No such transmitter in Britain was capable of such a task but Colonel Richard Gambier-Perry (head of Special Intelligence Service communications) knew of a possibly suitable transmitter in the USA. It had been built by RCA for the broadcasting station WJZ in New Jersey, but had been prohibited from operating by the Federal broadcasting authorities because it was ten times more powerful than the maximum limit laid down for commercial radio stations in the USA at that time!

Harold Robin, a senior radio engineer from the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) complex in Bedfordshire, was sent to the USA to view the transmitter. Harold spent two months working with RCA making modifications to the transmitter. By the time they had finished the transmitter was able to transmit at 600kW. It took three 360ft masts for the transmitter to feed.

Unfortunately, one of the Royal Navy ships used to transport the transmitter and masts to the UK were torpedoed and one of the masts was lost. A duplicate had to be made and shipped to Britain.

Originally the transmitter was to be sited as part of the PWE complex in Bedfordshire. But Harold Robin insisted that it should be as close to the South Coast as possible - in Sussex.

There were several possible sites, but each was rejected by argument from the Air Ministry (the masts would be a hazard), or the BBC (interference to secret research work). No one objected to the site on Ashdown Forest at King’s Standing. It was public land and 620 feet above sea level.

The Canadian Army based nearby were employed to erect the transmitter. Using a civilian work force some 600 strong as extra manpower and working 24 hours a day, it took just three weeks to excavate the 50 foot deep hole which was covered with four feet thick reinforced concrete.

The transmitter complex had taken 9 months from approval to finish at a cost of around £127,000. It used an antenna consisting of 3 guyed masts, each 110 metres tall. The transmitter was given the name of Aspidistra after the popular tune of the day ‘The biggest Aspidistra in the world’ by Gracie Fields. After all it was the biggest transmitter in the world.

At first, the PWE were not really sure how best to use Aspidistra so it was agreed that it would be used to supplement the BBC’s overseas broadcasts. Aspidistra first went on air on November 8th 1942 when it broadcast a recording by President Roosevelt just before the start of the ‘Torch’ landings in North Africa.

Around this time, Naval Intelligence, led by Rear Admiral John Godfrey, had already been working on an idea of using a transmitter to broadcast propaganda. The project was only partially successful since it used recorded programmes. It was decided to build new studios at the Milton Bryan complex to make live broadcasts. A dedicated land-line was constructed to carry the programme material from Bedfordshire to Sussex. The name for the new station was to be ‘Deutsche Kurzwellensender Atlantik’ - Atlantiksender, for short!

Soon another station, linked to Atlantiksender, was planned and the real purpose for ‘Aspidistra’ began to be fulfilled. . Atlantiksender was to be directed to the German Army and the Luftwaffe and was to be on the medium waveband. Its name was to be Soldatensender Calais - later Soldatensender West, after the Normandy landings. The battle with the BBC for Aspidistra was won finally in October 1943 and Soldatensender Calais was on the air from Crowborough using Aspidistra’s full 600kW, allowing it to drown out any other existing station. Harold Robin had also installed a further two 100kW short-wave transmitters (now used for Atlantiksender) and four 7.5kW transmitters. He even had a mobile 500W unit operating as a relay from the top of the cliffs at Dover - just to confuse the enemy direction finders if they tried to get a fix on Aspidistra!

In 1943 during a British bombing raid, Apidistra was first used to broadcast fake instructions to German night fighter aircraft directing them to land. As German operational procedures changed to prevent impersonation, so the British copied them.
German radio transmitters were switched off during air raids, to prevent them from being used as navigational aids by allied bomber aircraft. However, many transmitters were connected into a network and broadcast the same content. When a targeted transmitter switched off, Aspidistra began transmitting on their original frequency, initially retransmitting the German network broadcast as received from a still-active station. As a deception, false content and pro-Allied propaganda would be inserted into the broadcast.

The first such “intrusion” was carried out on 25 March 1945.
On 30 March 1945 Aspidistra intruded into the Berlin and Hamburg frequencies warning that the Allies were trying to spread confusion by sending false telephone messages from occupied towns to unoccupied towns. On 8 April 1945 Aspidistra intruded into the Hamburg and Leipzig channels to warn of forged banknotes in circulation. On 9 April 1945 there were announcements encouraging people to evacuate to seven bomb-free zones in central and southern Germany. All these announcements were false.

The German radio network tried announcing “The enemy is broadcasting counterfeit instructions on our frequencies. Do not be misled by them. Here is an official announcement of the Reich authority.” Of course, the Aspidistra station made similar announcements, to cause confusion and make the official messages ineffective.

Aspidistra became very popular with the German population who actually believed they were listening to real German radio stations. The broadcasts included anti-allied propaganda and comments against the Royal Family. Big band music and Jazz were broadcast in the knowledge that German public were not able to listen freely to this type of decadent music.

