Melton Mowbray became home to many rich and famous during the height of the hunting sporting seasons and the surrounding villages were not exempt.
In the village of Thorpe Satchville which lies 5 miles from Melton along the B6047, there is a hunting lodge by the name of “Pinfold” which was purchased during World War One by the Belgian millionaire financier, Captain Alfred Loewenstein who had set up his Belgian Breeding Stock Company at the premises.
The Pinfold
In 1926, Captain Loewenstein, who was said to be the 3rd richest man in the world, and his business and Pinfold were at the centre of a tax claim where £10,000 for both 1924 and 1925 when tax assessments had not been completed. Loewenstein appealed against the decision but his case was dismissed.
In November 1926, the same year as he had transferred his Headquarters from Biarritz in France to Thorpe Satchville, Loewenstein, who was known for his flying, brought across his fleet of aircraft known as “Loewensteins Flying Circus” for the hunting season. The aircraft would operate from Croxton Park where he had set up an aerodrome on the grounds of the old Croxton Park racecourse which he had leased from Belvoir Estates Ltd to train his racehorses.
Captain Alfred Loewenstein of Pinfold, Thorpe Satchville, Melton Mowbray, the Belgian millionaire banker and his young son “Bobby” before going off to a recent meet of the Quorn.
In 1927, Alfred sold off 700 pedigree dairy cattle and sheep from the business due to the inclement weather that had affected Leicestershire farmers recently. His farm at Thorpe Satchville had also been let.
On the 4th July 1928, Alfred was flying from Croydon to Brussels on a business trip in his 3-engined Fokker plane. The aircraft was flown by the pilot, Captain R Drew, assisted by the Engineer/mechanic Mr Robert Little.
Loewnesteins 3 engined Fokker
Also on the aircraft were Mr Arthur Hodgson, his secretary; Mr Baxter, his valet; and his typists Miss Ellen Clarke & Mlle Paule.
Not long after take-off, Alfred left his seat and went to use the lavatory that was in a separate compartment towards the rear of the aircraft.
A short while later, at some point over the channel, his valet, Mr Baxter, noticed that Alfred had not returned to his seat and knowing that Alfred had not been well recently, Mr Baxter went to see of all was OK.
Inside Loewensteins Fokker
To Mr Baxter’s surprise, Alfred Loewenstein was nowhere to be seen and it was assumed that he had used the wrong door either going to or leaving the toilet and had fallen from the aircraft at a height of 4,000ft over the English Channel.
The valet immediately informed the pilot who landed on the beach at Mardyck near Dunkirk where the authorities were informed. His decaying body was found in the sea a few weeks later by a Boulogne fishing boat who brought it ashore at Calais. The body was naked with the exception of pants and socks marked “AL” and a wrist watch with his name on.
The death of Alfred is one of the worlds unsolved mysteries, was it a freak accident, was it suicide, was he murdered? There are lots of theories, but we won’t delve into these now. But feel free to look up on Google and YouTube as there are lots of articles, books and videos about this mystery.
Following his death, The Pinfold was inherited by his son Robert “Bobby” Serge Loewenstein who was familiar with the property from his earlier hunting trips.
Bobby Loewenstein
When World War Two broke out, Bobby was in America on business and immediately returned to Europe via a Clipper and on returning to Belgium, he joined the Belgian Army.
He came to the UK when King Leopold surrendered and joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in the summer of 1940 with a rank of Second Officer. On joining the ATA, he gave his Next of Kin as Mr Jack Misonne, Villa Begonia, Biarritz, France and Mrs Burnaby, Thorpe Satchville.
Following his initial interview, he wrote to Group Captain G. d’Erlanger of the ATA at White Waltham airport at Maidenhead “Dear Sir, I appreciate very much your giving me an interview and a test. At this critical stage it would seem that everyone who can contribute in any way should do so. I am told that I have an opportunity of joining the Fleet Air Arm, but as I have offered my services to you and I have two friends, Leo Partridge and Rupert Belville, in the Air Transport Auxiliary, I would naturally prefer to join your organisation. I understand that the delay in my nomination is due to the Air Ministry. If it would expedite my appointment, I would be willing to give up my salary until such a time as you get their agreement.” His appointment was confirmed on the 6th July 1940.
On the 1st August 1940, he was promoted to First Officer ‘C’ Class then again to First Officer ‘B’ Class on 12th January 1941. His ATA paperwork confirms that he had previously flown the following aircraft types, Moth, Stinson, Beechcraft and Spartan and was the owner of a Stinson. He was also experienced at flying in England, Ireland, France, Belgium and the USA.
On 21st September, Bobby wrote again to Gp Capt d’Erlanger “Dear d’Erlanger, This is to confirm our conversation of the other day. It is my opinion that anyone who is in a position to undertake such war work without remuneration should do so. Therefore I suggest my salary be paid towards the start of a charity fund for the pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary or for any better cause we mutually agree on.”
As a result of his wealth, Bobby also paid for a presentation Spitfire MkVb W3239 which was named “Bob”. It was built at Eastleigh and entered service with No 609 (West Riding) Squadron as PR-N on 27th May 1941 at RAF Biggin Hill. Unfortunately, ‘Bob’ was lost in action on 8th July 1941 when it was shot down after being attacked by a Messcherschmit Bf109 resulting in its engine cutting out and it force landing on Goodwin Sands. Its pilot, Sergeant John A. Hughes-Rees surviuved but was wounded.
Winston Churchill visiting 609 Sqn with Spitfire W3239 ‘Bob’ in the background
Another shot showing Winston Churchill with Spitfire W3239 ‘Bob’ and Sergeant John A. Hughes-Rees in the background
During his career with the ATA, Bobby flew numerous different types of aircraft including the Anson, Audax, Battle, Blenheim, Courier, Curtiss Hawk, Fairchild, Harvard, Hurricane, Lysander, Magister, Master, Oxford, Puss Moth, Spitfire, and Tomahawk.
Tragically, Bobby never got to see his Spitfire as he was killed on 29th March 1941 flying Blenheim Mk V V6263 on a ferry flight from RAF Speke to RAF Lyneham. During the flight an engine failure occurred and the aircraft crashed near White Waltham. According to his records, the evidence suggests the aircraft stalled during a tun on approaching to land at too low a height to effect recovery possibly caused by sluggish pick-up on one engine. There is probability that the circumstances were aggravated by the fact that the airscrews appear to have been in coarse pitch. This accident as caused by an error of judgment on the part of the pilot.
Following his death, his body was initially taken to Maidenhead mortuary before being brought to St John’s Catholic Church here in Melton Mowbray on Wednesday 31 March 1941 where he laid at rest overnight. The following morning, a requiem Mass was held followed by the funeral service in the afternoon which was conducted by Father A E Berington. After the funeral service, his body was taken to Twyford for internment at St Andrews Church.
St John’s Roman Catholic Church Melton Mowbray
St Andrew’s Church Twyford
If you look at his casualty record on the CWGC website, it shows his body as being buried in the Belgian Airmen’s Field of Honour within the Brussels Town Cemetery. This is due to a Belgium lady campaigning to get all the bodies of Belgium airmen recovered to Belgium and Bobby was amongst those who were repatriated in 1948.
On the morning of 18th September 1944, the men of the 156 Battalion Parachute Regiment left their billets in Melton Mowbray. They boarded trucks and made their way to Saltby airfield where they boarded C-47 and C-53 aircraft of the 314th Troop Carrier Group (TCG) who were going to fly them to Arnhem and drop them over the Drop Zones as Operation MARKET GARDEN had begun.
H.M. The King inspecting the 156 Parachute Battalion. Newport Stables, Melton Mowbray.
The King is shown some of the equipment of the M.M.G. Platoon that is dropped by container.
L-R: Lt-Col. Sir Richard Des Voeux, an MMG Pln soldier, HM The King, Major ‘Teddy’ Ritson, Brig. J.W. Hackett, Lieut. ‘Blanco’ Clegg, Maj. G. Lea (Brigade Major, 4 Para Bde) & Lt-Gen. F.A.M. Browning.
16th March 1944.
The men of 156 Battalion were spilt across several locations in Melton Mowbray. The Battalion HQ and HQ Company were billeted at Staveley Lodge. ‘A’ Company were originally at Scalford Hall until a disagreement with the Owner, Colonel Colman, then they moved into The Spinney to join Support Company. ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies were billeted at Newport Lodge.
The Spinney
They would be transported in RASC Bedford 3 Ton trucks that would have been parked in a secure parking location on the cattle market car park and driven to the billets in the morning to pick up their passengers. The trucks were marked with a chalk number by the Motor Transport Officer and the men were allocated into ‘sticks’ and assigned to chalk numbers.
Chalk numbers were a simple method of allocating the right group of paras and their equipment to the correct aircraft as the same numbers were also marked on each aircraft fuselage in chalk, hence the name ‘chalk numbers’.
32nd TCS aircraft (this same aircraft crash-landed in a blinding snowstorm at RAF Harlaxton, thinking it was Saltby on 29 Jan 45)
Operation MARKET GARDEN began the day before on the 17th as the 314th TCG flew out paras from No’s 1, 2 & 3 Battalions that were based around the Grantham and Bourne area. Captain Tom Wainwright who was OC Support Company, looked up at the air armada from their barracks at the Spinney and had a premonition that the operation would not go well.
Jean French, a local girl, who after the war married Cpl John Smith of the REME attached to 156, recalls that day “On the morning of the Battle of Arnhem, we didn’t know what was going on, all the paratroopers were confined to barracks. That morning, the sky was suddenly full of aircraft, the noise is something I will never forget.”
One of the ‘sections’ of Support Company was the medium Machine Gun Platoon (MMG) commanded by 2nd Lieutenant Jeffrey Noble aged 19. The 156 Bn MMG was reformed in September 1943 enroute to Bizerta in Tunisia as it made its way for embarkation to Taranto in Italy as part of Operation SLAPSTICK.
Lt Jeffrey Noble
Jeffrey Fraser Noble was born in Ilford, Essex on 15th October 1923 and finished his schooling at Southend High School. On 14th May 1942 Jeffrey joined the Queen’s Royal Regiment where he was put forward for officer training. Following his commission as 2nd Lieutenant he was one of the first cadets to transfer directly into the Parachute Regiment, where he trained first at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire and then on 8th June he completed the parachute course at Ringway, Manchester. At Ringway, his report described him as very keen and fearless, but a little awkward.
Jeffrey was assigned to the 156 Parachute Battalion and tasked with escorting a draft of 70 men from the UK by ship to join the Battalion based in Sousse, Tunisia. It was here that he met his new CO Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard des Voeux who took him under his wing, giving him the nickname ‘The Boy’ on account of his youthful looks, and the name stuck.
The MMG Platoon was equipped with four Vickers Machine Guns which were water cooled, tripod mounted weapons with each gun requiring a crew of four to operate effectively but Jeffrey Noble had no experience of the Vicker machine gun.
In order to train all the volunteers that had been drafted from the Battalion, Sergeant John Kinsley-Smith and Sergeant Cliff Brownlow were brought in from other units to assist with forming and training the platoon. Together with ‘The Boy’ they controlled recruitment to the MMG and built a strong unit.
Cliff Brownlow had previously served with the Battalion in its earlier days in India when it was known as 151 Battalion. When the Bn moved from India to Egypt, the number was changed from 151 to 156 as part of a deception plan to confuse the enemy into thinking there were more parachute battalions than there actually was. Brownlow went on to become Jeffrey Noble’s 2i/c.
The Medium Machine Gun Platoon had a strength of 36 men that were sub divided into Sections and Sub-Sections as follows:
Platoon HQ
No. 1 Section
No. 1 Sub Section
No. 2 Sub Section
No. 2 Section
No. 3 Sub Section
No. 4 Sub Section
In addition to their own personal kit, each member of the MMG had to carry 2 – 3 belts of ammunition for the Vicker machine guns.
Jeffrey Noble and the rest of the MMG were aboard aircraft identified as Chalk #618 & #619 . Both these aircraft were operated by the 32nd TCS and 50th TCS respectively.
Chalk #618 & #619 were part of Serial A-31 provided by the 314th TCG as part of the MARKET #2 mission. Their objective being DZ-Y near Arnhem dropping much needed reinforcements for Lt Col John Frost’s men who were holding the North end of the Arnhem highway bridge crossing the Rhine.
The main body of the 11th Bn who were billeted at the militia camp on Welby Lane, and the 156 Bn took off from Saltby between 1100 and 1120hrs aboard the Dakota’s of the 32nd & 50th Troop Carrier Squadron (TCS) from the 314th TCG. The take-off was originally planned for 08:00hrs but was delayed due to fog.
Due to the weather conditions over England, it took longer for the formation to form up, but as the weather cleared, the formation came together.
As Jeffrey Noble’s aircraft (Chalk #618) flew across the English countryside, a parachute on one of the supply containers slung to the underside of the aircraft came loose, most probably as a result of bad packing. Consequently, the pilot, 1st Lt Glenn E Purkey, was finding it difficult to keep the aircraft flying straight, level and in formation.
The crew chief, T/Sgt Harry R W Ray, approached Noble and asked if the container could be jettisoned. This was something that Noble did not want to do as the container was filled with ammunition for the Vicker machine guns.
There was a plan that the Guards Armoured Division would be on the ground at DZ-Y to greet the paras when they landed, but he knew from previous experience in North Africa and Italy that plans rarely went to as expected. However, it was finally agreed that the container was to be jettisoned and consequently, the release lever was pulled.
As the container fell away, the parachute and rigging lines became tangled and caught on part of the aircraft causing the container to remain hung up and banging against the bottom of the tailplane. This could potentially cause several issues such as if the paratroopers were to jump, there was a risk that their parachutes could get caught up on the container. Another issue was that if the aircraft was to land, the container could cause the aircraft to crash on landing.
Consequently, for a while the aircraft fell out of formation and circled as various ideas were discussed between the crew and passengers. There were several ideas put forward on how to release the container and its parachute, some of which were quite bizarre. One idea was to tie a bayonet to the aircraft broom and dangle a ‘volunteer’ out of the aircraft door to try and cut it free.
Unfortunately, it could not be released, so an emergency landing at an American base in East Anglia was authorised. The aircraft mad a safe landing and on stopping, the paras jumped out, cut the container free and then made scarfs out of the parachute after cutting it into strips. In a later letter from Lt Noble, he indicates that the scarves were vivid in colour so could have been either red, green or yellow.
The container had caused damage to the aircraft structure and the pilot declared that the sortie was over and the aircraft was U/S. Additionally, neither the pilot or his co-pilot knew the way to Holland from their current location as the Navigator was in the lead aircraft.
