EXTRACTS FROM BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
No 139 December 2007 to January 2008

Click on any heading to go to that section:

SOCIETY EVENTS and NEWS	FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH	TOWN AND AROUND
SOCIAL HISTORY	PLANNING MATTERS	Important Member Announcement

SOCIETY EVENTS and NEWS

Our meeting on 11 th December, will take the usual pre-Christmas form of a Social with coffee, mince pies, a competition and a short talk on a topical matter.

The usual programme of talks recommences on 8 th January. Keith Parfitt, an archaeologist, will talk about the Bronze Age Boat discovered in Dover which has proved to be the oldest and best preserved prehistoric vessel in the world and which is now displayed in the Dover Museum. The 22 nd January finds us in the company of Dr. John Reuther whose talk is entitled “Bugs, Plagues and Pestilence” - prior immunisation is not required!

On 12 th February John Woodward, one of our members, will be talking about the rich literary heritage that we have in our area, taking us right across Romney Marsh to describe the lives of a dozen well known authors who made their homes between Rye and Sandgate. On 26 th February , Jo Kirkham, a historian, town Councillor and former Mayor of Rye will be talking about the history of that fascinating town during the Middle Ages.

click here to go back to the top of the page.

FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH

The traditional Carols for All concert on Saturday 15th December at 7.30 pm will feature the Shepway Singers and the Church Choirs.
***Note Change of Day/Date***

click here to go back to the top of the page.

TOWN AND AROUND

The Chamber of Commerce is organising the “ Sunday Fun Day” event on 9 th December. It will commence with an official opening at 10.15am by Michael Howard at the Town Hall, followed by a carol service.

From 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. there will be music and entertainment in the High Street - Majorettes, a Hog Roast at the White Hart, Live Music with Jack Pound, Punch & Judy, Donkey Rides, an exhibition by Port Lympne and Father Christmas with his sleigh.  The High Street and Town Square will be decorated, shops will be open and the day will have a festive, family appeal.

Age Concern will hold a Wine & Supper Buffet at Sanford House on Saturday evening 15 th December .

On 22nd December the Folkestone & Hythe Orchestra is giving a concert of seasonal music in aid of Pilgrims Hospice at The Saga Pavilion. Tickets are at Brandon's, 55 High Street, Hythe.

Son Griggs: The death of Son made headline news, and obituaries have appeared in all the local papers.

Son has featured in our Newsletter many times: the earliest story about him is his appearance as a prize-winner in the 1935 Venetian Fête for his model of (would you believe?) – a lifeboat! Rather than repeat well-known facts, we are reprinting as a tribute to a well-liked and much respected friend a story we printed in December 1994. It tells of the period in 1940 when he was fishing with the Hythe fleet, before his own war service began and it well illustrates his seamanship, his bravery, and his sense of humour:

At that time the fishing fleet could go out only in daylight (anything moving at night was deemed enemy and shot at). The crew was returning with their catch after a long day when they were told by an angry crowd that a German ME109 had bombed the Town Bridge and strafed the High Street. But it had been brought down by ack ack fire from Martello Tower 22 and the pilot was now in a rubber dinghy and being blown off-shore. They were told to re-launch and pick him up for interrogation.

They caught up with the dinghy and hauled the wounded and semi-conscious pilot into their boat. But other ME109's were around and their boat also came under attack; the lads removed sea-boots and oil-skins in case they went in the water. Son held up the wounded German and waved to their attacker to indicate he had been rescued and the enemy pilot acknowledged him and flew off. Now was Son's moment: ‘I lifted him up so he could see the shore. “England,” I said, “Deutschland ist kaput. For you the war is over.”'

The German was wearing a gold ring with a swastika, and offered it to his rescuer in thanks, but Son had to stick to the rules and refuse it. The waiting crowd had no such inhibitions, and the man was stripped of ring, insignia, and badges before he even reached the waiting ambulance. It was probably every young man's dream at that time to say to a German ‘For you the war is over'. Son achieved it even before he joined up!

Since our last NL the Farmers Market has removed to the Methodist Church Hall in Prospect Road a venue that has tempted several more stallholders and many, many more customers to attend. HCS has always supported the strenuous efforts of Sally Chesters and Joan Maisey in getting this venture off the ground and encourage members to do so as well.

The Market is on the 2 nd and 4 th Saturday of each month from 10a.m. until 12 noon.

Remembrance Day (1) T he Service of Remembrance was held at the War Memorial on 11 th November in the presence of a very large congregation. The simple but moving tribute to the fallen of the Great War and its increasingly numerous successors was followed by the usual wreath laying ceremony and a procession to the Town Hall. Sadly the public address faltered badly, again, and inspired one of our members to remark that it worked best during the two minutes silence!