Aspidistra was able to reach deep into Germany and various tests were made to verify this. When a number of messages were sent asking people in various towns to donate warm clothing for soldiers fighting in cold areas, numerous people actually turned up with clothing, much to the surprise of the local commanders!

As an example of what Aspidistra could do, imagine a bombing raid taking place on Hamburg. Before the raid Aspidistra would tune into the Hamburg frequency and monitor the programme. The same programme would also be being transmitted on from, say, Frankfurt and would also be monitored at Milton Bryan.

As it became obvious that the RAF was heading for Hamburg, the Hamburg station would go off air, so as not to be used for navigation by the incoming bombers. Within about eight milliseconds of Hamburg dropping carrier Aspidistra would come on air on the Hamburg frequency relaying the programme received at Milton Bryan from Frankfurt. All the interruption in programme that the locals in Hamburg would hear would be a slight ‘click’! The ‘Hamburg’ programme was now under British control and all sorts of bogus information could be provided to cause panic and distress to the inhabitants under attack.

By the end of the war, Aspidistra had been used on ten operations of this type during attacks on cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt and Leipzig. According to captured reports, these hoax transmissions were very successful.

The last transmission of Soldatensender West from Milton Bryan via Aspidistra was made at 5.59pm on Friday 30th April 1945. However, the station still remained in the hands of the Foreign Office (the Diplomatic Wireless Service) providing the External Services of the BBC. ‘Aspidistra’ remained in continuous service for forty years until it was finally decommissioned on September 28th 1982. Harold Robin performed the final shut-down.

Work was started to dismantle the equipment in May 1984; the aerials being demolished by simply cutting the guy-wires and letting them fall down!

The site was never bombed or attacked during the war. However, it was in what was known as ‘Doodlebug Alley’, a direct line between the V1 launch sites and London. There are various accounts of missiles flying over the site, including one where Harold Robin was at the top of one of the high masts when a V1 passed below him and between the masts!

This was a cause of great excitement at the time, but was kept a secret until long after the war had finished. One V1 did land near the east fence of the site, having hit the hillside. It remained there until 1985, when scrap dealers were allowed to enter and remove the metal.

In 1986, following extensive modifications, the ‘bunker’ was commissioned by the Home Office as one of the seventeen Nuclear Bunkers in England and Wales to be used as seats of regional government in the event of a nuclear attack.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidistra_(transmitter)
http://www.qsl.net/g0crw/Special%20Events/Aspidistra2.htm

The driver, on sighting the gangers blew his whistle and they moved out of the way. One of the gangers was alarmed at the speed of the train and said to one of his colleagues “She’ll be off the road”.
Passing under the Burnt Oak bridge, John Paige noticed the engine had dropped on his side of the train and felt the train roll again. He was about to turn off the steam when the train appeared to right itself.

The rear wheels then fell of the rails and the driver turned to his mate and said “We’re running on the chairs” meaning they had come off the rails. He immediately shut off the steam and applied the main air brake. The whole of the train, with the exception of the rear carriage then derailed. The engine went on for a few yards before turning sideways and then turned over completely and was found lying upside down by the side of the track. The three front carriages were off the tracks completely, standing on their wheels while the rear 3 carriages were left standing upright. John Paige was thrown headfirst into a nearby hedge.

The fireman – P Savage – and 5 passengers were injured but not seriously. John Paige, the driver suffered serious injuries.

At the enquiry to the accident it was decided that the gangers account of the speed of the train could not be accurate and that the fault lay with some weakness in the line caused by the unfinished work that was being carried out at the time.

The engine was repaired after the Burnt Oak crash and eventually was withdrawn for scrap in July 1936. In fact Dornden appeared to be an accident prone engine. It crashed into a rock fall at High Rocks in 1883, and then in the following year was involved in an incident with a drunken major who climbed along the side of the train and into the cab whilst the train was in motion!

Tom went to a fee paying prep school in the area before moving onto Lancing college. At Lancing he started to take an interest in politics and became interested in socialism. He joined the Brighton branch of the UK communist party at the age of 15 and one of his first tasks was to try and sell the socialist paper on the streets of Crowborough during the school holidays – a thankless task even in those days.

While at Lancing he also continued with his other passion – that of sexual exploration with other boys. After receiving complaints from other students about unwelcomed advances Tom left college a term early and went to work as a schoolmaster in Bournemouth.
In 1924 he went to Christ College Oxford to study classics but he failed to graduate preferring to take part in political activities and the party life rather than concentrating on the studies.

During the general strike worked at the communist party headquarters and began writing for the communist paper – the Sunday Worker.

In 1928 he joined the Daily Express as a gossip columnist. He impressed the owner, Lord Beaverbrook, so much that he was given his own column – These Names Makes News which he wrote as the papers first William Hickey.

During the Spanish civil war in 1939, Driberg was anti-British government over there non-intervention policy. He visited Spain as a journalist during the war and also helped to take food supplies to Republican army.