Finally after a few ‘technical adjustments’ with a sledgehammer, the paras persuaded the aircrew to take off and head East until they could see the flak.
The other aircraft that was carrying the remaining half of the MMG was Chalk #619 43-15180 being flown by Captain Leonard A Ottoway and this was the lead aircraft in the 50th TCS formation and as such was equipped with the SCR-717 radar and extra crew members.
Captain Leonard Ottoway
Leonard Ottoway was an American from Oklahoma in Texas but earned his wings whilst serving the the Royal Canadian Air Force prior to transferring tot he United States Army Air Force.
At about 13:45 Hours, just after Chalk #619 had passed the Initial Point (near the village of Vught) whilst approaching the DZ, it was hit by enemy anti aircraft fire. It was one of five aircraft transporting troops of 4th Parachute Brigade hit by flak at around 13:45hrs.
Chalk #619’s LH engine and fuel tank were hit and the underside of the aircraft started to burn including the underslung storage containers. Other aircraft crews from the 314th noticed that #619 moved out of formation at about 14,000ft and the landing gear was lowered. It is believed that this was due to hydraulic failure rather than being manually selected down ready for a landing.
As the aircraft struck the ground, the undercarriage broke off upon impact one of the fuel tanks exploded and the LH wing broke off resulting in the aircraft turning over onto its back and catching fire. The crew and paratroopers had no chance of survival, and no parachutes were observed coming from the stricken aircraft. Tragically, all those onboard were killed in the crash except one paratrooper who was thrown clear of the wreckage.
Pte Tommy Stevens
Locals in a nearby house on the Bonegraafesweg in Ochten were the first on the scene of the crash and found Private Tommy Stevens of No 3 Sub Section lying their badly wounded with a broken back as well as sever wounds. They took him to their house where he died of wounds later that day.
Later, Dr Van Driel arrived with a group of locals from Ochten and Eldik to bury the dead in a mass grave next to the wreckage. The individual soldiers could not be identified and as such were buried as unidentified soldiers.
After the war, a service of commemoration was held, a fence was erected around the gravesite and flowers were laid on the graves. In May 1947, the bodied of the paratroopers were exhumed and reburied in the CWGC cemetery at Jonkerbos War Cemetery. As the bodies could not be individually identified, their CWGC headstones bear a special inscription “Buried Enar This Spot”.
As for the US crew members, they were exhumed in 1945 and reburied in the US Ardennes Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz in Belgium. The body of Capt Herbert Pluemer was repatriated to the US at the request of his family and now lies buried in Hillside Cemetery, Scotch Plains, New Jersey.
Major John Waddy
Major John Waddy, Officer Commanding ‘B’ Company of 156 Battalion described what happened: “I stood by the side of the open door of my aircraft as we travelled towards our drop zone near Arnhem. There were 36 Dakota aircraft in the serial carrying the 156 Battalion. Many of the American pilots and crew of these aircraft were green, as our battalion had found to its cost on a previous exercise when they dropped us miles from our DZ. Bearing this in mind, Brigadier Shan Hackett (4th Parachute Brigade Commander) had suggested that I closely monitor our route, which is why I was looking out of the open door. The flak was becoming more intense as we travelled across the Dutch countryside. When the aircraft to my right was hit on the port wing and caught fire, it began a steep dive of around 45 degrees. When it hit the ground, it exploded in a fireball. I looked at my men who were seated each side of the aircraft and who, in the din, had not noticed what had happened. I said nothing.”
Major Geoffrey Powell
Major Geoffrey Powell, Officer Commanding ‘C’ Company was another witness to Chalk #619 being hit. He recalls in his book Men at Arnhem, “Suddenly the flak was real. As I looked back down the line, the plane just behind seemed to lurch to one side, a bright red spot on its port wing glowing in the sunshine before it spread in a stream of flame towards the fuselage. Then the nose of the plane dipped, and it disappeared from view. No parachutes appeared. I knew that it carried men from the battalion, and I tried to stop speculating who was inside it.”
Unaware of this tragedy Jeffrey Noble’s aircraft flew on, arriving at the drop zone near Ede, eight miles from Arnhem. Jeffrey described the drop zone as shrouded in smoke with no signals visible and, without a navigator on board, they jumped solely on the guesswork of Jeffrey and that of the crew chief. Once on the ground, Jeffrey found out what had happened to the other half of the MMG Platoon and shortly afterwards met up with Cpl Harry Bankhead of ‘C’ Company and informed him that due to the Dakota carrying the other half of the platoon, their strength had been reduced from 36 men and 4 guns to 14 men and 2 guns.
A Vickers Medium Machine Gun crew covering part of the western side of the Oosterbeek Perimeter
DZ-Y was now the scene of a battle in progress and due to the late exit from the aircraft, several men at the end of the stick landed in the German-occupied territory. After a shaky start, accompanied by occasional shots and explosions, Jeffrey arrived at Battalion HQ where he found he had only one machine gun instead of four and just some 10 men instead of his original 36. Several later turned up wounded – including Sergeant Brownlow and Corporal Ball – and more arrived after various adventures. Jeffrey forcibly seized another gun from a 1st Parachute Battalion jeep, and they formed an ad hoc Section.
The crew lists and passenger lists are detailed below for both aircraft:
Chalk #618 A/c 42-9379432nd TCS
Pilot – 1st Lt Glenn E Purkey
Co-Pilot – 2nd Lt George L Johnson
Crew Chief – T/Sgt Harry R W Ray
Radio Operator – Cpl Walter R Rice
Lt J F Noble (Pltn HQ), POW
Pte P McCarthy (Pltn HQ), POW
Sgt C J Brownlow (No 1 Sect Cmdr), POW
L/Cpl H Littlewood (No 1 Sect Cpl), POW
Pte G R Burrow (No 1 Sect Orderly), Escaped
Pte F Eggleton (No 1 Sect), Escaped
Pte W F C Grounsell (No 1 Sub Sect), POW
Pte E A Ball (No 1 Sub Sect), POW
Pte N Robinson (No 1 Sub Sect), POW
Pte W Mills (No 1 Sub Sect), Escaped
Pte G O Taylor (No 1 Sub Sect), Escaped
Pte C Smith (No 1 Sub Sect), POW
Pte F Turner (No 2 Sub Sect), POW
Pte W J Greenwood (No 2 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte R Davidson (No 2 Sub Sect), Escaped
Pte R Hunter (No 2 Sub Sect), POW
Pte T Heath (No 2 Sub Sect), Escaped
Chalk #619 A/c 43-1518050th TCS
Pilot – Capt Leonard A Ottoway, KIA
Co-Pilot – 2nd Lt Henry G Honeysett, KIA
Navigator – Capt Herbert Pluemer Jr. , KIA
Crew Chief – T/Sgt George A Collier, KIA
Radio Operator – Cpl. Xon C. Connet, KIA
Y* – S/Sgt Joseph W Bobo (SCR-717 Radar Operator), KIA
Sgt J C Kinsley-Smith (Pltn HQ), KIA
Pte H Clayton (Pltn HQ), KIA
Cpl O Lilley (No 2 Sect Cmdr), KIA
L/Cpl J F Clayton (No 2 Sect Cpl), KIA
Pte H J Philpotts (No 2 Sect Orderly), KIA
Cpl G T Brownlow (No 3 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte G Tutton (No 3 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte A Butler (No 3 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte D L George (No 3 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte R Killingworth (No 3 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte T Stevens (No 3 Sub Sect), DOW
Pte H Stanyer (No 4 Sub Sect, KIA
Pte J Wilson (No 4 Sub Sect , KIA
Pte E E Johns (No 4 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte P Taylor (No 4 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte G H Gillever (No 4 Sub Sect), KIA
Pte R Fuller (No 4 Sub Sect), KIA
Out of the 34 paratroopers and 10 USAAF aircrew who flew to Arnhem in Chalk #618 & 619, 22 were killed when Chalk #619 crashed and 1 later died of wounds. Another Para was KIA in fighting at Wolfheze. 6 Paras made it back to England after escaping as part of Operations BERLIN & PEGASUS and 10 paras were captured and taken as Prisoners of War.
Jeffrey was always haunted by the great loss of life of men under his command on Dakota Chalk number 619 and the 6 US aircrew when their Dakota aircraft was shot down on its approach to the DZ at Arnhem.
It is worth remembering that 156 had suffered the highest percentage losses of all the battalions who fought in the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem, including the loss of their much-admired commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel des Voeux. With only 37 men out of 600 returning after the battle (10 of whom were evaders and escaped after the battle).
A memorial honouring those who died in the tragic loss of Chalk #619 has been erected at Bonegraafseweg 61-69, Dodewaard.
Melton Mowbray has a rich and varied history that can be traced back hundreds of years. Archaeological remains from the Bronze Age (c.600BC), Roman (43-409AD), Anglo Saxon (500-650AD), and Viking/Danelaw (800-900AD) periods have all been found in the town and surrounding area.
There is lots of evidence of the Danes in the area as all along the Wreake Valley, the Danish suffix “-by” is common in the viilage names, e.g. in Asfordby, Dalby, Frisby, Hoby, Rearsby and Gaddesby.
However, the first documented evidence of Melton was in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it was listed as “Medeltun”. Medeltun or “Middletown” comes from it being a central township with a mother Church (St Mary’s) surrounded by 5 hamlets: Burton Lazars, Eye Kettleby, Sysonby, Welby & Freeby.
Another version of where Melton comes from is that it ortiginally was known as Milltown due to having a couple of watermills.
Whatever the correct origins of Melton are, I suppose we will never know, but over the years, the name “Medletun” or “Milltown” has morphed into what we know today as Melton.
The Mowbray part of the name comes from the Mowbray family who were granted the land after the Norman Conquest and became Lords of the Manor.
Another major part of the town’s rich history is the Melton Mowbray Town Estate which has been in existance since 1549 as a result of the dispute between King Henry VIII and Rome.
In 1549 in Melton, ther had been for almost two hundred years, a cell of the Priory of Lewes and it maintained a chantry house for the priests next door to St Mary’s Parish Church. This building was known as the Priory, but today we know it as the Anne of Cleves House. For more information about the Anne of Cleves house and one of it’s occupants, William Gonson who was a Vice Admiral in King Henry VIII’s Navy, see my blog Vice Admiral William Gonson.
These priests that stayed at the Priory, served the chantries of the parish church of two local gilds of Our Lady of Mary the Virgin and St. John Divine. They were abolished in the next decade and their properties confiscated by the Crown.
Just how some of the lands owned by these gilds passed into the hands of what we know today as the Town Estate and not the Crown has been lost into the mists of history. But what we do know is that on the 29th September 1549, the land formerly owned by the Gilds passed into the ownership of William Gyles and Michael Purefey, who in turn sold them onto Christopher Draper. Christopher Draper was a Meltonioan who in 1569 became Lord Mayor of London.
Draper subsequently sold the land to the Churchwardens and their accoiunts dated 23rd November 1549 record: “Paid by Nicholas Cowlishaw to Christopher Draper of London this xxi day of November ffor a parsell of land with appertennces lately called the cheippal hosue in Melton bought to the town of Melton use xxi1” (£21.) It is thought that the money for this purchase came from the sale of Church silver.
In turn, Nicholas Cowlishaw and Thomas Postern conveyed these lands by the enfeoffment of 20 townsmen. The trusts deeds state that the income from the lands were “annually and for ever to pay and contribute to the support of a schoolmaster to teach and instruct boys in grammar in Melton Mowbray.” This is the foundation deed of the Melton Mowbray Town Estate and is dated 30th November 1549.
As part of the Melton Mowbray Town Estate 400th Anniversary Celebrations in 1949, during the Whit-week (6th – 11th June 1949), Melton Mowbray put on a huge birthday party known as the Melton Mowbray Whit Week Pageant celebrating the rich history of our wonderful historic market town.
Preparations for the event started months earlier with a public meeting being held in the Corn Exchange on Tuesday 22nd February 1949 at 7:30pm.
Public Meeting
Nearly 200 people attended the meeting, and they not only expressed their interest in a historical pageant to celebrate the Town Estates 400th anniversary, but they also authorised the Town Wardens to spend £1,500 on the event.
Pageanat advert from the Melton Mowbray Times and Vale of Belvoir Gazette adted 11 March 1949.
The pageant celebrations lasted a week as local businesses, townspeople, villages, schools and the whole community from across the Borough marked the occasion.
Thousands of visitors came to Melton to watch the celebrations that made an appearance in the national press who wrote about the anniversary and one of the first outside BBC broadcast crews came to Melton, filming for the Around and About programme. Naturally, this news caused great excitement amongst locals who were keen to make sure that the town looked good.
Leicester Evening Mail 30 May 1949
Rehearsals took place in fields, gardens, village halls and churches across the Borough in preparation for the opening day on 6th June 1949. The pageant involved the whole community and cost £1,500 to put on.
The Melton Mowbray Times and Vale of Belvoir Gazette published on the 27th May 1949 published a small article about the recent Urban District Council meeting “Be Festive!” The chairman at Wednesday’s Urban Council meeting requested townspeople to make Melton look as festive as possible for the 400th anniversary of the Town Estate during Whit week. Most people would have flags left from previous highdays and holidays, and he suggested they were looked out and hung out.
Food rationing
As this was only four years after the end of the second World War, and food rationing was still in existance, Mr Anthony Nutting MP informs the “Melton Times” that he has done his best by persuading Dr. Edith Summerskill, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Food under Clement Attlee’s Government, to grant an extra allowance of tea, sugar and margarine so that light refreshments may be provided on each night of the Pageant.
Among the activities were agricultural shows, sports events, art shows and exhibitions and special church services. But the main event was a huge pageant telling the history of Melton Mowbray from the Saxon times to the Victorian era.
Owing to previous engagements, the Duke of Edinburgh was unable to accept an invitation to perform one of the opening ceremonies on one of the 6 nights of Whit week. The Duke & Duchess of Rutland accepted as well as the Baroness Ravensdale.
Pageant Programme cover
The pageant took place in Egerton Park where there was a grandstand for 1,500 people along with plenty of standing room. There were 200 seats at 5s, 300 at 4s and 1,000 at 3s. Marquees were also erected providing refreshment facilities.
Played against a tall green black-cloth of trees – trees that could have shaded Danes and Saxons, one thousand years of Melton’s history swept by in glorious pageantry.
The huntsmen and hounds of the Belvoir, Cottesmore and Quorn hunts, which through the century and a half of their existence had made Melton the centre of the hunting world, were seen at Melton’s Whit week pageant taking part in the conclusion of the Midnight Steeplechase scene. A meet of the hounds will include the traditional ceremony of the stirrup cup.
