Grey and Daisy, a Bare-eyed Cockatoo. They certainly all look pretty perky and in good health, with the radio playing music in the background. In warmer weather, Charlie is happy to go walkabout around the nurseries and doesn't ever fly off, so it appears that she is very settled there in her old age of about 106, and is counting her blessings, perhaps! Rosie often snuggles up to her affectionately. In all this time Charlie has been a single girl - no mate and not had a chance to breed. Her glistening rich blue head feathers are a bit of a contrast to her rather bald chest because she has developed a habit of plucking out those feathers. According to the vet, she is unlikely to stop now. Perhaps it's a fashion statement.
So how did she come to live in Reigate? What tales would she tell us if she could? These days, she is keeping quiet.
Sylvia assures me that Charlie was one of the birds bought for Winston Churchill's menageries at Chartwell from Mr Dabner's pet shop in Surrey Street, Croydon. This outdoor location at Chartwell could explain why Lady Soames doesn't recollect seeing the macaw there.
She showed me a large black and white photograph of Churchill from the Getty archives, with a cockatoo on his left shoulder and a macaw - Charlie?, on his right. This had been given to her by one of the newspapers that featured the story a few years ago.
In 1965, when Mr Churchill had passed away, Charlie was returned to Mr Dabner and she lived there in the pet shop in Croydon for the next thirty years.
HOWEVER.... if you remember Surrey Street from all those years ago, as I do, you would recall a thriving open street market, bulging with fruit and veg, and ringing with the raucous sounds of the traders and market boys that jostled for business. Dabner's pet shop would certainly not have been able to offer a peaceful, serene outdoor setting that Charlie was used to. She would have had to endure prodding and teasing, and no doubt, many lessons in swearing, the cursing of Hitler and Churchill impressions from those mischievous young lads! How undignified for such a glamorous and high class bird used to much more refined versions of the English language!
And what was the result of this bad company for all those years? She must have become more and more unhappy. Sadly she was repeating profanities that we won't go into here. Unfortunately she became rather spiteful too in her behaviour, which was hardly surprising under those circumstances. By about 1995, Mr Dabner knew that Charlie needed somewhere peaceful with fresh air, and where better than his son-in-law, Mr Oram's nurseries in Reigate?
And we have a happy ending. Yes, the music and fresh air, good company and loving care in Reigate have cured her! She no longer swears. She is evidently a popular bird with her feathered friends and the public alike - and so she should be after her long and colourful life.
How silly everyone was to believe that it was Churchill that had taught her to swear, when it was likely those foul-mouthed cheeky 'monkeys' on the Surrey Street market were having fun at her expense. It is a shame their taunts made her so ill and unhappy but there is a lesson to be learned there, don't you think?
I hope this version of events is a lot closer to the truth, and no need to be included in my talk on Churchill's SECRET Reigate. After all, it is in the public domain and Charlie is world-famous!
I took a photo of Sylvia with her picture of Churchill, and will return in the warmer weather to meet Charlie close up. I look forward to taking some colour photos when she is out and about, enjoying some of our English sunshine on Reigate Heath.
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
WW2 70th anniversary at the Cabinet War Rooms
Reigate's very own Myra Collyer is a star at age 85. She worked during the war in the Cabinet War Rooms as a shorthand typist and was then talent-spotted for her artistic ability to become an assistant to Churchill's three draughtsmen - doing headings for the maps, and nameplates for the ever-changing Admiralty staff upstairs.
It is 70 years on since the start of the war, and 25 years on since the Cabinet War Rooms were opened to the public. There is a new exhibition based on the memories of the people who worked there. The evening celebratory party was great fun and a privilege to attend - my photo album is a joy to behold, with Lady Thatcher, Dame Vera Lynn, and Jon Snow meeting the people who were there, helping to win WW2 and our freedom from tyranny. If only reporters could get their facts right. Jon Snow wore one of his many colourful ties for the occasion but he arrived late and wrote in his blog that her name is Gloria and she is 88. No sir ...... do the decent thing and correct your mistake.