Driberg was recruited by MI5 as an agent. His appointment led to him being suspended by the communist party in 1941. MI5 suspected that this must be part of an infiltration by the KGB, but it was only after the war that it became known that the person who had identified Driberg was none other than Anthony Blunt.

Meanwhile, Driberg had started out on his political career and was elected to the House of Commons as an Independent candidate for the Maldon constituency.

In 1943 he was dismissed by the Daily Express and joined Reynolds News. He later went on to write for the Daily Mail and the New Statesman.

During the second world war Driberg joined the Labour party. He retained his seat in Parliament in the 1945 election and elected to the party’s National Executive in 1949.
In 1950 the part severely censured him for gross neglect of parliamentary duty when he took 3 months off to cover the Korean war.

In his book, Spycatcher (1987), Peter Wright, who had previously worked for MI5 claimed: “Since the 1960s a wealth of material about the penetration of the latter two bodies had been flowing into MI5’s files, principally from two Czechoslovakian defectors named Frolik and August. They named a series of Labour Party politicians and trade union leaders as Eastern Bloc agents… Tom Driberg was another MP named by the Czech defectors. I went to see Driberg myself, and he finally admitted that he was providing material to a Czech controller for money. For a while we ran Driberg on, but apart from picking up a mass of salacious detail about Labour Party peccadilloes, he had nothing of interest for us.”

During the 40’s Driberg had become friends with Guy Burgess and he was commissioned to write a book on the Soviet Spy. Both were known homosexuals and it was rumoured that had a sexual relationship while in the Soviet Union. According to the Mitrokihn Archive (The Mitrokhin Archive is a collection of notes made secretly by KGB Major Vasili Mitrokhin during his thirty years as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Directorate. When he defected to Great Britain, he brought the Archive with him. Two books, Sword and the Shield and The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, based on the Archive and hundreds other sources were published in 1992 and 2005, which gives details about much of the Soviet Union’s clandestine intelligence operations around the world. The books were written by British intelligence historian Christopher Andrew. Their publication provoked parliamentary inquiries in the U.K., India, and Italy.) Driberg had been photographed in a homosexual encounter as part of a trap to force him to spy for the KGB.

Driberg served as chairmen of the Labour Party executive in1957-58. He lost his seat in Maldonin 1958 and then moved to Barking where he regained his place in parliament in 1959.

In the early 60’s Driberg was a well-known frequenter on the London homosexual scene with the Tory peer Lord Boothby. Driberg was once quoted as saying the only enjoyable sex was with someone you didn’t know and wouldn’t likely meet again. Winston Churchill described Driberg as ‘a man who gave sodamy a bad name’. It was at one of these parties that Lord Boothby met the gangster Ronnie Kray, an affair which was to lead to a major embarrassment for the Conservative party. In July 1964, the Sunday Mirror led with a story under the headline: “Peer and a gangster: Yard probe.” The newspaper claimed police were investigating an alleged homosexual relationship between a “prominent peer and a leading thug in the London underworld”, who is alleged to be involved in a West End protection racket.

The following week the newspaper revealed that it had a picture of the peer and the gangster sitting on a sofa. Rumours soon began circulating that the peer was Lord Boothby and the gangster was Ronnie Kray. Stories were also circulating that Harold Wilson and Cecil King, the chairman of the International Publishing Corporation were conspiring in an attempt to overthrow the Conservative government led by Alec Douglas -Home.

Colin Coote, one of Boothby’s friends, used his contacts in the media to discover what was going on. As journalist John Pearson pointed out: “By doing nothing he (Boothby) would tacitly accept the Sunday Mirror’s accusations. On the other hand, to sue for libel would mean facing lengthy and expensive court proceedings which could ruin him financially - apart from whatever revelations the Sunday Mirror could produce to support its story.” Boothby was then approached by two leading Labour Party figures, Gerald Gardiner, QC and solicitor Arnold Goodman. They offered to represent Lord Boothby in any libel case against the newspaper. Goodman was Wilson’s “Mr Fixit” and Gardiner was later that year to become the new prime-minister’s Lord Chancellor.

John Pearson has argued that Driberg was behind this cover-up: “As an important member of the Labour executive, Driberg had a lot of influence, particularly over Harold Wilson, and he would certainly have used it to encourage Arnold Goodman’s rescue operation which would save Boothby and himself. All of which undoubtedly explains why, after the settlement, there was not a squeak in parliament about the case - and why instead there seemed an overwhelming cross-bench willingness to let sleeping dogs, however dirty, lie - and go on lying.”

Driberg left the House of Commons in 1974 and a year later became Baron Bradwell.
He died of a heart attack on 12th August 1976.
His autobiography Ruling Passions was published posthumously in 1977.

Sources:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRdribergT.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Driberg,_Baron_Bradwell

Soon, she was invited to become a missionary worker in India, serving between 1906 and 1912. There she learned to speak Tamil. She returned home by 1913, and took up midwifery training in London. In January 1914 she went back to India, but caught a fever and returned to England in 1915.