Civic Service
The Town Estate’s 400th anniversary celebrations opened on Whitsunday with a Civic Service in the Parish Church, at which the Bishop of Leicester preached. Prior to the service taking place, the past and present Town Wardens, the Feoffeees, the Executive Committee, the Member of Parliament, the Chairman and Members of the Urban and Rural District Councils, together with their principle Officers were received by the Vicar in the Colles Hall and escorted to the West door of the Church into their seats.
Part of the procession of the Guild of Our Lady in the Pageant
Before the service, a Chain of Office that was presented to the Town Estate by Mr. W. E. Katz, was handed by the Bishop of Leicester to Mr. R. W. Brownlow J.P., who placed it on the Senior Town Warden, Mr. R. Gates. The Chain consisted of a handsome, silver gilt ornament with a circular medallion carrying the town crest, a red lion rampant on a blue ground. It had an inscription around the medallion that read “Melton Mowbray Town Estate 1549-1949”. The medallion was on a guilt chain, supported by St. John of Jerusalem on one side and the Virgin Mary on the other, both of which recalled the two Melton guilds.
The service was conducted by the Rev. C. M. S. Clarke, M.M., M.A., Vicar, and the lesson was read by Mr. R. W. Bronlow, Senior Feoffee of the Town Estate.
Cricket Match and Exhibition
Whit Monday’s activities began in the morning with a cricket match between Egerton Park C.C. and Hawks C.C. (Yorkshire) on the ground adjoining the pageant arena. The match commenced at 11:30am, with a lunch break at 1:30-2:15pm and concluded when the stumps were drawn at 6:30pm.
Egerton Park C.C. V’s Hawks C.C.
The Hawks opened the innings with the President of the Yorkshire League, Mr Herbert Robinson opening with Mr Brian Sellers. Sellers played in 334 first-class matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1932 and 1948.
Brian Sellers
In the afternoon, Mrs. J. Burns Hartopp officially opened the exhibition of hunting pictures by John Ferneley, Sir Francis Grant and others and the exhibition of local photographs in Egerton Lodge. The original “Melton Hunt Breakfast” by Sir Frances Grant was loaned to the exhibition by the Duke of Rutland.
Among the many photographs and other artifacts on display, several stood out including local tradesman’s account books. Mr. E. Hayes, the fishmonger from the Market Place welcomed more donations from local tradesmen, but stipulated that they had top be at least 100 years old. Other documents included records from the Town Estate that were nearly 400 years old.
This exhibition remained open throughout the week and Mr. Guy Dixon, presided at the formal opening of it.
Before the pageant got underway, there was a display of folk dancing, singing, discus and javelin throwing by the residents of the Melton and Ashby Folville Polish Hostels.
On Monday, the pageant was opened by the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, who were introduced by Mr. Gates.
On Tuesday evening, a demonstration by the Poles again preceded the pageant and was opened by the Bishop of Leicester and introduced by Mr. A. Bramley, J.P.
Toy Soldiers
On the park greens on Wednesday evening there was a bowls drive organised by Melton and District Bowling Association for which novices were encouraged to enter.
In the evening, the pageant was preceded by a display by the Melton Mowbray Toy Soldier’s Band and again by the Poles. The pageant was opened by Lady Newtown Butler, and introduced by Dr. J. M. Manson.
Thursday’s events were again preceded by the Toy Soldier’s and the Poles display, and it was opened by the Earl and Countess of Gainsborough, who were introduced by Mr. A. P. Marsh, O.B.E.
After the pageant on Friday, which was opened by the Baroness Ravensdale who was introduced by Mr. R. W. Brownlow, J.P., there was a pageant costume dance in the Corn Exchange.
On the final day, there was another cricket match on the adjoining ground, this time between Egerton Park and Oakham. Following the display by the Poles, the pageant was opened by Mis Burns Hartopp, County Officer of St John Ambulance Brigade whow as introduced by Mr. Frank Easom.
Polish Handicrafts
From Monday to Friday, in the Girl’s Modern School on Wilton Road, there was an exhibition of Polish handicrafts in embroidery, wood and leather.
There was nearly 500 actors in the pageant, some of whom took part in more than one episode.
Spokesman in the prologue and epilogue, the figure of Time, was portrayed by the Vicar, Rev. C. M. S. Clarke, M.M.
The Episodes
Leading characters in the episodes were:-
Episode I
Saxons: Mr. L. Carter, David Downing, Derek Green, Brian McNeil, Miss Marjorie Craig, Mr. T. A. Bodycote, Mr. Stanley Jones, Rosemary Burditt, Miss Joan Jenkins, Dick Whittington.
Danes: Don Moss, Jocelyn Dry, Peter Dunckley, Gordon Hart.
Episode I depicted the Saxon settlement at Melton. As the largers buried their chieftain, Cealwin, the Danes swept down and overcame the Settlement.
Saxons with shields and womenfolk walk onto the arena with the body of Caelwin for burial
The centuries go hand in hand in Meltons Pageant. These Victorian ladies and gentlemen were photographed at a rehearsal and were watching the arrival of the Danes.
Episode II
Scene I: Mr. J. Mead, Mr. G Seagel, Mr. A. Healey, Mr. T. W. Pacey, Mr. E. Heawood, Mr. A. C. Shepherd, Mr. E. White, Mr. C. Poage, Mr. J. Smith, Mr. C. Broxholme
The scene, in the year 1160, shows Roger Mowbray, played by Mr. J. Mead, recently returned from the Crusades, making a grant of land to the Knights Templars in Melton for a hospital for the town, and land at Burton for a lepers hospital.
Sir Roger de Mowbray granting land to Knights Templar, watched by Lords and Ladies
Scene II: Mr. M. J. Knights, Mr. M. Marsh, Mr. T. Gildove, Mr. G. Seagel, Mr. A. Stapleford, Mr. W. Hopkins, Mr. T . W. Pacey, Mr. A. Healey, Mr. C. Page.
In the courtyard of Melton Castle in 1194 A.D. Prince John’s partisans took William Mowbray as their prisoner (Mowbray is played by Mr. Maxwell Knights). Richard Coeur de Lion arrived on horseback (the part was played by Mr. Michael Marsh) and rescued the Lord of the Manor of Melton.
Crusaders
16th Century Grammar School Boys
Episode III
Mr. A. Bennett, Mr. J. R. Holton, Mr. A. Goddard, Mr. C. Foyster, Mr. M. Sweeney, Mr. A. Nudds, Mr. A. McDonnell, Mr. Plummer, Miss D. Buckley, Miss J. Toon, Mr. J. Griffin, Mr. R. Brown, Mr. P. Bolger.
A group of 16th century Melton Grammar School boys were on the scene when the King’s Commissioners stopped processions of the Melton Guilds, led by priests and lay members carrying banners. The guilds were suppressed and it was suggested that their lands were to be purchased on behalf of the town with the income being used to support the school and be administered by a town estate.
“Lord Mayor” in Coach
Episode IV
Mr. Brander-Rimmer, Mr. Barksby, Mr. L. Routh, Mr. Clarke, Mr. C. A. Plumb, Mr. P. Cox, Mr. P. Maher, Mr. R. Sutton, Mr. D. Lark, Mr. A. Bewley.
A colourful Elizabethan faire scene that included the arrival of a Meltonian, Alderman Sir Christopher Draper, Lord Mayor of London, in his coach. The part was played by Mr. Brander-Rimmer.
Christopher Draper Coat of Arms
Sir Christopher Draper was the son John Draper & Agnes Gunston being born in Melton Mowbray circa 1511. He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers and became their Master, being elected for the last time in Apr 1581. He was also the Sheriff of London in 1561 and the Mayor of London in 1566.
Taking part in the Elizabethan Faire must have been the youngest performer, two-and-a-half-year-old Christine Lowesby who skipped around happily with her mother, although she was wheeled home in her pushchair after the event.
Girls with their recorders accompanying country dancing at the Elizabethan Fair
Thirteen-year-old William Pycroft, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Pycroft of 7 Brookfield Street was to have taken part in the Elizabethan Faire as a “tumbler”, but disappointingly for him, before the event started, he fell from a tree in Egerton Park which prevented him from taking part as he was taken to Melton’s War Memorial hospital suffering from concussion as was admitted with a suspected fracture to the base of his skull.
Episode V
Mr. J. L. Smith, Capt. W. Richey, M.B.E., Private J. Rogers, Capt. W. Harris, Sgt D.H. Smith, Sgt G. R. Bennett, Capt. D. E. Harris, Sgt R. Smith, Pte F. H. A. Pocock and members of the Boy’s Brigade.
FHA Pocock, one of the many characters on horseback in the Melton Pageant
Two short scenes featuring Roundheads and Cavaliers took place culminated in a battle that took place at the top of Ankle Hill in 1645 and resulted in heavy casualties. The R.A.V.C. horses were seen in great advantage during the action.
Pie for Queen Victoria
Episode VI
Was mainly crowd scenes showing the cheese market. Queen Victoria was played by Mrs. Mayo, and the R.A.V.C. were responsible for the Midnight Steeplechase, after which Queen Victoria was presented with a Melton Pork Pie.
The steeplechase was held in honour of Lady Augusta Fane’s birthday and was won by Major Burnaby, with Count Zbrowski coming secoind after being thrown at the last fence. The riders from the R.A.V.C. would wear white nightshirts over their red coats.
Mr. H. L. Barnes, A.R.C.O. composed the music for the pageant and the Pageant Master, Mr. George Irving, wrote the words of the pageant song.
The Melton Town Band under direction of their bandmaster Cyril Walker took part and the choir, conducted by Mr. Barnes consisted of members of St Mary’s Parish Church Choir, Melton Choral Society, Melton Singers, Sage Cross Methodist Choir, Sherrard Street Methodist Choir, Baptists Chapel Choir, Asfordby and Hinckley Choral Societies and the Townswomen’s Guild.
In addition to the choir, there were over 450 costumed performers in the pageant including boys from the Grammar School, as well as tradesmen, solicitors, clerks, typists, accountants, farmers and a tax inspector. Horses and riders were provided by the R.A.V.C. and hounds from the Belvoir, Cottesmore & Quorn hunts.
It was reported that the number of visitors far exceeded expectations with holiday makers from Leicester, Nottingham and other towns flocked into Melton. A total of 13,301 visitors attended the pageant with 9,856 watching the agricultural show; 5,000 supporting the Polish exhibitions and 2,209 visiting the art exhibition.
But what did people remember of the celebrations?
Would it have been the enthusiastic Saxons building their pea stick fires, burying their chieftain and the battle with the helmeted Danes?
How about the minstrel’s song and King Richard’s visit or the messenger’s swift leap from his horse?
Could it have been the unspectacular but yet pleasant procession of the Melton Guilds?
Or what about the Elizabethan Faire which was most colourful of all the scenes played out with its small, agile tumblers, maypole dancing and playing boys?
Was it the youthful verve and vigour of the battle between the red-coated white collared Roundheads and romantic Cavaliers?
Or maybe the 19th Century scene with its cheese fair, Queen Victoria’s visit and the acrobatics of nightgowned Midnight steeplechase riders, or the huntsman’s horn as the hounds nosed around the crowds while riders in red coats were handed a stirrup cup?
A reporter who “sampled” the comments of the audience found fairly general agreement that the Elizabethan fair, the mounted battle and the hounds with riders in hunting red were the most outstanding events of the pageant.
One woman said that when she saw the two opposing forces of horsemen beginning to gallop towards each other, she shut her eyes, afraid of the consequences – a tribute to the realism of the affray. One of the R.A.V.C. Roundhead riders in the Civil War scene was thrown from his horse as the two sides charged. He was not hurt but his horse received a ‘slight’ sprain to one of its legs.
Melton Mowbray Times and Vale of Belvoir Gazette 17 June 1949
Following the appeal from the Urban District Council meeting for the town folk to be festive, townspeople and tradesmen hung out flags and bunting from their homes and businesses.
Shop keepers took part putting displays in their shop windows ranging from fish to old records and most shops dressed their windows with backgrounds of coloured crepe paper, bunting or flags.
A butcher’s shop had a fish tank in which tropical fish swam alongside aquatic plants. A plumber’s shop also adopted the idea of an aquarium for the central feature of its unusual display.
A firm of bootmakers displayed boots and shoes in different stages of manufacture as well as miniatures of shoes and hunting boots on display next to a 200-year-old leather bottle. On a 100-year-old shoemaker’s bench was perched a foot high model of a shoemaker wearing a blue apron and nodding as he hammered nails into the sole.
The display in a chemist’s shop included old professional books, one of which was printed in 1776. They also displayed samples of medicines made from foxgloves and a metal pestle and mortar that was 100 years old which together weighed more than a hundredweight.
One office window displayed a deed from 1668 that related to a property in Sherrard Street from the reign of King Charles II. In the window of a ladies’ wear shop was a gracefully gowned figure of a lady gowned in rose pink crepe paper trimmed with half d’oyleys for lace.
A B.B.C. reporter that went to the Monday pageant, after absorbing the background of the celebrations, saw the performance of the pageant at night. The result was an 800 word broadcast after the 6 O’clock Midland Regional News on Wednesday. It was a compact, mellifluous word picture of the pageant that was interesting to listen to and smooth with praise for those involved with the creation of the show.
The Horsa glider was a troop carrying glider developed and manufactured by Airspeed Limited along with several subcontractors. It was named after the legendary 5th century conquerer of Southern Britan – Horsa.
Airspeed Horsa at Christchurch in 1948
It was designed to a load of 30 seated fully equipped troops; it also had the flexibility to carry a Jeep or an Ordnance QF 6-pounder anti-tank gun.
The Mark I (AS51) version had a wingspan of 88 feet (27 m) and a length of 67 feet (20 m), and when fully loaded weighed 15,250 lb (6,920 kg).
The later AS 58 Horsa II was capable of carrying an increased fully loaded weight of 15,750 lb (7,140 kg) along with a hinged nose section, reinforced floor and double nose wheels to support the extra weight of vehicles.
The Horsa was built largely of wood being described by aviation author H. A. Taylor as “the most wooden aircraft ever built. Even the controls in the cockpit were masterpieces of the woodworker’s skill”.
The design used a high-wing configuration, being equipped with wooden wings and a wooden semi-monocoque fuselage. The fuselage was built in three sections bolted together with the front section holding the pilot’s compartment and main freight loading door. The middle section was accommodation for troops or freight and the rear section supported the tail unit.
The majority of subcontractors did not have airfields from which to deliver the gliders so they sent the sub-assemblies to RAF Maintenance Units (MUs), who would perform final assembly. This process was responsible for the production of between 3,655 and 3,799 Horsas had been completed by the time production ended.