Here's my photo album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=117289&id=520276478&l=c63e639dc4
It is 70 years on since the start of the war, and 25 years on since the Cabinet War Rooms were opened to the public. There is a new exhibition based on the memories of the people who worked there. The evening celebratory party was great fun and a privilege to attend - my photo album is a joy to behold, with Lady Thatcher, Dame Vera Lynn, and Jon Snow meeting the people who were there, helping to win WW2 and our freedom from tyranny. If only reporters could get their facts right. Jon Snow wore one of his many colourful ties for the occasion but he arrived late and wrote in his blog that her name is Gloria and she is 88. No sir ...... do the decent thing and correct your mistake.
Here's my photo album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=117289&id=520276478&l=c63e639dc4
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
D-DAY 65th anniversary
.
Members of the Royal Family who are unable to make it to the Memorial event in Normandy would be very welcome instead to visit Reigate, Surrey where the D-Day landings were masterminded in utmost secrecy by Montgomery and his team! Perhaps the President of France didn't realise this when he was planning his own celebrations for 6th June this coming weekend.
It's such an exciting international story including the top-secret bunker mined deep into Reigate Hill via the old chalk quarry. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Churchill had first thought of it on one of his many visits, decades beforehand. I was up there this morning on a beautiful sunny June day and really, the view southwards across Surrey and Sussex towards France is fantastic. There are many links with the Royal Family in the town's history too, and this new research is all ready to be revealed.
So in the absence of any huge publishing deals, exclusive broadcasting rights and general razamatazz, I shall be giving an illustrated talk about "Churchill's Secret Reigate" on Sunday 15th November at 2pm for the Churchill Fellows Association (Surrey and W Sussex region) at the hotel which is right beside the chalk quarry and Monty's Battle HQ - I have copies of the War Office drawings with that very title BATTLE HQ to prove it.
The location is highly accessible - on the A217 just half a mile south of Junction 8 on the M25.
Churchill Fellows are invited to reserve a place for themselves and their named guests.
Tel: 01737 217013
Email: grace[at]relax-well.co.uk.
No Press please.
Do book early to avoid disappointment. There will be several treasured artefacts on display and key people to meet.
I shall be giving this talk free of charge, so it will be an opportunity for you to make a donation towards the research expenses and CHASE children's hospice.
Members of the Royal Family who are unable to make it to the Memorial event in Normandy would be very welcome instead to visit Reigate, Surrey where the D-Day landings were masterminded in utmost secrecy by Montgomery and his team! Perhaps the President of France didn't realise this when he was planning his own celebrations for 6th June this coming weekend.
It's such an exciting international story including the top-secret bunker mined deep into Reigate Hill via the old chalk quarry. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Churchill had first thought of it on one of his many visits, decades beforehand. I was up there this morning on a beautiful sunny June day and really, the view southwards across Surrey and Sussex towards France is fantastic. There are many links with the Royal Family in the town's history too, and this new research is all ready to be revealed.
So in the absence of any huge publishing deals, exclusive broadcasting rights and general razamatazz, I shall be giving an illustrated talk about "Churchill's Secret Reigate" on Sunday 15th November at 2pm for the Churchill Fellows Association (Surrey and W Sussex region) at the hotel which is right beside the chalk quarry and Monty's Battle HQ - I have copies of the War Office drawings with that very title BATTLE HQ to prove it.
The location is highly accessible - on the A217 just half a mile south of Junction 8 on the M25.
Churchill Fellows are invited to reserve a place for themselves and their named guests.
Tel: 01737 217013
Email: grace[at]relax-well.co.uk.
No Press please.
Do book early to avoid disappointment. There will be several treasured artefacts on display and key people to meet.
I shall be giving this talk free of charge, so it will be an opportunity for you to make a donation towards the research expenses and CHASE children's hospice.
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