After recovery, she managed a women’s hostel for munitions workers in Woolwich. Then she took a post as a factory welfare worker at Silvertown, East London.

After the war Minnie studied at the London School of Economics from 1918-1920. After her studies she joined the staff at LSE first in the Social Science department as an assistant before becoming a tutor in 1934. Minnie became a leading tutor and a national authority on the subject of industrial welfare.

Her sister Bessie had taught in Syria after WW1 and specialised in French and German; she later became headteacher at Kensington High School for Girls, then opened a prep-school with her sister, Edith, at Bexhill.

An opportunity arose to rent large premises in Crowborough, where Bessie and Minnie established the Brooklands Pre-Preparatory School for young boys and girls and in 1927 Minnie and her two sisters moved into Brooklands, Ghyll Road (then New Road).

Bessie was the school principal. The school usually accommodated around 15 boarders and 5 local day attendees. The parents of most pupils were colonial administrators, diplomats, and overseas clergy.

Minnie continued to teach at the LSE until her retirement in September 1939 but, whenever possible she assisted her sisters at Brooklands by taking lessons, cooking, and supervising boarders, a practice that she continued into her retirement.

Brooklands, since demolished and rebuilt as flats, was originally a substantial Victorian 3-storey redbrick house, with ample gardens and a meadow. Brooklands was a successful school for many years until it was sold on – continuing as a prep-school – in 1954. Minnie had eventually purchased the freehold in 1944.

Though she was mainly an academic, Minnie enjoyed writing poetry. In 1908 she wrote the poem ‘The Gate of the Year’. The Gate of the Year was published as part of a volume entitled The Desert. Other publications include Through Beds of Stone (1928) and A Few People (1932).

On Christmas Day 1939, King George V1 made his first Christmas speech against the backdrop of World War II. Ahead of his closing lines, in which he paid tribute to the fighting services of Britain and its allies, he spoke of the uncertainty of the year ahead – would it bring peace, or continued struggle?
Offering a message of encouragement, the king concluded his speech with the following lines.
“ I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.’”

He added, “May that Almighty Hand guide and uphold us all.”

The response to the broadcast was extraordinary. Thousands contacted the BBC to find out the identity of the author. Newspapers here and abroad, having received advance copies of the speech, were already attempting to track down the author.

On the 9pm Boxing Day news, the BBC announced that the author had not been traced and was assumed dead. Later, a man phoned the Corporation to say he had permission from his sister to reveal that she was the author. Then, on its midnight news bulletin, the BBC stated that the sought for writer was a Miss M.L.Haskins of Crowborough, in Sussex, who had written her now renowned lines some years earlier as an introduction to some verses.

News of Miss Haskins and her whereabouts spread rapidly. By early the next morning the world’s press descended on a house called Brooklands in Ghyll Road to try and find out more about M.L. Haskins.

To global surprise, the king’s unknown poetess turned out to be a shy, softly spoken, retired university lecturer with greying hair and steel-rimmed spectacles. Aged 64, she lived with her two younger sisters, also unmarried, in a large house which they ran as a school for young children.

Within days she was famous, and before the end of the war more than 50 000 copies of The Desert had been sold, and the Gate of the Year has since been quoted by royalty, politicians, presidents, headmasters and religious and business leaders.

Minnie Louise Haskins had led a fairly unremarkable but dedicated life as a teacher, missionary worker, academic and factory welfare pioneer, as well as a poet and novelist. One minute of a king’s speech had made her famous the world over.

The Gate of the Year is amongst the most quoted poetic works of the twentieth century, and its words are engraved on the entrance to the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle and was read out at The Queen Mother’s funeral on Tuesday 9 April [2002].

In October 1954 when the school closed, Bessie, Edith and Minnie moved out of Brooklands to a property now called Overhill, in London Road near Crowborough Cross. Bessie died on 23 March 1954, aged 71; Edith died on 10 April 1970, aged 85. Minnie died 3 February 1957, aged 81 in the Kent & Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells, in 1957.

References: This article has been based on information provided by local historian John Hackworth.

His passion was football and he edited the International Football Annual magazine for several years. It was while covering the 1962 World Cup in Chile Stratton-Smith met up with the legendary Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and a love affair for the music industry began.

By the late sixties Stratton-Smith was a manager for acts such as Creation, The Nice, and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (honestly – it’s a real group!)

Unable to find a record company that would release an album by one of his favourite groups - Van der Graff Generator - he founded his own company and released the album The Least We Can Do is Wave to Each Other.

In 1971, Van der Graff Generator released their album Pawn Hearts. Not only was much of this work carried out at Luxford House but the album sleeve features a picture of the house on the inside cover.

1971 was also the year that saw the arrival of what was to become one of the most successful progressive and pop rock groups of the seventies and the eighties - Genesis. Genesis had been together since 1967 but in ’71 three of the original group Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford were joined by Steve Hackett on guitar and a certain Phil Collins on the drums.