Due to the dispersed manufacturing of the subcomponents before final assembly at various RAF Maintenance Units around the UK, it is difficult to confirm a total production number but some estimates vary from 3,799 to 4,000 aircraft.
Despite this, only one complete original example survives today, although several replicas and cockpit/fuselage sections are also on public display in Britain, France and the Netherlands.
One of the sub-contractors was Boulton and Paul who were responsible for producing the nose section of the Horsa glider at their Riverside factory in Norwich.
On 9th July 1940, German Luftwaffe planes bombed the city of Norwich leaving devastation in their wake. One of the places ruined by the bombing was the Riverside factory of Boulton and Paul who manufactured the wooden fuselage of the Airspeed Oxford trainer and the Nose section/control cabin of the Airspeed Horsa glider.
In the attack on the 9th July, ten employees were killed and a further 68 injured. The factory was again attacked a few weeks later on the 1st August where another 9 were killed and 20 injured.
Boulton & Pauls Norwich Riverside Works after a bombing raid.
As a result of these bombings, from the 19th August 1940, the production was moved away from Norwich and the responsibility of producing the Horsa nose section was transferred to the Midland Woodworking factory in Melton Mowbray.
The Horsa was first deployed operationally on the night of 19th/20th November 1942 in the unsuccessful attack on the German Heavy Water Plant at Rjukan in Norway as part of Operation Freshman.
On 10th July 1943, 27 Horsas were used during Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, which was the type’s first large-scale operation.
Over 250 Horsa gliders were during Battle of Normandy; specifically in the British Operation Tonga and the American airborne landings in Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion.
During the opening phase of the operation, 320 Horsas were used to perform the first lift of the 6th Airborne Division, while a further 296 Horsas participated in the second lift.
The Horsa was a major component during several major offensives that followed the successful Normandy landings, such as Operation Dragoon and Operation Market Garden, both in 1944, followed by Operation Varsity during March 1945. The latter was the final operation for the Horsa and had involved a force of 440 gliders carrying soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division across the Rhine.
Noreen Ife was born in Melton in 1921 in King Street and on the BBC WW2 People’s War, she recalls that she was 19 years old when war broke out and had to decide whether to go into the forces or do a man’s job in civilian life.
She decided on the latter and was for a time a projectionist at the cinemas. She later went to work for Boulton and Paul helping to make the Horsa gliders which were used in the Arnhem Campaign. She was responsible for fitting compasses into the Horsas nose section.
Keith Doubleday was one of those Melton lads that worked at the Midland Woodworking factory. He recalls “We made the cockpits. The control column (steering wheel) was definitely manufactured there. It was made of laminated wood (spruce). The interior of the nose section was sprayed light green and the outside Matt black. As an apprentice I went through the different departments and during my time in the spray dept got dope poisoning for my efforts. The fuselage and the wings were made at other factories around the country. I worked in the Inspection Department. Our manager was Mr Simpson and the Forman was Horace Broom. Although it was wartime it was a happy factory. We worked long hours.”
The woodyard viewed from the Kings Road/ Limes Avenue entrance
Keith goes on to say “If you entered the works from the Kings Road/ Limes Avenue entrance the fitting shop was just ahead and bearing to the right was the Inspection Dept. Deeper inside, the nose sections were assembled and the spray shop was in the same vicinity. Gun turrets for the Airspeed Oxford were also made close to the Horsa line. Most of the laminations and other parts were made of spruce. The Horsa in the group photo above was towed/flown in by aircraft tug. It was then released over Melton airfield where it landed. How it got airborne afterwards I have no idea. We walked from the factory to the airfield for the display.”
The woodyard viewed from the Kings Road/ Limes Avenue entrance
The Woodyard also produced components for other aircrafdt types as well during WW2 such as the Airspeed Oxford and the Boulton & Paul Defiant.
The 6th Airlanding Brigade before taking off on June 5. That night of D-Day they landed in the Dropzone W to the West of the Caen Canal
Probably the Horsa’s most famous sortie was codenamed Operation Deadstick when six Horsa’s delivered an advance force of 80 paratroopers, on the evening of 5th June 1944, the night before the D-Day landings. These men, from D Company of the 2nd Oxfordshire & Buckingham Light Infantry, were transported by the Glider Pilot Regiment into the countryside, just four miles from the Normandy coast. Under cover of darkness and after an almost silent approach, they were responsible for successfully securing the strategically important bridge (now known as Pegasus Bridge) at Bénouville, over the Caen Canal in Normandy.
Horsa gliders at Pegasus Bridge
The Horsa was a major factor in a number of operations that followed the successful Normandy assault. These included Operation Dragoon and Operation Market Garden, which involved 1,205 gliders in 1944. A year later Horsas were involved in Operation Varsity (March 1945) when 440 aircraft carried soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division across the Rhine, in the type’s final operation of the war.
Sadly, after various company take-overs, the latest owners of the woodyard, Jeld-Wen, decided to close the Melton factory in 2022 as part of a drive ‘to maximise efficiencies in their operations and focus on areas that will help ensure long-term profitable growth’.
Plans to build 313 homes and 376 parking spaces on the woodyard site were initially submitted for planning proposals but amended proposals have been drawn up with 15 fewer properties and 129 more places to park, including 30 for visitors.
The design of one of the key features – The Community Square space – has been reconfigured to provide ‘a softer, greener gateway into Melton Country Park’.
Did you know that a Meltonian was one of the most important civil servants in Tudor England?
Vice Admiral Sir William Gonson
William Gonson was born in 1482 in Melton Mowbray. His parents were Christopher Gonson and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Trussell). William’s brother, Bartholomew, became the Vicar of Melton Mowbray.
Not a lot is known about his early life, but William became a ship owner and merchant who sailed in government service and later directed shipping movements becoming one of the most remarkable civil servants in the Tudor period.
He was certainly a clerk in the navy storehouse at Deptford, Kent, receiving ropes and artillery pieces (1513) and armorial banners (1514) for ships.
He had already made his fortune through his merchant shipping before he began a naval career. It was as a public servant for the navy that he rose to prominence. He nearly single-handedly managed the Royal Navy for over twenty years.
In 1509, William married his wife, Bennett Benedicta Walter in Deptford, Kent. Together they had six sons: Richard, David, Christopher, Arthur, Benjamin and Anthony as well as three daughters Elizabeth, Avis, and Thomasine. They resided in Thames Street, London, in the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-East.
Gonson was well paid, both from his naval appointments and as one of Henry VIII’s squires of the body, though his great wealth probably came through his commercial activities. In 1525 he was a warden of the Grocers’ Company, and he may by then have owned the ‘great Mary Grace’, which traded to the Greek islands. Thus, in 1530, he was one of twenty-two merchants trading with Candia (Crete); and in circa 1534 his ship Matthew Gonson (300 tons), with his son Richard as captain, sailed with a consort to Chios (where Richard died) and Candia (Crete).
William was finally made an officer of the Navy in 1536 and became the English Vice-Admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk.
Anne of Cleves Pub & St Mary’s Church
The priory, what we know today as the Anne of Cleves pub, was owned by the Lewes Priory and in 1532 they leased the property to William Gonson, brother of the vicar, for 55 years. However, following the dissolution of the Lewes Priory in 1537, the rectory of Melton Mowbray with its tithes from Welby went to Thomas Cromwell and after his execution in 1540 the rectory reverted to the Crown and given to Anne of Cleves as part of the divorce settlement.
In March 1539 foreign merchants’ goods in an unidentified ship of Gonson’s were valued at 50,000 marks sterling (over £33,000), and in 1541 he was assessed for subsidy on £1000. In 1524 he became keeper of the storehouses at Deptford and Erith, Kent, and an usher of the King’s chamber, and for part of the period 1532–7 he handled sums of money totalling more than £15,589. Hence he was concerned with rigging warships, paying money for wages and victualling, purchasing masts, repairing Thames forts, building ships (for example, the Galley Subtile).
In 1539 he was responsible for sending a fleet to bring Anne of Cleves from Calais to Dover for her marriage to Henry VIII. He was vice-admiral—the first in England—of Norfolk and Suffolk from 1536 until 1543, and held courts at Kings Lynn and elsewhere.
William’s son, David Gunson, was admitted to the prestigious Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in 1533 and became a Knight of Rhodes, as the Knights of Malta were still known. His spirited career in that Order is documented in The Book of Deliberations of the Venerable Tongue of England 1523-1567… published in Malta in 1949 by Hannibal P. Scicluna.
Sir David Gonson
His bête noir in the Order was his fellow knight Sir Philip Babington with whom he quarrelled in 1535, and suffered imprisonment as a result. On a visit to England in 1540 it was Babington who informed on him, declaring that Gunson denied that Henry VIII was the Supreme Head of the Church of England and that the King and his supporters were in effect heretics. Gunson was confined to the Tower, had no trial, and was condemned to death under a bill of attainder. He was removed to the King’s Bench prison, Southwark, and on 12 July 1541 he was dragged on a hurdle to St Thomas Waterings, the second milestone from the city, where he suffered a traitor’s death.
The event was chronicled by Charles Wriothesley as follows: “1541. The 12th daie of Julie, one of Mr. Gunston’s Sonnes which was a Knight of Rodes, was drawen from the Kinges Bench to Sainct Thomas Wateringes and there hanged and quartered for treason.”
Following his death, David was posthumously dubbed “The Good Knight”. He was beatified in 1929 as Blessed David Gonson, a martyr for religious principles. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Southwark (London) on 12 July 1541 under the English Act of Supremacy.
William died in 1544, after falling from grace, leaving the Navy disorganised. It took two years for Henry VIII to reorganise control. William Gonson’s son, Benjamin Gonson, became the Treasurer of the Navy and helped Henry regain control.
Benjamin became one of the founding members of the ‘Navy Board,’ responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Navy, which ran from 1546 to 1832. Benjamin Gonson was Treasurer of the Navy when Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 and held the post until his death in 1577
Plainly, William Gonson’s responsibilities imposed great strain, particularly with the Anglo-French war (1543–6), and in 1544 (before 5 August, when Benjamin was accounting) he ‘feloniously killed himself’ (LP Henry VIII 20/1, no. 125/7).
St Dunstans in the East
A suicide’s body had, by law, to be buried, with a stake through the heart, near local crossroads: Gonson was interred in his parish church, St Dunstans in the East, which suggests that matters were hushed up.
No will or administration has been found. Gonson’s value to his country was recognized, after his death, by the creation of a ‘navy board’ to replace him.
In Blog 37 I looked at the Melton & District Spitfire Fund and how the people of Melton Mowbray and surrounding district pulled together in the latter half of 1940 to purchase a Spitfire fighter at a cost of £5,000.
Between 1941 and 1942, the British Government introduced a similar savings scheme, this time in the concept of National Savings where each region in the country was provided with a savings target to achieve. The target was based on the region’s population, with each level of savings having a class of warship assigned.
This became known as Warship Week, due to its similarities with War Weapons Week – which was a drive to replace the materiel lost at Dunkirk through a savings campaign.
There were a total of 1,178 warship weeks organised across the country during the campaign, involving a total of 1,273 districts. A press announcement quoted the adoption of eight battleships, four carriers, forty-nine cruisers, three hundred and one destroyers, twenty-five submarines, one hundred and sixty-four corvettes and frigates and two hundred and eighty-eight minesweepers.
In early 1942, it was announced the Melton had adopted one the Corvettes. “Terriers of the seas, those are Corvettes. One of them has been adopted by Melton. It is aid that the job of the Corvette is one of the toughest of the war at sea. Melton and District is to raise £120,000 to buy one during Warship Week in March. First in service in the summer of 1940, already they have given a very good account of themselves. The precise details of their engagement has not been published; but officers and men have been mentioned as having received decorations or medals for successful operations against enemy U-boats.”
Meltons Warship week ad
It was announced in the Melton Times on Friday 6th February 1942 that Melton Warship Week would be held from 7th to 14th March 1942 and it was hoped that Earl Beatty would be able to be present to take the salute.
A community would sponsor a ship through individual savings in government bonds and national savings certificates and Melton Mowbray was no exception. At a meeting of savings group secretaries at the Oddfellow’s Hall on Wednesday 4th February, Mr R Stuart Smith provided an update on the fundraising activities:
“There are now 231 savings groups in Melton and District, 116 of these being in the latter. During the past 6 months, the 50 Melton street savings groups have saved £2,285.00”. He went on to say that from November 1939 to the end of January 1942, people in Melton and district have saved £655,512 or approximately £6,000 per week.
The deputy commissioner, Mr Peter Stevenson also spoke about the coming ‘Warship Week’ and Superintendent R W Stapleton spoke to the meeting about the parade. Joining them was Lieutenant P W Woodriffe RN who gave an interesting talk on the Battle of Jutland which he illustrated with lantern slides.
Melton Mowbray farmers Warship Week Advert
One of the earliest purchasers of certificates at the central selling centre in the Market Place, was a youth by the name of Teddy Stapleford who bought £24 worth of certificates for the Sydney Street savings group, of which he was secretary.
Six children representing various schools purchased the first certificates towards their group targets.
On 24th April 1942, the Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail published an article detailing the warship weeks fundraising activities for the county. In total, £6,616,247 had been raised, enough to pay for 16 warships. By the end of the campaign, Melton Mowbray & District raised a total of £181,139.00 for their ship.
Committee Area
Adopted Ship
Target £ Amount
Total £ Raised
Billesdon R.D.
HMS Lilac
30,000
112,812
Loughborough
HMS Venomous
210,000
300,653
Barrow Upon Soar R. D.
HMS Seawolf
250,000
245,517
Market Harborough & District
HMS Fernie
150,000
200,023 ½
Blaby R.D.
HMS Blackthorne
62,000
117,168
Hinckley U.D.
HMS Amazon
210,000
387,047
Leicester
HMS Renown
3,000,000
4,015,740
Lutterworth R.D.
HMS Laurel
62,000
106,757
Melton Mowbray & District
HMS Samphire
120,000
181,139 ½
Shepshed U.D.
HM MTB No 102
70,000
73,328
Market Bosworth R.D.
HMS Larch
132,000
148,260
Ashby de la Zouch
HMS S/M P43
175,000
203,461
Castle Donington R.D.
HMS Barbican
85,000
37,235
Coalville U.D.
HMS Southwold
210,000
253,067
Oadby U.D.
HMS Botanic
40,000
97,433
Wigton U.D.
HMS Speedy
136,485
136,606
Throughout Melton Mowbray and the district, there were a total of 231 savings groups, of which 116 were in the rural area. At a savings committee meeting, presided over by Councillor Oliver Brotherhood, it was revealed that practically every street in the town had a savings group. By February 1942, the groups had raised a total of £655,512 since November 1939, approximately £6,000 a week.
The Melton’s Warship Week was launched in Windsor Street at 8PM on 7th March 1942 by the Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Sir Arthur G Hazlerigg Bart, and the Chairman, R W Brownlow Esq, JP, chairman of the Bench of Magistrates with a contingent from the Royal Army Ordnance Corps forming a guard of honour.
Sir Arthur Hazlerigg
it was announced by Mr J Green, Chairman of the bonds Committee, that their target was more than half subscribed with over £76,000 of the £120,000 target.
A parade to launch the campaign took place on Sunday 8th March with members of the HM Forces, together with the Home Guard and Auxiliary Forces. The parade assembled at the Scalford Road car park and was directed by Superintendent R W Stapleton who had directed the 1941 War Weapons Week parade which was over a mile long.
Guard of Honour with Sir Arthur Hazlerigg in the centre
The parade set off at 2:45PM marching down Scalford Road, Norman Street, Bentley Street, Sage Cross Street, Sherard Street, Market Place and High Street to the Wilton Road car park. The following bands also took part in the parade: The Band of the Navy League Sea Cadets, the band of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and the band of the Leicester Air Training Corps.
Letter from Samphire
Taking the salute on the saluting base in the Market Square was Surgeon Lieutenant Commander F T Doleman, RNVR, of Leicester instead of the Earl Beatty. He was accompanied by Air Commodore Sir W Lindsay Everard, the Duchess of Rutland, Mrs P Cantrell Hubbersty and Mrs A E Burnaby.
As the crowd of spectators made their way to the Wilton Road car park for a drum head service, a mounted Policeman’s horse mounted up, narrowly missing the Chief Constable of Leicestershire, Captain C E Lynch-Blosse, but Alderman T Sarson received slight injuries to his leg in the incident.
HMS Samphire was built by Smiths Dock Company, in South Bank-on-Tees, and was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 30th June 1941. Shortly after entering service, from the 15th – 21st July 1941, Samphire took part in anti-submarine exercises off Tobermory with a Dutch submarine HrMs O 10, commanded by Lt J H Geijs Royal Netherlands Navy, and other Royal Navy vessels including HMS Brora, HMS Cumbrae, HMS Flotta, HMS Islay, HMS Le Tiger, HMS Romeo, HMS St Mary’s & HMS Wells
HMS Samphire
Samphire was tasked with convoy escort operations between Liverpool and the Mediterranean Sea and assigned to the 36th Escort Group commanded by Captain F J Johnnie Walker of the Western Approaches Command Group.
On the 30th July 1941, Samphire was part of the escort group for convoy OG.70, Outbound from the British Isles to Gibraltar. This convoy consisted of 20 merchant vessels and 9 escort vessels including Samphire.
On approach to Gibraltar, HMS Samphire along with 7 other Navy escort ships parted company with OG.70 to join the northbound convoy HG.70
Convoy HG.70 was an allied trade convoy of the Homeward from Gibraltar series and comprised of 25 ships sailing from Gibraltar on 9th August 1941.
Convoy HG.76 was an allied trade convoy of the Homeward from Gibraltar series and comprised of 32 ships sailing between 19th and 23rd December 1941.
It whilst escorting convoy HG.76 when at 06.15Hrs on 19th December 1941, that German U-boat U-108 fired a spread of two torpedoes at the convoy west of Lisbon. A flash and a large column of black smoke was observed on one ship and two detonations were heard. The steamer Ruckinge was damaged by one torpedo and the survivors were rescued by the Steamer FINLAND and sloop STORK. The Ruckinge was later shelled and scuttled by HMS Samphire (K 128) (LtCdr F.T. Renny, DSC, RNR).
A couple of days later on 21st December 1941, north of the Azores, Samphire successfully released depth charges with the British sloop Deptford resulting in the sinking of the German submarine U-567 in the North Atlantic northeast of the Azores resulting in the loss of all 47 men on board the U-567.
On 8th November 1942, she was escorting USS Leedstown (AP-73) from the Mediterranean after she had been attacked by German aircraft, which hit the Leedstown with an aerial torpedo in the stern the day earlier.
USS Leedstown
At 12:55Hrs on 9th November, German aircraft attacked again with 3 bombs straddling the Leedstown. Although Samphire managed to shoot down one attacker, vibration from the bombs exploding added further damage to that caused the night before.
The Leedstown was again attacked at 13:10Hrs, this time by 2 torpedoes which struck her amidships, exploding with tremendous force. The ship started to settle with an increased starboard list and when the midships were about 3 feet under water, the decision to abandon ship was taken.
HMS Samphire was standing by and assisted in the rescue of the survivors from the Leedstown. At 14:30Hrs, Commander Cook had gone over the side of Leedstown and was rescued about an hour later. Samphire rescued 104 survivors who she put ashore the following morning at Algiers.
During the early hours of 12th November 1942, HMS Tynwald was at short notice, ready to sail from 04:45Hrs in anticipation of a dawn Axis air raid. Tynwald was part of a task force sent to capture an airfield near Bougie (modern Béjaïa) 100 miles east of Algiers. At the centre of the force were infantry landing craft, and the covering force included the cruiser HMS Sheffield, the monitor HMS Roberts, and fourteen other supporting vessels.
Just 30 minutes later, Tynwald was hit by 2 torpedoes launched from the Argo, an Italian submarine commanded by Lt Pasquali Gigli resulting in Tynwald settling rapidly in 7 meters of water and 10 of her crew killed. The survivors were rescued by HMS Samphire and HMS Roberts.
The Leicester Evening Mail published the following article on the 4th December 1942:
“Melton Corvette saved Melton Man. After being in the sea for two hours, Able Seaman Horace E Main, of Salisbury Avenue, Melton, was picked up by Melton’s adopted corvette HMS Samphire.
As soon as he got on board, he was asked by members of the crew where he lived, and when he told them he was asked to convey to the Melton people the ship’s company’s thanks for all they had done for them. Able Seaman Main was given a jumper to wear which came from Melton. Able Seaman Main says the finest sight he had ever seen was the corvette bearing towards him as he was clinging to a float.”
On 14th December 1942, Samphire assisted in the rescue of nine survivors from the British merchant ship Edencrag, which had been torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-443 west of Algiers.
HMS Samphire
Samphire was torpedoed and sunk on 30 January 1943 off Bougie, Algeria by the Italian submarine Platino. Samphire was escorting convoy TE-14 which was taking part in the North African campaign. The captain, two officers and 42 of the ship’s crew perished.
Platino
On the 7th November 1947, the Leicester Daily Mercury reported the following: “Melton’s ship no longer – A letter from the Admiralty intimates that HMS Samphire, the ship that Melton adopted, is now out of commission, and the association between the crew and the town is thus ended.
Melton Mowbray was preseneted with a commemorative shield in recognition of their adoption of HMS Samphire. This shield is now on display in the Royal British Legion Office in Melton Mowbray.
HMS Samphire Presentation Plaque Inscription
Following the publication of my Melton’s Warship blog, I was contacted by an individual who lives on the Kirby Lane Fields Housing Estate in Melton Mowbray who told me “When we moved in to our house back in 2000 the site forman told us all the roads on the estate were named after wild flowers. However, the site manager told us they were named after WWII Corvettes. I wonder who was correct as I know there was an HMS Celandine.”
So naturally, I did a little bit of investigation into the street names from that estate and yes they are all flowers but out of the 16 street names, 13 are used by the Royal Navy as Ship names, with 12 in the Flower Class Corvettes.
There is 1 name connected to a WW1 Acacia Class Minesweeping Sloop and 3 others where I can find no connection to RN ships at all.
Anemone Close – HMS Anemone (Flower Class Corvette) launched 22nd April 1940 – Sold in November 1949. Resold on 3 October 1950 to Norway as buoy tender Pelkan, 1951 rebuilt as whale catcher, sold December 1963, renamed Østfold, Scrapped 1 November 1964.
Bluebell Row – HMS Bluebell (Flower Class Corvette) launched 24th April 1940 – Torpedoed and sunk on 17th February 1945 by U-711 off the Kola Inlet at 69-36N, 35-29E.
Campion Place – HMS Campion (Flower Class Corvette) launched 20th June 1941 – Sold on 20 April 1947 and scrapped at Newport.
Celandine Drive – HMS Celandine (Flower Class Corvette) launched 28th December 1940 – Shared sinking of U-556 on 27th June 41. Sold in October 1948 and scrapped at Portaferry.
Clover Drive – HMS Clover (Flower Class Corvette) launched 30th January 1941 – Sold on 17 May 1947 as mercantile Cloverlock. Resold to People’s Republic of China as mercantile Kai Feng.
Coltfoot Way – HMS Coltsfoot (Flower Class Corvette) launched 15th May 1941 – Sold in 1947 as mercantile Alexandra.
Cowslip Drive – HMS Cowslip (Flower Class Corvette) launched 28th May 1941 – Sold in July 1948. Scrapped in April 1949 at Troon.
Foxglove Avenue – HMS Foxglove (Acacia Class Minesweeping Sloop) entered service 14th May 1915 – Sold for scrapping on 7 September 1946. She was scrapped at Troon, Scotland
Harebell Drive – HMS Harebell (Flower Class Corvette) Cancelled on 23 January 1941. Pennant K202
Heather Crescent – HMS Heather (Flower Class Corvette) launched 17th September 1940 – Sold on 22 May 1947 and scrapped at Grays.
Honeysuckle Way – HMS Honeysuckle (Flower Class Corvette) launched 22nd April 1940 – Sold in 1950 and scrapped in November 1950 at Grays.
Marigold Crescent – HMS Marigold (Flower Class Corvette) launched 4th September 1940 – Torpedoed and sunk on 9 December 1942 by the Aviazione Ausiliara per la Marina while escorting convoy KMS.3Y off Algiers at 36-50N, 03-00E. 40 crew were killed.
Orchid Close – HMS Orchis (Flower Class Corvette) launched 15th October 1940 – Sank U-741 single-handed 15 August 44. Mined and heavily damaged on 21 August 1944 off Courseulles-sur-Mer. Beached on Juno Beach and declared a total loss.
Camomile Road, Teasel Drive and Trefoil Close no connection to RN Ships as far as I can tell.
Sadly, there is no street named Samphire after Melton’s Warship. So was this a deliberate naming strategy by Melton Borough Council to name the streets after the Flower Class Corvettes in honour of the towns connection, or was it just a coincidence. If theye were named after the Corvettes, it is a shame there is no street named Samphire!
Craufurd (Crawfurd/Crawford) House, No 19 Burton Street was named after Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Charles Craufurd.
Crawfurd House
Before becoming a private house, the property was the “Three Horse Shoes” public house kept by Mr J Adcock.
Alex was born on 30 Jun 1794 and was the 2nd eldest of 4 children for Sir James Gregan-Craufurd (2nd Baronet of Kilburney) and his wife Maria Theresa. Maria was the daughter of General Thomas Gage, Commander in Chief of the British Forces in North America.
Alex’s elder brother was Thomas, and the younger siblings were Jane and George.
Alex was educated at Eton and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge on 19th Mar 1810. Whilst at Eton, he became known as “Tea Pot Craufurd” through his tendency for brewing tea in a black teapot. He kept and cherished this tea pot whilst he was a soldier in the Peninsular War.
Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service 27 January 1866
In his spare time he enjoyed riding with the hounds at Melton Mowbray and Belvoir Castle where he was described as “Plucky in the extreme”.
After leaving Trinity College, he joined the Army and on the 3rd Jun 1811 he became an Ensign in the 1st Battalion 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards. He was assigned as a replacement for Ensign George Parker Cookson who was killed in action at the Battle of Fuentes de Onora on the 5th May 1811.
3rd Regiment of Foot Guards 1809
After Fuentes de Onora, the Regiment moved onto Celerico; Pinhel. In January 1812, the Regiment took part in the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in Spain from the 7th –20th January.
Explosion of the French magazine in the Main Breach, during the Storming of Ciudad Rodrigo on 19th January 1812 in the Peninsular War: picture by J.J.Jenkins
The casualties were heavy for the British, with over 500 being killed, wounded or missing during the assault and over 1,000 casualties in total for the siege, though despite this, the British took Ciudad Rodrigo. It was during this Siege that Alex’s uncle, Major General Robert Craufurd, who Commanded the Light Division, was mortally wounded on the 19th January 1812 whilst directing the stormers of the Light Division.
Black Bob – Major General Robert Craufurd
Robert, who was known as ‘Black Bob’ due to his habit of heavily cursing when losing his temper, his nature as a strict disciplinarian and even to his noticeably dark and heavy facial stubble was carried out of action by his staff officer, Lieutenant Shaw of the 43rd. After lingering four days, he died on 23rd January 1812 and was buried in the breach of the fortress where he had met his death.
The next major engagement for Alex and the 1st Battalion was the Battle of Salamanca or as the French & Spanish called it the Battle of Arapiles which took place on the 22nd July 1812.
Salamanca was another victory for Wellington, although the Allied losses numbered 3,129 British and 2,038 Portuguese dead or wounded. The Spanish troops took no part in the battle as they were positioned to block French escape routes and suffered just six casualties. The French suffered about 13,000 dead, wounded and captured.
As a consequence of Wellington’s victory at Salamanca, his army was able to advance to Madrid and liberate the city for two months, before
Engaging the French again at the Siege of Burgos.
During 1813, Alex’s Regiment took part in the Battle of Vittoria; the Siege of San Sebastian, the Battle of Bidassoa and the Battle of Nive.
Alex was promoted from Ensign to Lieutenant (by purchase) and transferred from 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards to the 10th Light Dragoons.
In 1806 the 10th Light Dragoons became the first hussar regiment in the British Army, in imitation of the famous Hungarian light cavalry.
10th Hussars
The 10th (Prince of Wales’s Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars), had been based in England since 1809 and were returning to Spain in the Summer of 1813.
Lieut-Col Alex Craufurd was a friend of the Prince Regent and when the 10th Hussars paraded before him before their departure for Spain, the Prince said to him “Go, my boy, and show the world what stuff you are made of. You possess strength, youth, and courage, go, and conquer”.
After arriving in Spain, the 10th Hussars fought in the Battle of Morales on the 2nd June 1814, followed by the Battle 0f Vitoria on the 21st June. After Vitioria, the Regiment advanced into France and fought in the Battle of Orthez on the 27th February 1814, where he was first in the charge and by all accounts, behaved splendidly.
Another Meltonian who served with the 10th Hussars during the Peninsular Wars was Colonel Charles Wyndham, of Wyndham Lodge, Melton Mowbray. You can read more about him in one of my earlier blogs here. Colonel Charles Wyndham.