The first Genesis album for this line up was ‘Nursery Cryme’ and during much of the summer of ’71 where they rehearsed for much of the summer of ‘71 Genesis were working hard in Luxford House.
“Nursery Cryme was one of the hardest albums,” remembers Mike Rutherford, “It was the first time that we had written anything without Ant.[Antony Phillips]”
“For me, it was a HELL of a change,” says Steve Hackett, “because it was the first time I made an album that I actually had any control or influence in.” he says, “So, for me, it was like a big ‘up’, my big break.”
Charisma released ‘Nursery Cryme’ in November 1971, but sales of the album were slow and Charisma’s interest shifted to the band Lindisfarne who had the No. 1 album ‘Fog on the Tyne’.
Indeed it was to be nearly another 10 years before Genesis – then led by Phil Collins – was to have a UK number 1 album. Genesis went on to become among the top 30 highest-selling recording artists of all time with approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide but we know that it all began back in a Tudor house in Crowborough.
In 1985, Tony Stratton-Smith sold Charisma Records to Richard Branson’s Virgin Records. During his later years he was involved in film projects and eventually he moved to the island of Las Palmas, Spain. In 1987 he fell sick during a visit to Jersey and died. At the service of Thanksgiving at St Martin in the Fields Keith Emerson played his “Lament to Stratton-Smith”. The day after his cremation Jack Barrie, manager of the Marquee club and who once called him “my first real friend in the city”, attended the scattering of his ashes in Newbury.
Jack Barrie once wrote about him: “Many words have been used to describe him. Bon viveur, raconteur, delightful host, ardent patriot are a few that spring to my mind. However, I’ll best remember him as a generous romantic. A romantic because he made dreams come true -generous because they were always other peoples.”

In 1993 a special tribute 4 CD box “The Famous Charisma Box” was released by Virgin Records containing a compilation of the label releases which included songs from artists such as Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, Lindisfarne, the Nice, Vivian Stanshall, Praticj Moraz, Rare Bird, Unicorn, Rick Wakeman, Audience, G T Moore, Gregoty Isaacs and Julian Lennon. It also contains a nice booklet with memories from different people about Tony Stratton-Smith and the Soho scene.

Sources: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Stratton-Smith and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(band)); http://themarqueeclub.net/tony-stratton-smith

Front Entrance of Crowborough War Memorial Hospital

By 1899 the work of the association had increased so much that it was proposed to establish a home in Crowborough to house the staff employed by the association. While the primary object was to provide a home for the medical staff some of the accommodation was made over to provide a nursing home for patients who could not be treated in their own homes.

In 1903 the premises were proving inadequate and a lease on Preston Lodge in South View Road, the site of the present hospital, was obtained.

The first public meeting for subscribers and friends of the Association was held in 1911. A committee to manage the hospital was formed under the chairmanship of The Revd. Samuel Fisher Akroyd of the All Saints church. The association adopted the name of the Crowborough Cottage Hospital and Nursing Association.

For several years the Cottage Hospital and Nursing Association was running at a loss. It was decided to make an appeal for funds. The King Edward VII memorial fund was set up and, by 1912, when the accounts were audited for the first time, the Association was showing a credit balance of £154. With these funds it was possible to start making improvements to the facilities; a new kitchen range was installed and the water supply improved. Various other internal and external repairs were carried out.

By 1914, the Cottage Hospital (as it had now become known) was beginning to increase its intake while home nursing numbers diminished. Then came the first world war and there were now both military and civilian cases to handle. Across the road, Harecombe Manor was also in use for the treatment and convalescence of war wounded.

After the war it was agreed that there should be a memorial to those who had died in the conflict. The memorial was to be sited within the hospital in the form of a plaque or scroll listing the names of the fallen. That was until April 1920 when the Revd. Samuel Fisher Akroyd of All Saints then offered the local war memorial committee the present site at Chapel Green. The Memorial Fund, set up for the earlier purpose, was then divided - £1,000 went towards the freehold purchase of Preston Lodge, the nucleus of the hospital, with the remainder of the money going to the cost of the Chapel Green monument.

The hospital became known as the Crowborough War Memorial Cottage Hospital – dropping the Association’s name. With public support and bank loans new wards were added, particularly maternity, and also provision of a decent operating theatre. An honorary consulting surgeon was appointed, and all the doctors in Crowborough became honorary members of staff.

Expansion continued throughout the 20’s and 30’s. The depression years bought many financial problems but with the ongoing support of the community the hospital grew. In March 1939, new statutes provided for the adoption of the hospital’s present name – Crowborough War Memorial Hospital.