On the 9th June 1814, Alex was promoted to Captain and transferred from the 10th Light Dragoons to the 2nd Ceylon Regiment. The 2nd Ceylon Regiment, also known as the Sepoy Corps, was first raised in 1802, the British became the first foreign power to raise a regular unit of Sinhalese with British officers. (Sinhalese people are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the island of Ceylon or as we call it today, Sri Lanka).
In 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, Alex volunteered to take part in the Battle and was transferred from the 2nd Ceylon Regiment and joined the 12th Lancers (or the Prince of Wales’s Regiment of Light Dragoons) as a Captain.
During the Battle of Waterloo, Alex’s eldest brother, Thomas Crauford was killed whilst serving with the Scots Guards at Hougemont. He is commemorated with a memorial tablet on the garden wall at Hougemont.
Alex & Thomas’s sister, Jane, was present at the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball at Brussels, where she witnessed the departure of the troops and the return of the wounded.
Illustrated London News 31 May 1884
Alex married his wife, The Honorable Lady Barbara Coventry at St George’s Church, Hanover Square in Lndon on the 23rd July 1818.
Barbara was the daughter of George William (7th Earl)(Viscount Deerhurst) COVENTRY. She was the Aunt to Henry Amelius Coventry who purchased Lord Rokeby’s Club on Burton Street, which later became known as Coventry House.
At some point after Waterloo, Alex was transferred to the 60th Regiment of Foot as on the 26th Oct 1820 he was officially transferred from them back to the 12th Light Dragoons.
Just less than a year later, he was promoted to Major (Brevet) on the 30th Aug 1821 staying with the 12th Light Dragoons an in August 1824, he was promoted to Major (by purchase) and transferred from 12th Light Dragoons to the Cape Corps (Cavalry).
The Cape Corps consisted of two small units of about 200 men for the defence of the Cape Colony’s eastern frontier. The two units were named the Cape Cavalry (consisting of one troop of dragoons) and the Cape Light Infantry.
On the 24thJun 1825, Alex was transferred with the rank of Major from Cape Corps (Cavalry) to the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussar (Light Dragoons). Almost a year later, he purchased his promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel and transferred to 94th Regiment of Foot.
On the 6th Aug 1829, he came off the half pay list on exchange with Henry Salway to be Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards.
Alex died on the 12th March 1838 aged 43 and was buried at Gresley Parish Church near Swadlincote Derbyshire on 17th March 1838.
Mowbray Lodge which used to be on Dalby Road opposite Warwick Lodge was built to the same design as Wicklow Lodge on Burton Road. The Mowbray Lodge was a hunting box for several seasons until 1898 when it was purchased by the Vicar of Melton, Reverend Richard Blakeney M.A. and his wife.
For several years, prior to the Vicar taking ownership, it was home to Captain Gordon Wilson and his wife Lady Sarah, whilst they were hunting with the Quorn Hounds. Lady Sarah was the youngest daughter of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, John Spencer-Churchill. As a member of the Churchill family, she was aunt to Winston Churchill.
Lt Col Gordon Chesney Wilson
Lady Sarah Isabella Augusta Wilson (nee Spencer-Churchill)
Their son, Randolph Gordon Wilson was born at Mowbray Lodge and was baptised by the Reverend Blakeney at St Mary’s Church on Sunday 26th February 1893. He later went on to serve in the Royal Naval Air Service during WW1 and later the Royal Air Force following the merge of the RNAS and Royal Flying Corps.
Following the sale of Mowbray Lodge, the Wilsons moved into Brooksby Hall in 1897 where they stayed until 1904.
Brooksby Hall
Gordon Wilson joined the Royal Horse Guards from the Militia in May 1887, becoming a Lieutenant in December 1888 and a Captain in 1894.
He took part in the Boer War serving as Aide-de Camp to Colonel Robert Baden-Powell who was the Commanding Officer of the Frontier Forces at Mafeking from August 1899 to May 1900 and after appointment as Major General South Africa from May 1900 to July 1900.
He was present at the defence of Mafeking, taking part in the actions of 26th December 1899 and 12th May 1900. He was twice Mentioned in Despatches in the London Gazette on the 8th February 1901 and the 10th September 1901.
Lady Sarah went out to South Africa to join him and in 1899 was recruited by Alfred Harmsworth to cover the Siege of Mafeking for the Daily Mail after one of the Mail correspondents, Ralph Hellawell, was arrested by the Boers as he tried to get out of the besieged town of Mafeking to send his dispatch. Having thus become the first woman war correspondent, Baden-Powell asked her to leave Mafeking for her own safety after the Boers threatened to storm the British garrison.
Lady Sarah Wilson nat the entrance of her shelter at Mafeking
This she duly did, and set off on a madcap adventure in the company of her maid, travelling through the South African countryside. when she was about 15 miles from Mafeking, she attempted to send back a message by carrier pigeon. The pigeon was not very well trained, and instead of flying back to Mafeking, it went and landed on the rooff of the Boer Commanders house who duly acertained who she was and where she was. She was captured by the enemy and taken prisoner before being returned to the town in exchange for a horse thief.
When she re-entered Mafeking she found it had not been attacked as predicted. Over four miles of trenches had been dug and 800 bomb shelters built to protect the residents from the constant shelling of the town.
Lady Sarah Wilson at Mefeking
On 26 March 1900, she wrote: “The Boers have been extremely active during the last few days. Yesterday we were heavily shelled and suffered eight casualties … Corporal Ironside had his thigh smashed the day before, and Private Webbe, of the Cape Police, had his head blown off in the brickfields trenches.”
Although death and destruction surrounded her, she preferred not to dwell too much on the horrors of the siege. She described cycling events held on Sundays and the town’s celebration of Colonel Baden-Powell’s birthday which was declared a holiday. Despite these cheery events, dwindling food supplies became a constant theme in the stories which she sent back to the Mail and the situation seemed hopeless when the garrison was hit by an outbreak of malarial typhoid. In this weakened state the Boers managed to penetrate the outskirts of the town, but the British stood firm and repelled the assault. The siege finally ended after 217 days when the Royal Horse and Canadian Artillery galloped into Mafeking on 17 May 1900.
He was promoted to Major in January 1903, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in October 1907 and took command of his regiment in October 1911 as Lieutenant-Colonel.
On the outbreak of World War One, Gordon left for France as Lt. Colonel in the Royal Horse Guards.
Lady Sarah also went to France and was running a hospital for injured soldiers in Boulogne. It was at this hospital that Major Tony Markham who lived at The House, Melton Mowbray died after being wounded in action.
The Tatler August 19th 1914
In the field again
It was whilst she was at Bolougne that she heard that her husband Gordon had died from wounds received in action, on 6 November 1914. Gordon is buried in a CWGC grave at Zillebeke Churchyard in Belgium. See his CWGC recordfor more details.
“Melton Officer Dies in a Nazi Camp” was the headline of the news article published in the Leicester Evening Mail on 11th January 1943. The officer in question was Peter Anthony Lovegrove.
Leicester Evening Mail 11 January 1943
Peter was born in Melton Mowbray on the 3rd March 1920 as the middle child of 3. His parents were the late Edward Tyler Lovegrove and his wife Hilda, of Thorpe Arnold. Peter’s elder brother Vernon was born Sept 1917 and his younger sister Joyce in Dec 1921.
Within a few years of the children being born, their father Edward, died on 16th May 1922 at their home in Thorpe Arnold. His death was put down to War Related Sickness”…a victim of consumption [pulmonary tuberculosis], primarily contracted through War service.”
Edward had served with the Royal Army Service Corps during the First World War. He was given a commission in the ASC in 1915 as a Lieutenant when he proceeded to France in the December 1915. He was promoted to Captain whilst serving with the 55th Division until the summer of 1918 when he was invalided out of the service with a Silver War Badge suffering from the effects of being gassed and having 2 attacks of pleurisy.
Peter, aged 8 was sent for schooling at the Oakham School from 1929 starting off in the Junior House, followed by the School House which he left in 1936. Whilst at school he had the following achievements
Relay Race (under 13): won with team B – Spring 1930.
Form 1 Arithmetic Prize: Summer 1930.
Scouts: in the Fox patrol – Summer 1932.
Cricket under 14: awarded Colours – Summer 1933.
Form 4 Trustees’ Prize: Winter 1933.
Drama: played Blanch of Spain in the Form 5 production of King John – Spring 1936.
Fives: Captain – Winter 1936.
O.T.C.: Certificate ‘A’ – Winter 1936.
After leaving school, he trained as a chartered surveyor and on the 24th May 1939, the Nottingham Journal published a list of ‘local candidates’ who had passed their professional examinations of the Chartered Surveyors Institute. Peter was one of those listed that had passed Intermediate Examination Part One.
Fg Off Peter Anthony Lovegrove RAF (VR) (Photo: The Oflag 64 Record website )
Peter volunteered for the Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) in November 1939 and was enlisted in 1940 as a Leading Aircraftman and allocated service number 1164992. According to the London Gazette, he was granted a commission for the duration of hostilities as a Pilot Officer on probation wef 9th March 1941 and allocated service number 62324.
After being commissioned, he trained as a pilot and earnt his wings. He spent some time at RAF Cottesmore and whilst there he visited his old school in Oakham on several occasions.
At some point in his military career, Peter was posted onto No 83 Sqn based at RAF Scampton.
83 Sqn Crest
On the 8th April 1942, No 83 Sqn had been tasked with a bombing raid on Hamburg with their target being the Blohm & Voss shipyard. Five aircraft from No 83 sqn were involved from the total of 272 aircraft made up of 177 Wellingtons, 41 Hampdens, 22 Stirlings, 13 Manchesters (of which 5 were from 83 Sqn), 12 Halifaxes and 7 Lancasters.
The 83 Sqn Manchesters involved in the raid were: L7484, L7385; R5833; R5838 and L7427 and all equipped with a bomb load of 6 x 1,000lb general purpose bombs.
According to the Bomber Command War Diaries, the raid on Hamburg was not a success. Icing and electrical storms were encountered and out of the 272 aircraft involved in the raid, only 188 reported bombing in the area.
Later records from Hamburg reported that the equivalent of 14 aircraft loads fell on the city causing 8 fires of which 3 were large. There was no particular reference to property damage and 17 people were killed and a further 199 injured.
Bremen reported a load of incendiaries were dropped very accurately on the Vulkan shipyard which caused damaged to 4 U-boats under construction plus several surrounding buildings.
In addition to the Hamburg raid, Bomber Command were also carrying out smaller minor operations involving 13 Wellingtons to Le Havre, 3 Blenheims intruding over Holland, 24 aircraft minelaying near Heligoland and 16 aircraft on leaflet flights to Belgium and France.
It was these leaflet raids that 83 Sqn provided 2 Manchesters R5837 and R5873 to carry out a nickel raid on Paris.
From a total if 328 aircraft involved in the two Ops that night, 6 aircraft were lost, 5 from the Hamburg raid and 1 from the leaflet drops.
Bomber Command Report on Night Operations 8th April 1942 Pg 1
Bomber Command Report on Night Operations 8th April 1942 Pg 2
R5837 that took part in the leaflet raid on Paris, took off from Scampton at 21:01Hrs and the crew were: Plt Off Proule; Plt Off Renvoize; Sgt Fitchett; Fg Off Goodman; Plt Off Dickinson; Sgt Neary and Sgt Porter. In addition, the Sqn Intelligence Officer Plt Off R J Dyer had accompanied the crew to gain an insight into operational flying.
On the outbound leg of the sortie, the aircraft was hit by flak in the Starboard engine. Unable to maintain height, they ditched their leaflets near Calais and started an early run home. The aircraft ditched in the sea off Manston and only the pilot (Plt Off Proule ) managed to make it to the dingy. The W/Op followed correct procedure and gave a fix which enabled the pilot to be found by the Search and Rescue unit after 14½ hours. Sadly, the rest of the crew didn’t make it and within a couple of days, the bodies of Plt Off Renvoize and Sgt Fitchett were washed ashore and taken for burial at Thundersley St Peter Churchyard in Essex and Vlieland General Cemetery in the Dutch Friesian Islands respectively. The rest of the crew have no known grave and are commemorated on the Runnymede memorial.
Manchester L7427 OL-Q 83 Sqn
Peter Lovegrove was the 2nd pilot on Manchester L7427 OL-Q for Queenie tasked with the raid on Hamburg. His crew mates were:
67046 Pilot Officer Jack Heathcote Morphett RAFVR – 1st Pilot
NZ/402188 Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Douglas Hutchinson RNZAF – Navigator
647009 Flt Sgt Albert Henry Salter RAF – Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
923926 Sergeant Reginald Stanley Williams RAFVR – Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
R.66159 Sgt George Charles Fisk RCAF – Air Gunner
R.69897 Sgt Charles Dewitt Gellatly RCAF – Air Gunner
According to the 83 Sqn Operational Record Book, they left Scampton at 22:15Hrs and were reported ‘missing without trace’. Further information has since come to light that L7427 was last heard on wireless transmission at 00.10 hours, at which time it was believed to be in the Lastrup area of Germany.
It was later reported to have crashed in the small town Ermke near Lastrup-Cloppenburg. It was claimed to have been shot down by Fw Gerhard Goerke 1/NJG3 – West of Lastrup South East of Cloppenburg at 00:49Hrs and also claimed by Flak of 1/schw Res Flak Abt 603 (unknown type) near Lastrup, Cloppenburg at 00:45Hrs.
Sadly, all the crew died in this incident, apart from Peter Lovegrove who as mentioned previously was the 2nd Pilot.
The crew who died on the 9th April were originally interred at the Russian Vechta Cemetery but later they were exhumed and re-buried on the 12th June 47 at the Sage War Cemetery. Most of the 816 casualties buried in the Sage cemetery were airmen lost in bombing raids over northern Europe whose graves were brought in from cemeteries in the Frisian Islands and other parts of north-west Germany.
There is an interesting story on the ‘Short Stirling & RAF Bomber Command Forum’ website posted by a user relating to this aircraft and the sortie on the 8th April.
“I am doing some research into the earliest use of the radar system H2S first used officially by Bomber Command in January 1943. The reason is my wife’s uncle was 21 year old commanding Pilot Officer Jack Heathcote Morphett who died on the 9th April 1942 in a raid over Germany. The story in the family goes that Jack had completed 30 successful missions and was on leave in Wales, R&R when he got a call from his commanding officer at Scrampton. Two Avo Manchesters were to take part in a raid over Hamburg and the nominated Pilot Officer was regarded as not being sufficiently experienced, and the mission was an important one. This plane was fitted with some experimental equipment- he told his sister but could not say more, -and it was essential an experienced pilot ensured that if the plane was in difficulty and had to crash, that the equipment did not fall into the hands of the Germans.The plane left RAF Scrampton at 22.15h. The last signal was received at 1am over the Lastrup area of Germany, and the plane crashed NE of Cloppenburg. My mother in law was told by the RAF that Jack managed to get his co-pilot free who bailed out but the plane lost control and he had to ensure that the secret equipment was totally destroyed. The reference was L7427-01-Q. Sadly Pilot Officer Lovegrove who bailed out was captured and died in November 1942 in Pozen Old Garrison Prison, Poland. Does anyone know if this plane might have been fitted with a test rig of H2S? the first operation use was 30th January 1943, and on the 2/3 February a Sterling Pathfinder crashed without destroying the H2S equipment and Telefunken developed within 6 months a detector of the equipment from the crashed plane. Surely, before the system went into full operation there must have been some trials? Any thoughts or advice on where to research this would be much appreciated. Stephenph.