When the Battle of Britain commenced on 10 July 1940, invasion seemed imminent. Kent and Sussex, heavily encamped, would have to bear the brunt of attack. Crowborough’s War Memorial Hospital was designated an Emergency Hospital. Extra medical supplies, beds, foodstocks and, not least, protection of the building against bomb-blast were prioritised. But then came the heroic actions of the Royal Air Force, which turned the mighty Luftwaffe on its tail and so lost Hitler his opportunity to set foot in England.
1944 saw Crowborough in ‘doodlebug alley’ – the line of flight of Germany’s V1 rockets sent to devastate London. Many were brought down by the RAF, or simply ran out of fuel before reaching their target. Nine crashed within Crowborough’s environs, and many more in surrounding districts. Two exploded near the hospital, causing damage and disruption but no fatalities, while a ruptured water main on Southview caused residents to resort to the old well-spring in Lordswell Lane.

In the midst of war, the hospital found time to add a babies’ nursery to its maternity unit while attending to more urgent matters of care. Nationally, in 1942, an economist, William Beveridge, produced a paper on social issues for the future. His boldest proposal was for a comprehensive healthcare system funded by the state – the National Health Service was born.

When in October 1947 the hospital was notified that on 5 July 1948 the Ministry of Health would take over its administration, the managers and staff decided to clean and repaint the wards in order to present it proudly to the new NHS scheme. This act was a tribute to all who had supported it before. But nationally the NHS did not come smoothly into action on the appointed day. The BMA – the doctors’ union – was opposed, as were others, including seniors of the medical fraternity. Mainly, it was the GP service that provided the health minister, Aneurin Bevan, with the requisite numbers to get the scheme under way.
The NHS may have taken control but Crowborough Hospital has always had to rely upon public support to keep it running and in 1955 the Friends of Crowborough Hospital was formed. It became a registered charity in 1959. The Friends is a registered charity led by local people who work voluntarily for the benefit of the hospital. Not only does it supply those extra comforts the NHS cannot provide for patients and staff, but also on many occasions has impressively blunted the axe of service cuts and threats of closure.

Between 1962 and 1965, the Friends funded a major reconstruction of the hospital’s maternity unit, an area that has been under constant threat of closure. A further threat came in 1968, when it was signalled for closure by 1982, following the shut down of Hawkenbury hospital. Maternity would have moved to Pembury to make space for geriatric care. This threat resulted in a 17-month campaign that established the Crowborough Hospital Action Group (CHAG). With the Friends, GPs and hospital staff, along with the local MP., Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, CHAG presented a petition to the door of the health authority in Tunbridge Wells. An appeal next went to the Ministry of Health which, in 1984, conceded births should continue at Crowborough.

Although the Friends had put in some £680,000 by 1985, maternity was again threatened in 1990. CHAG re-formed to fight once more. The battle was won with agreement that the GP led unit should now become midwife led.

In 1995, the 107 year old Preston Lodge seemed likely to fail health and safety requirements, and there were reports the hospital would close. An immediate public outcry, led by Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, resulted in the health authority denying any such plan. But to secure the future of the hospital a major reconstruction was needed, costing £3.5m, which the authority said it could not afford. The Friends, refusing to let this opportunity go, proposed, in return for seeing construction of a hospital fit for the 21st century, to raise £2m towards a revised budget of £4.4m. A massive fund-raising campaign began with the Friends setting aside £600,000 from its reserves. GP and public support was unprecedented.

Phased in over three years, the new hospital was started on the 11th July 1997 and completed in 1998. HRH The Princess Alexandra formally opened it on 22 April 1999. As for the old maternity unit, it became a Birthing Centre, with provision for water births. The Birthing Centre has since gained both national and international acclaim.

On 1 April 2003 responsibility for the Hospital was transferred to the Sussex Downs & Weald Primary Care NHS Trust with whom FoCH works in close partnership.

Norman lost his job as an engineer and with Elsie unable to work due to her nerves money was tight. So in 1922, using money loaned to him by his father, he moved to Crowborough and set up a chicken farm at the junction of Luxford Lane with Luxford Road called Wesley Poultry Farm. He moved into the little hut 12 x 7, living in primitive conditions, trying in vain to build his business.

In the Christmas of that year Norman and Elsie became engaged. All seemed to be going well until the following year when Norman met Bessie (Elizabeth Ann Coldicott) at a dance. By this time Elsie was pressing for marriage, telling Norman that she was pregnant. Norman and Bessie became infatuated and Norman soon decided he wanted to break things off between him and Elsie.

He wrote to Elsie that November:

‘There are one or two things I haven’t told you for more reasons than one. It concerns someone else as well … I am between two fires.’

Elsie seemed to not understand and wrote back to Norman insisting they should marry as soon as possible. So Norman wrote back :

‘What I haven’t told you is that on certain occasions a girl has been here late at night. I am not going to mention her name. No one knows … I must have time to think, she thinks I am going to marry her, and I have a strong feeling for her.’

The reply from Elsie wasn’t quite what Norman had hoped for

‘You have absolutely broken my heart, I never thought you were capable of such deception… Your duty is to marry me. I have first claim on you. I expect you to marry me as soon as possible. My baby must have a name, and another thing, I love you in spite of all.