There is no mention in the record books that Jack Morphett was recalled from leave nor any mention of any special equipment being fitted to L7427. However, the chat forum goes on to say;
“Two RAF officers came and consoled Barbara Morphett his sister,(later Lady Barbara Lawrence, wife of the Senior Master and Queen’s Remberencer) whom he had taught to fly. They gave her the impression that he may have been forced to crash the plane to destroy certain vital secret equipment.”
Another member of the forum called Volker takes the discussion further:
“I know the crash site exactly. I have located the crash site and explored with a metal detector. I have found many small parts of this Manchester. For me, a long time it was not clear which aircraft crashed on this pasture. The records in the village chronicles were totally wrong. A difficult case. In the last year I have a found a witness. He is 86 years old and in good health. We talked a long time and he said to me he remembered a name. The name was Palagref. This crew member was injured taken at night by his family. After a short time I knew that it was the co. pilot P.A. Lovegrove. Now I am in very good contact with the nephew of Peter Anthony Lovegrove. His name is Peter Lovegrove. Peter comes to Germany on 23.April with his family and visit the crash site. We have full support of the community and authoritis. Near the crash site we built a memorial (rockstone with a plaque and a wooden cross) in Memoriam for the crew. The story is very interesting and I hope other members of the crew see this report. Maybe additional contacts incur. For any further assistance, I am very grateful. There are many pictures of this aircraft. Unfortunately, there seems to be no pictures of the crew. To date I have only a picture of P. A. Lovegrove.”
As confirmed in the eyewitness account above, Peter was injured and taken in by a German family. The Leicester Evening Mail on the 10th June 1942 states he had slight injuries to his forearm. At some point he must have either been captured or handed over to the German authorities as he became a prisoner of war (POW No 778).
He was initially held in Dulag Luft (Lazarett Hohe Mark), from 9th April 1942 until he was transferred to Stalag Luft III (Sagan) on 28th May 1942, then again transferred to Oflag XX1-B (Schubin) on 17th September 1942.
The Leicester Evening Mail and Leicester Chronicle reported in their newspapers on the 10th & 13th June 42 that Pilot Officer Lovegrove, son of the late Captain E T Lovegrove has been promoted to Flying Officer.
It was whilst he was at Oflag XX1-B that he died. According to a telegram that his mother received from the Geneva Red Cross, dated 23rd November 1942, stating that, according to official German information, he had died in the camp hospital on 12th November 1942 from injuries received as a result of falling accidentally from a high window.
Telegram from the International Red Cross notifying Peter’s mother of his death
He was alone, and it was believed he had been surveying the surrounding countryside with a view to escaping, but lost his balance and was killed instantly when he fell on his head at 2.45pm onto the pavement at the hospital entrance, fracturing his skull.
Oflug Stalag XXI B
This story is recalled in the book “Moonless Night: The Second World War Escape Epic” by B A Jimmy James. “Another tragedy struck soon after. A young flying officer called Lovegrove fell off the top of the big white house, used as a hospital, to crash to his death three stories below on the concrete path at the entrance. He was a member of the mapping intelligence department, and a desire to get a good view for his survey had toppled him to his death.”
The last photograph of Peter, taken in the camp just 24 hours before his tragic death.
Group portrait of prisoners of war (POWs) at Oflag XXIb in Poland, a German POW internment camp for officers.
Left to right: back row: Bromiley, Leetham, John Dicker, unidentified serviceman and Organ.
Front row: Lovegrove, Svenson and an unidentified serviceman
(Photo Australian War Memorial)
His funeral service and burial at the Szubin Cemetery was described by the Red Cross in a letter to his Mother, on 23rd March 1943, as having taken place with full military honours at 10.30 on 14th November 1942.
Peters funeral
A Chaplain of the Forces conducted the Service where 30 Officers were in attendance, the ‘Last Post’ and ‘Reveille’ were sounded by a British soldier, and 3 volleys fired by a German firing party. Six wreaths were sent, 4 from his comrades, 1 from the RAF PoWs at Stalag Luft III, and 1 from the German Kommandatur (Military Government Headquarters).
Army bugler
The Oflag 64 Record website recalls a letter from Senior British Officer Wing Commander Harry Day (dated 20th November 1942) which describes in detail all the tragic circumstances of Peter’s death:
“I am a Senior British Officer at this camp and I am writing to tell you how very distressed we all are over the terrible and unexpected accident which overtook your good looking and brave son. I have known him since his first arrival at Stalag Luft 3 and since hence I have a very high opinion of him. I have called a strict investigation to be undertaken by S/L Tench, who knew your son in England and it appears that your son climbed out of the top of 3rd storey window in the hospital building at 2:45 in the afternoon he either became giddy of slipped and fell onto the pavement at the entrance of the hospital. The two British Medical Officers were actually on the scene and attended to your son, but your son must have been killed instantly as he fell on his head. The reason your son climbed out onto the window ledge is not absolutely clear but as there was no one with him, but it can be put down to his keenness to escape. The window being good vantage point to see the countryside. As you probably know your son made one unsuccessful attempt to escape with a man of his spirit I am certain he was planning another”.
Leicester Evening Mail 18 December 1942
The Leicester Evening Mail 18th December 1942 “PRISONER’S FATE A letter the Red Cross has been received by Mrs E T. Lovegrove of Thorpe Arnold stating that her son Pilot Officer Peter Lovegrove RAF a prisoner of war has died through an accident. No cause of death is given. The letter that states that confirmation from the Air Ministry will follow. This has not come through and enquiries are being made. A few days ago Mrs Lovegrove received a letter from her son stating that he was well set up for the winter in a new camp. and had met old school friends.”
On the 8th October 1948, his body was exhumed from the Szubin cemetery and re-buried in the CWGC Poznan British Military Cemetery (now Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery), Plot 5, Row J, Grave 14.
Following the loss of Manchester L7427 OL-Q for Queenie, the next aircraft on 83 Squadron to be allocated the code ‘Q for Queenie ‘ was Avro Lancaster R5868 OL-Q which was delivered to No 83 Sqn on 29th June 1942.
Lancaster R4868 OL-Q in May 43 whilst with 83 Sqn (Photo Ton-Up Lancs)
Lancaster R5868 is probably the most famous Lancaster as the one credited with the highest number of ‘ops’ to survive to the present day, completing 137 known operations whilst serving with 83 Sqn, 467 RAAF Sqn, 207 (Leicesters Own) Sqn and back to 467 RAAF Sqn.
The aircraft is now on display in the RAF Museum at Hendon wearing the codes PO-S for Sugar that she wore whilst serving with No 467 RAAF Sqn.
Peter is commemorated on his parents grave at Thorpe Arnold.
In my previous blog Melton & District Spitfire FundI looked at how the people of Melton Mowbray and surrounding villages came together in a fundraising effort in late 1940 to buy a Spitfire fighter plane.
This blog continues with the story of the Melton Mowbray & District Spitfire P8522 and looks at its history from being built in 1941 right through to when it was retired from RAF service in 1945.
Spitfire P8522 was built according to the official Air Ministry list as a F Mk 1A, but during production it was converted to a F Mk IIB. P8522 was built in April 1941 at the Vickers Armstrong Ltd. factory at Castle Bromwich, and was part of Contract No B981687/39/C.23(C) dated 12th April 1939 which was placed for the first batch of 1000 F MkII’s.
As requested by the fund organisers, P8522 was adorned with the towns emblem of the Red Lion Rampant upon a white background and wore the title “Melton Mowbray & District” along the side of the fuselage under the windscreen.
Alex Henshaw
On the 5th May 1941, P8522 took her maiden flight at Castle Bromwich with the Vickers test pilot Alex Henshaw at the controls.
Shortly afterwards on 12th May 1941, P8522 was transferred to No 24 Maintenance Unit at RAF Tern Hill in Shropshire where it went to be fully fitted out for operational duties.
Following being fitted out for operation duties, P8522 was transferred to No 303 (Polish) Sqn based at RAF Northolt on the 19th June 1941 and assigned to “B” Flight with the code RF-W. In addition to the codes RF-W, the 303 Squadron emblem was also added next to the Melton lion.
Rolling off the production line in 1941 meant that the Melton Mowbray & District Spitfire was too late into service to be involved in the Battle of Britain and it joined No 303 Squadron which claimed the largest number of aircraft shot down during the Battle, even though it joined the Battle two months after it had begun.
303 Squadron Emblem as worn on P8522
No. 303 Squadron RAF was formed in July 1940 in Blackpool, England before deployment to RAF Northolt on 2 August as part of an agreement between the Polish Government in Exile and the United Kingdom. It had a distinguished combat record and was disbanded in December 1946.
Flying Officer Wojciech Kolaczkowski was the first Polish pilot to fly the Melton Spitfire when on the 20th & 21st June he took P8522 up for a series of test flights to check it out before being declared operational on 303 Sqn.
Wojciech Kołaczkowski shown here wearing Squadron Leader rank badges
The first operational flight came on the 24th June when Sgt Stanislaw Belza took P8522 to Martlesham Heath as part of “B” Flight which had been tasked with fighter escort duties protecting bombers on a raid over occupied Europe. This operation proceeded to plan except for haze over the target area.
Belza again took P8522 on ‘Escort Duties’ the following day but this time, the Squadron encountered severe flak and were engaged in a number of dog fights with ME.109s. The first sortie of the day was at 06:10 Hrs for an hour, landing back at 07:10. Sgt Belza was again airborne in the Melton Spitfire at 11:40Hrs for another escort sortie, landing back at base at 13:40Hrs.
Sgt Stanislaw Belza
Later in the day, P8522 was again airborne for her 3rd sortie of the day, again escorting bombers. This time Kolaczkowski was at the controls and took off at 15:40Hrs and returned to base at 17:25Hrs.
On the 26th June, B Flight moved to Martlesham Heath at 07:30Hrs. P8522 was piloted again by Kolaczkowski for the 35 minute flight.
They had gone to Martlesham Heath to take part in Circus operations where bomber attacks with fighter escorts took place during day time. The attacks were against short range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.
Kolaczkowski took off in P8522 at 11:00Hrs escorting 23 Blenheim bombers on a raid to Comines power station. The weather conditions over Commines made bombing impossible due to 10/10 cloud over France so the bombers turned back and the fighters encountered no opposition and returned to base, landing at 12:25Hrs.
The 27th was a rather hectic day for 303 Sqn, with weather conditions making a morning circus impossible so the Squadron went on a mass Rhubarb operation resulting in various Messerschmitt’s being damaged or destroyed on the ground.
A Rhubarb operation is when sections of fighters or fighter-bombers, taking full advantage of low cloud and poor visibility, would cross the English Channel and then drop below cloud level to search for opportunity targets such as railway locomotives and rolling stock, aircraft on the ground, enemy troops and vehicles on roads.
P8522 was not involved in the days Rhubarb taskings, but later in the day Kolaczkowski was at the controls of P8522 again for escort duties, initially going to Manston at 1600Hrs. At 20:30Hrs he took off as part of B Flight providing escort duties for 23 Blenheims as part of the Circus 25 operation to bomb the steel works at Lille. Minor skirmishes took place with one enemy aircraft being damaged by F/O Zumbach, but no action for P8522.
Kolaczkowski was again flying P8522 on the 28th providing escort high cover for 24 Blenheims attacking Comines as part of the Circus 26 Op. Just West of Comines, he was in a dog fight with 5 Messerschmitt Me-109s. In his combat Kolaczkowski report stated:
“After a prolonged dog-fight with with 5 ME 109’s west of Comines, I had come down low and near Desvres was joined by Sgt Belc. Flying across the aerodrome I fired a short burst at a Me.109 which was mounted on trestles. The aircraft collapsed amid a cloud of smoke.
Rounds fired: 7 rounds each of 2 cannon, 15 rounds each of 4 M/G”
On the 30th, P8522 RF-W was again part of the fighter escorts with F/L Jankiewicz at the controls providing escort for another Circus bombing trip for 18 Blenheims atacking the Pont-a-Vendin Power Station in France, but this time there was nothing special to report.
Kolaczkowski was back in control of P8522 on the 1st July when they carried out a couple of evening bomber escorts over France with all aircraft returning safely.
The second combat victory for Kolaczkowski and P8522 occurred on the 2nd July 1941 when 303 & several other Fighter Sqn’s were on escort duties again from Martlesham as part of a Circus Op to the Fives/Lille steel and engineering works at Lille. No opposition was met until they were over the target area and a series of dog fights developed. Some fighters stayed with the bombers whilst others became involved with the fighters.
The Fives/Lille steel and engineering works at Lille was to be the target of several attacks carried out by the RAF and USAAF bombers during the war.
The Operations Record Book entry for the 2nd July states “F/Lt Kolaczkowski attacked two Me’s who were attacking the bombers; one was destroyed by the Blenheim and the other by F/Lt Kolaczkowski. F/O Zumbach shot down 1 Me in flames and damaged others. P/O Lipinski attacked and probably destroyed another Me109. Sgt Wojciechowski was wounded in the shoulder but returned to Martlesham suffering from loss of blood. It transpired later that he had shot down one Me109 in a series of dog fights.
S/Ldr Lapkowski was missing from this operation and it was thought that he had collided with another Spitfire belonging to Sgt Gorecki. This transpired to be incorrect as Gorecki was picked up three days later after 74 hours in Channel.
There has been no further news of S/Ldr Lapkowski.”
According to the personal combat report that Kolaczkowski submitted, the attack took place in an area from Lille to mid-channel at around 12:45Hrs.
Luftwaffe fighters and 303 Sqn Spitfires engaged in a dogfight over the English Channel. (Photo Gary Eason)
“As soon as we had reached Lille Me.109’s began to engage our Squadron and the other escort Squadrons, and the dog-fights continued until we had reached mid-channel. During the many engagements which took place between 15,000 and 10,000 ft, I saw two Me.109Es diving towards the bombers and after the first E/A had had a wing shot away by a Blenheim, the second pulled up and I followed him. I was able to fire 3 short bursts from my cannons and M/Gs from astern at 150-200ydsand the Me.109 rolled down emitting black smoke. The pilot was seen to bale out but the aircraft went down out of sight. I fired 26 rounds from each of 2 cannons and 100 rounds from each of 4 M/Gs.”