And so it was that on the 9th December 1924, Elsie set off for Crowborough. She bought her ticket and boarded the train in the third class carriage before putting her case in the luggage rack overhead. Then she settled down for what turned out to be her last journey.

Days passed and her family grew concerned. Her father wired Norman.

‘Elsie left Friday. Have heard no news. Reply’

.
Norman’s reply was

‘Not here. Open letters. Can’t understand.’

The letters in question had been written by Norman and sent to Elsie’s London home. The first read

‘Where did you get to yesterday. I went to Groombridge but you did not turn up.’

The second letter, written the next day said

‘I was expecting a letter today especially after not hearing from you.’

The police started investigating the case. Two nurserymen came forward and said they had been passing by Norman’s gate and had seen Elsie walking towards the farm on the evening of the 5th. The police searched tha huts but found no trace of Elsie. Norman insisted she had never been there.

Scotland yard were called in but still no trace of Elsie could be found. Then on the 1st January 1925, a woman called the police to say that she had been on her way home on the evening of December 9th when passing by the farm she had seen a young woman entering Thorne’s farm.

It wasn’t much to go on but the police now had three witnesses saying they had seen Elsie at the farm on the night in question. On the 14th, Chief Inspector Gillan of the yard arrived at Norman’s farm. Thorne was taken into custody.

Meanwhile, police started searching the place again. This time they bought spades. Just after 8am the next morning a policeman found Elsie’s case containing glasses, jumper and shoes. The mystery was starting to unravel.

Back at the station, Norman could see that his original story would not hold and so he gave another statement. Elsie Cameron had indeed called on him on the afternoon of December 5th. She told him that she intended to sleep in the hut and would stay until they were married. An argument ensued and went on for hours. Norman then told Elsie that he had an appointment at nine that evening and had to go. He didn’t tell her it was with Bessie.

Norman said of his return two hours later

‘When I opened the hut door I saw Miss Cameron hanging from a beam that supports the roof, by a piece of cord as used for the washing line. I cut the cord and laid her on the bed. She was dead. I then put out the lights. She had her frock off and her hair was down. I lay across the table for about an hour. I was about to go to Dr Turle and knock up someone to go for the police and I realised the position I was in, and decided not to do so. I then went down to the workshop… I got my hacksaw and some sacks and took them back to the hut. I took off Miss Cameron’s clothes and burned them in the fireplace in the hut. I then laid the sacks on the floor and sawed off her legs and the head by the glow of the fire. I put them in sacks, intending to carry them away, but my nerve failed me and I took them down to the workshop and I left them there. I went back to the hut and sat in the chair all night. Next morning, just as it got light, I buried the sacks and a tin containing the remains in a chicken run. It is the Leghorn chicken run, the first pen from the gate.’

The mystery of what had happened to Elsie Cameron had now been solved. But was it suicide followed by a bizarre attempt to hid the truth or was it murder ? Norman Thorne was charged with her murder.

Despite the nationwide interest – the Chicken Run Murder was all across the national papers - the trial took place at the Lewes Assize court. Mr Justice Finlay presided with Sir Henry Curtis Bennett as chief prosecuting counsel and J D Cassels defending Norman Thorne. Norman’s defence was that this was suicide not murder and that the concealment, the lies and even the dissection were all due to overwhelming fear. ‘I thought of the letters I had written’ said Norman ‘I remembered I had been telling people that I wanted to break off the engagement. I remembered that it was known that another girl had been walking out with her. In view of these things, I became afraid. ‘
The defence put forward a case for death by shock while trying to commit suicide.

That Elsie Cameron was neurotic was never in doubt.Cassels quickly painted a picture of a Elsie as someone who was often depressed, sometimes hysterical and always suffering from her nerves.Elsie Cameron was not an unlikely suicide case.

The second day of the case was spent with the crown trying to prove that murder had taken place. They pointed to the results of two experiments carried out previously with an 8 stone weight fastened to the beam from which Elsie was said to have been hung. In the first experiment the weight was slowly raised and swung. In the second experiment the weight was placed on a chair and the chair was kicked away. In both cases marks were left on the beams. No such marks were left from the alleged hanging. The Crown put it that there was no possible way that any weight had swung from the beam.

On the second afternoon, Sir Bernard Spilsbury took the stand for the Crown. Sir Spilsbury was a legend in his own lifetime. His word could not be doubted and his evidence was damning. He had examined the remains of Elsie Cameron and had observed 8 bruises on the head, face arms and legs. All of them had been inflicted shortly before death and one on the temple caused by a crushing blow. Sir Spilsbury also pointed out the absence of signs of asphyxiation and scars around the neck that would be expected in the case of a hanging.

On the third day Norman took the stand. If Sir Bernard was a legend as a medical expert, Curtis Bennett was a master of the art of cross examination. ‘On the morning of December 5th’ began Curtis Bennett ‘were you still in love with Elsie Cameron?’ ‘Yes’ answered Thorne. On the morning of December 5th were you still in love with this other woman?’. ‘Yes’ came the reply. ‘On that morning’ Sir Bernard continued ‘which of these two girls that you were in love with did you desire to marry?.’ ‘I do not know I was particularly desirous of marrying any at the time.’ ‘Which did you intend to marry in the future?’ ‘Well’ said Norman ‘of the two, I suppose I thought more of the other girl.’

The case for the prosecution continued. Each time Curtis Bennett probed he got a small confirmation of the truth as he saw it. Before dismissing Norman from the witness box, Judge Finlay questioned Norman about whether he had tried to resuscitate Elsie or fetch a doctor. ‘No’ Norman admitted.

There was an eloquent closing speech by Cassels, a massive reply by Curtis Bennett, a careful, thorough summing up by Finlay – perfectly fair but not disguising his own belief that the Crown case had been proved. At 5.12 on the fifth day of the case the jury retired. By 5.40 they returned to pronounce a verdict of guilty. Norman Thorne was sentenced to death and was hung at Wandsworth prison on April 22nd 1925.

Born in Galt, Ontario, Florence - one of seven children - was raised in Woodstock, Ontario. Her mother, Emily Youmans, noted that she had a gift for art and setup a children’s art class. Emily employed an artist from nearby London, Ontario - William Lees Judson. In Judson’s class, Carlyle obtained her first lessons, probably learning from him the basics of drawing, copying from paintings and perhaps sketching scenery, as well as being introduced to watercolours and oils.

In 1890, aged 26, Florence Carlyle went to Paris where she studied at the Académie Julian under William Bouguereau, Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury. In 1893 she exhibited her paintings at the Royal Academy.

Florence returned to her native Canada in 1896 to take up a teaching post at Havergal College. She had studios in London and Woodstock, and in 1897 became the first woman to be elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1899, she established a studio in New York and a steady demand for her work grew.

During the early 1900s Florence travelled widely in Europe before settling in England. In 1913, Florence and a friend, Julie Hastings, moved to Crowborough, purchasing The Cottage, Sweethaws. Much of her good work was done while living here.

During the First World War she painted for Canadian War Records and sold her paintings to benefit the Red Cross.

Florence Carlyle died at her Crowborough home in the spring of 1923 aged 59. Florence Carlyle’s works can be found in a number of permanent collections in Canada, such as the National Gallery of Canada, the War Museum in Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Hamilton Art Gallery, as well as Museum London. The Woodstock Art Gallery has the largest public collection of her work in North America.

Originally the church consisted of the nave only, and followed the design of Newman’s Church at Littlemore, near Oxford. It was 60 feet by 25 feet, and 43 feet high, with a grouped triplet of three lancets at the east end, lancets in the side walls, and a window with simple tracery above the west door. The west front was surmounted by a bellcote. The church was, in essence, a simple plain design.
The Story of Crowborough (1933) describes the impressive ceremonies performed at the consecration of the church on 31st July 1839 by Dr William Otter, Bishop of Chichester.

“A great day indeed! It must have been a picturesque and stirring scene: the cannon booming from the battery in front of the great house of Buckhurst, as they did on all great occasions; the Earl and Countess with the Lord Bishop setting out in their carriage with outriders, a numerous company of the nobility and gentry following, and, at last, in the new little stone building perched on the flank of Crowborough Beacon, the apostolic words were spoken and the acts performed which made it none other but the House of God and the Gate of Heaven”.

Within a year, in 1840, St John’s National School opened. It was enlarged in 1873. In 1879, the number of children on roll was 80. Children attended until they were 14 or 15 years of age, up until the mid-1950s, after which the school focused solely on primary education.

In 1850 Elizabeth, Countess De La Warr, built new almshouses in memory of her son, George John Frederick “for the reception of six poor persons of the Parish of Withyham, of whom two shall be men and four women. The said six poor persons shall be unmarried or widowers or widows of honest report, members of the Church of England and of the age of fifty and upwards…” In 1974 new almshouses were built by Anne Rachel, Countess De La Warr, in Withyham; the original St John’s almshouses are now a private residence.

In 1865 the Revd Thomas Rudston Read became Rector of Withyham, where he was incumbent for 26 years. It was he who initiated the setting up of the independent ecclesiastical parish of Withyham St John’s, through Order in Council, and on 21st December 1871 this was enacted. The mother church paid £60 a year to endow the parish of Withyham St John’s and its first Vicar was the previous Priest in Charge, the Revd Edward Herbert.

The chancel was added, funded again by the patron, Elizabeth, Countess De La Warr in 1870, the year in which she died. In 1888 a vestry was created at the west end of the church, where the font now stands, and above it a gallery was erected and an organ located there. Two years afterwards the latter was moved to an organ-chamber built in the north side of the chancel.