On the 3rd July, the Squadron took part in two sorties over France. In the second, ten Spitfires took part, 7 from “A” Flight and 3 from “B” Flight of which P8522 piloted by Flt Lt Jankiewicz was one, taking off at 10:30Hrs and returning at 12:55Hrs as part of Circus 30 escorting Blenheim bombers from No 139 Sqn attacking Hazebrouck marshalling yards.
The following day (4th July), was a heavy day for 303 Squadron with uneventful operation trips, convoy patrols, night flying practice and a variety of aircraft tests. P/O Marciniak took P8522 on a Sector Recon sortie in the late morning followed by an operational sortie for bomber escort duties just before midnight with Sgt Belc at the controls.
It was similar on the 5th when Plt Off Daszewski took P8522 on a training flight (practice formation flying) in the morning with Flt Lt Zak taking P8522 on an uneventful patrol after lunch.
Zak again took P8522 the following morning when they were tasked with providing top cover for three Stirling bombers attacking Le Trait shipyards. Several more uneventful bomber escort mission were undertaken by P8522 on the 10th & 11th July.
Formation of 3 Short Stirling bombers
On the 12th July, the Squadron was once again involved in escort duties over France and was involved in a few minor skirmished with the enemy. It is thought that Flt Lt Zak flew P8522 in the afternoon of the 12th on bomber escort duties but cannot be confirmed due to the illegibility of the ORB records.
The 12th of July was the last operation flight of the squadron before leaving Northolt for Speke in Liverpool. There are no more records of P8522 flying with 303 (Polish) Squadron after the 12th July.
After five months of operations, No. 303 Sqn was rested on 13th July moving to Speke near Liverpool, in 9 Group, Fighter Command.
No 65 (East India) Sqn Crest
According to the aircraft transfer record card, P8522 Melton Mowbray & District was transferred on the 15th September to No 65(East India) Sqn at RAF Kirton Lindsey. It is thought that P8522 was allocated to “A” Flight with the code ‘YT-D’ to replace K9907 YT-D which had been shot down a few months previous..
65 Sqn Spitfire MkIa K9907 YT-D
No 65 Squadron was in the process of re-equipping with the MkIIb Spitfires and as a result, was involved in quite a lot of training flights. It was on the 18th September when Sgt Grantham took P8522 YT-D on an “Air Firing” sortie. The ORB entry for the day states “1 section of three aircraft proceeded to North Coates from where a convoy patrol was carried out without incident. 2 sections of 2 aircraft proceeded to Sutton Bridge for air firing (canon testing) on re-equipment of squadron with Spitfires Mark IIb. There was also 1 dusk patrol of 5 aircraft. Practice flights were carried out during the day.”
The 19th was a “nothing of interest to report” day for 65 Sqn and the only aircraft to fly was P8522 YT-D at the hands of P/O Mitchell who took ‘D’ for a training flight calling at Digby, Wittering, Colley Weston and back to Kirton.
The next day was another day of training with 2 aircraft from “A” Flight and all aircraft from “B” Flight proceeded to Manby for air firing due to testing of canons on re-equipping to MkIIb Spitfires. That day, Sgt Chandler was the first to take ‘D’ off to Manby and back on an air firing sortie, leaving Kirton at 11:55Hrs. Sgt Oldnall did the same in the afternoon departing at 14:30Hrs.
P/O Mitchell was back in control of P8522 when on the 22nd; the Squadron left Kirton for Detling, about 3 miles NE of Maidstone in Kent to take part in an offensive sweep. The aircraft returned to Kirton in the afternoon on the account of “unfavourable weather conditions”. P/O Mitchell and P8522 were one of two aircraft tasked later that day in taking part in an operation sortie from Kirton, the other being F/Lt Grant and P8576.
65(East India) Squadron were next involved on operation flying on the 24th, with 2 sections of 2 aircraft undertaking operation patrols but this didn’t include P8522. However, Sgt Chalmers did get airborne in YT-D when he was tasked with a local practice flight involving formation flying. Sgt Warden did the same on P8522’s next trip on the 26th September when they were tasked with formation flying again.
Sgt Chalmers took P8522 up twice on the 1st October and again on the 2nd taking part in Army Co-Operation “Bumper” Exercises at RAF Oulton in Norfolk. He returned to Kirton on the 3rd.
Bumper exercises were undertaken in East Anglia during October and November 1941 to test the ability of British forces to destroy a German Army after invading Great Britain. Two Army Headquarters and four Corps participated. The total number of divisions taking part was twelve; three of these were armoured. Two army tank brigades and corps troops in large numbers were also involved. The force engaged amounted in all to about a quarter of a million men.
65 (East India) Squadron must have done a good job on the Bumper exercise as the post exercise report stated ” Air Support. On the air aspect, the C.-in-C. mentioned the following points. (A) Don’t use your air support ” in penny packets. (B) The fighter appears to present a serious menace to troops and transport on the move. (C) The Air Support Control should be at Army HQ if this is as far forward as it ought to be. It does not follow, however, that it should not be sent to some lower formation’s HQ if the main weight of air support is being directed to this formation’s area.” To read the full report, click here.
The 4th October saw P/O Hewlett getting airborne first in P8522 on a weather test followed later in the day by P/O Mitchell taking P8522 to North Coates for Shipping patrol duties.
It wasn’t long before P8522 was re-allocated again, when on the 6th October 41 she went to 616 (South Yorkshire) Sqn due to 65 Sqn converting to the Spitfire MkV.
No 616 (South Yorkshire) Sqn Crest
616 were currently at RAF Westhampnett, near Chichester in West Sussex and the Squadron ROB states: “We heard today, with mixed feelings, that we were to move up to Kirton Lindsey on the sixth to replace 65 Squadron. It will be remembered that at the end of February we came down to Tangmere to take the place of 65 Squadron after a stay of over 5 months at Kirton Lindsey. The reason why our feelings are mixed is because we shall be sorry to miss all the operational activity, which only No 11 Group Stations can offer, although naturally this decreases as the long nights set in. Also, when we go to No 12 Group, we find that the squadron has to do many more duties for the Station, making it sometimes difficult to obtain a sufficient number of men to service the aircraft. On the other hand Kirton is nearer to most of the homes of the airmen and the accommodation is better than down South.”
The ORB entry for the 6th Oct states “The main party travel up to Kirton. The pilots could not fly up owing to rain and low clouds. Four New Zealand Sergeant pilots join the Squadron, i.e. H. A. Chandler, G.L.Davidson, J.H.Davidson and G.H.Lattimer. They were with 65 Squadron and as they were not trained they were transferred to us. Sgt Pilot A.H. Gunn (Rhodesia) posted to us from 56 O.T.U Grangemouth.
The 7th goes on to state “As weather was still bad the pilots came up by train. Once again we are bitterly disappointed with the dirty conditions of the aircraft, dispersal huts and billets which we took over from 65 Squadron. (see entry of February 26th 1941). Even the ammunition and canon barrels were rusty. The engineer officer insisted on the Squadron being made non-operational for at least 10 days in order to overhaul the aircraft (old Spitfire IIBs). 136 Squadron (Spitfire IIB) and 121 Squadron (the second Eagle Squadron) Hurricane IIBs are at Kirton.”
It would appear that 616 Squadron moved to Kirton Lindsey on or around the 6th October leaving their Spitfire MkVs at Westhampnett and re-equipped with the older MkIIs inherited from 65 (East India) Squadron, who moved South to Westhampnett on the 7th and re-equipped with the newer MkV version, possibly those left behind by 616 Squadron.
No 611 (West Lancashire) Sqn Crest
P8522 was transferred from 616 to 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron who were based at RAF Drem, East Lothian Scotland. 611 Sqn had been based at RAF Hornchurch carrying out offensive sweeps over occupied northern France since January 1941, but had moved North to RAF Drem for ‘rest’ in November 1941 where they stayed until June ‘42.
The first sorties with 611 Sqn took place on the 5th December 1941 when Flt Sgt Wright took her on a couple of shipping convoy patrols, the first at 08:15Hrs and returned at 09:30Hrs closely followed by another patrol at 10:25Hrs till 11:25Hrs.
On the 8th December, a dull and windy day by all account, two Spitfires from 611 Sqn were sent to Patrol Burnt Island in Fife. Flt Sgt Wright took P8522 and Sgt Johnstone in P7385.
The Squadron was tasked with operating out of Montrose for 3 days from the 12th December and 6 aircraft from B Flight proceed up to Montrose in the early afternoon. The Melton Spitfire however remained at Drem and at 17:00Hrs was on patrol over Eyemouth with Sqn Ldr Watkins in control.
Only 2 aircraft flew on the 15th from Drem, Flt Sgt Wright in P8522 and Sgt Haggas in P8468 were patrolling St Abbs Head. It was a bright day with high winds and bitterly cold. The Squadron was visited by 10 press reporters from various parts of Lancashire. the pilots ‘put on a good show’ and the visitors who were wined and dined by the Sqn left in a contented state of mind.
More patrols were undertaken by Flt Sgt Wright in the Melton Spitfire on the 16th December and then the aircraft didn’t fly again until the 28th when Sqn Ldr Watkins took her on a convoy patrol.
At lunch time on the 14th February, the Melton Mowbray Spitfire was 1 of 4 aircraft involved in a lunch time ‘scramble’ when the alarm bells sounded as an enemy aircraft (later identified as a Heinkel He111) approached the camp, flying at 30,000feet. The Spitfires gave chase but could not get within firing range before the enemy aircraft was lost in cloud.
P8522 flew twice the following day with Sgt Johnson at the controls. The first on a patrol around May Isle then at 11:30Hrs she was scrambled with Sgt Johnson again at the controls along with W3628 piloted by Flt Lt Winskill. Sgt Jones was at the controls when again she was scrambled on the 16th to intercept enemy aircraft approaching.
On 21st February 1942 P8522 was involved in an accident and was transferred to Scottish Aviation at Prestwick where the Melton Spitfire was ‘Repaired In Works’ on the 26th Feb and on the 7th March it was re-classified as a ‘Repaired Aircraft Awaiting Allocation’.
On the 13th March 1942, P8522 was transferred to No 37 MU at RAF Burtonwood in Cheshire. The role of 37MU was to receive brand new aircraft direct from the manufacturers and prepare them for squadron service and to incorporate all the latest modifications and armaments. The aircraft were then put into storage to be issued to the squadron as and when needed. 37 MU also operated an Aircraft Repair depot (ARD) repairing aircraft that had been battled damaged, or had crashed etc. P8522 remained at RAF Burtonwood until 21st April 1942.
The next unit to operate P8522 was No 1 Coastal Artillery Co-operation Flight (CACF) located at RAF Detling, 3 miles North East of Maidstone in Kent. On 1st January, 1942, No.1 Coast Artillery Co-operation Flight became No.1 Coast Artillery Co-operation Unit, and transferred from No.70 Group to No.35 Wing Army Co-operation Command.
Within a couple of weeks of arriving on No 1 CACU, the Melton Spitfire was involved in another incident when Fg Off H L D Tanner made a heavy landing at RAF Weston Zoyland putting the aircraft out of action until the 15th May 42 when she returned to her home base at RAF Detling following repair.
Early in 1942 the Unit took part in various exercises with the Army and Royal Navy. A number of practice shoots were carried out with 540 and 520 Coast Regiments at Dover, but no operational flying was requested during the first four months of this year. Operational sorties were carried out from May onwards, mainly reconnaissance of shipping and targets for the long range guns. A number of “Rhubarbs” were successfully carried out during the Autumn of 1942.
On 16 July, Plt Off P F Sewell 47422 was flying P8522 on a non-operational (local flying) sortie when it was involved in an accident on landing. Due to the amount of damage sustained, the aircraft was categorized as Flying Accident Category B (FACB). A Cat B accident is classed as beyond repair on site by station personnel but personnel from No 88MU were drafted in to carry out the repair which started on the 20th July 1942 and was completed with the aircraft being handed back to No 1 CACU on 7th August.
The accident record card states: “Pilot made normal landing and starboard tyre (possibly punctured on take-off) deflated during run. When passing over depression in the ground, the aircraft lurched causing Port u/c to stress at the anchorage and collapse, following which the starboard u/c collapsed. AOC: Pilot not to blame.”
In August 1942, Sqn Ldr D J Hamilton was bringing the Melton Spitfire into land when he made a ‘wheels up’ landing on the airfield. The aircraft was repaired and a month later on the 29th September Hamilton was again flying the Melton Spitfire on a sortie tasked with spotting form the artillery when it collided with birds. On landing, the aircraft was damaged further when it tipped on its nose. Again it was repaired and declared operational on the 2nd October.
Example of a Spitfire on its nose.
On 23rd November, the training Flight returned to Detling with all aircraft and equipment. Towards the end of 1942, night flying practice in Spitfires was carried out with 520 and 540 Coast Regiments at Dover in an effort to ascertain if spotting with Spitfires was feasible at night, but this was found to be impracticable.
P8522 was involved in another accident on the 22nd October when flying over enemy territory France at very low level and collided with birds at 1045hrs. The pilot, Fg Off Robert James Gee managed to get her back home and the damage was classed as Cat AC – repair beyond unit capacity. Again P8522 was repaired on site and was handed back to No 1 CACU on 17th April 1943.
The Melton Spitfire remained No 1 CACU 19th June 1943 when it was re-allotted and taken on strength by the Tactical Air Force.
On the 23rd October 1943 P8522 was transferred to No 61 OTU at RAF Rednal near Shrewsbury to train new pilots for Fighter Command.
It stayed until 11th August 1944 when it was transferred yet again to No 45MU at RAF Kinloss in Scotland where it stayed until it was eventually struck off charge on the 26th April 1945 due to it being deteriorated beyond repair.
The Melton Mowbray & District Spitfire P8522 served the country well being utilised on the front line. As she became superseded by newer advanced versions of the Spitfire, she carried on serving her country in various other roles.
P8522 had been engaged in combat with German bombers and fighters, escorted allied bombers over enemy occupied territory, took part in Rhubarb and Circus Operations, help train the British Army in the Bumper exercises, escorted shipping convoys and carried out patrols to protect the UK from attack, helped train the Coastal Defence units and latterly assisted with training newly qualified fighter command pilots on the Spitfire.
All in a days work for The Melton Mowbray & District Spitfire that was paid for by the generosity of the people of our market town and surrounding villages. We should be proud of our achievement.