Battle of Britain Sunday Unlike Remembrance Day, it isn't always in our diary, but some of our members remember watching the dog-fights which took place in the skies over Kent nearly 70 years ago. This decisive Battle was remembered, as always, at the Hythe War Memorial, and a Silence kept, by the few survivors of the Few, who paraded with onlookers for a short service taken by the Rev'd Desmond Sampson, the RAF Association Branch Chaplain, on Saturday 15 th September.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined
The tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds.

Magee's poem, ‘The Airman's Ecstasy' is the dramatic and romantic side of flying, but the RAF is also about Maintenance and Administration and unglamorous support services, and it is the effort of the team which wins battles. In 1940 it was not ecstasy in the front of the young pilot's thoughts, but the reality expressed by WB Yeats:

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above,

And many did just that. So the Hymn Desmond chose for Sunday's Remembrance (NEH 227) was both celebration and epitaph:

Serving the God they love amidst
The glories of the sky .

[Destined for NL138, the above was mislaid in the e-mail ether – apologies to author, Mike Umbers – Ed.]

click here to go back to the top of the page.

SOCIAL HISTORY

The Unknown Warrior Our archivist, John Keeffe, became “hooked” on historical research when he and his brother enquired into the life and times of their father, Stanley, and they produced a wonderful book documenting his military career and his family connections, which were very extensive here in East Kent. Among many other interesting events RSM Stanley Keeffe was present at the unveiling of the Cenotaph in 1920 and was one of the three Official Mourners and Escorts to the Body at the funeral of the Unknown Warrior…. John has kindly permitted us to reproduce the story.

Back in 1916 a young army padre, David Railton, found himself on a shell-pitted battlefield and was moved to read an inked inscription on a makeshift wooden cross which simply read: “An Unknown Warrior of the Black Watch” . Railton was struck by the bleak anonymity which seemed to emphasise the loneliness of death in battle and shortly after the War he wrote to the Dean of Westminster outlining an unconventional suggestion. He proposed that a single fallen British serviceman should be exhumed from his battlefield grave and brought home to be given a national funeral and a last resting place among the highest in the land.

The idea quickly caught on and a committee under Lord Curzon planned the sensitive business of choosing the fallen soldier and organising the pageantry appropriate for his reburial in Westminster Abbey. The selection was carried out in secret – on 7 th November 1920 one body was carefully exhumed from each of six battlefields, Ypres, the Marne, Cambrai, Arras, the Somme and the Aisne, and their coffins delivered to the care of Padre George Kendall at a depot near Ypres. Here they were arranged in a row and a senior army officer, whose name was never disclosed, was blindfolded and ushered inside. Following the Curzon committee's instructions to the letter he groped from the darkness of his blindfold and the first coffin that he touched was selected as the Unknown Warrior. Next day the body, still in Kendall's care, was taken to Boulogne while the five other bodies were quietly returned to the battlefields.

On 9 th November the final journey home began with a procession sweeping up Boulogne's Avenue Napoleon, lined for the occasion by French and British troops. At Boulogne Castle, then a French army HQ, the simple coffin was taken by eight bearers to the imposing castle library where it was transferred to a casket of Hampton Court oak inscribed “A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914 – 1918 for King and Country”.

On the 10 th November Marshal Foch and dozens of his Generals saluted the mile-long cortege as it made its way through the packed streets to the port where the British destroyer, Verdun, was waiting with an escort of six sister ships to cross the Channel. The Verdun steamed into Dover Harbour to a 19 gun salute from the castle ramparts with the coffin, draped in the Union Jack, clearly visible on the after deck. The waiting guard of honour was chosen from RSM Stanley Keeffe's City of London Regiment of the Royal Fusiliers, and had been trained by him for the occasion. The regimental band played Land of Hope and Glory as the coffin was brought ashore by Royal Navy pall bearers and placed on a special train to London.

On 11 th November the funeral procession left Victoria Station passing near Hyde Park, where another 19 gun salute was fired on its way to Whitehall where it was joined by King George V. After a short service conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and two minutes silence the King unveiled the newly constructed Cenotaph and then walked behind the gun carriage to the Abbey. After the funeral service, the coffin was gently lowered into the tomb. In an honour normally reserved for Field Marshals the King scattered a handful of soil, in this case from Ypres, over it while the Last Post was sounded. One of the inscriptions on the tomb is “They buried him among kings because he had done good toward God and to this house”

English Snobbery Even while we were writing our note under this heading in NL138 the drinking fountain in Red Lion Square, pictured therein, was being beautifully re-painted by volunteer David Hawthorne of Theatre Street. In co-operation with The Mayor he chose tasteful tones of blue and gold and did a right royal job. Those of you still looking out for the former toffee coloured relic of Victorian largesse will surely appreciate the change!

More on the Bones! Some of the many mysteries surrounding the bones in St. Leonard's crypt may be solved in the next year or so following the announcement to a meeting of Church and Crypt Stewards in October that the department of Bournemouth University that specialises in forensic science wants to undertake a new series of studies using the most modern technology now available. Progress will, as always, depend on obtaining adequate funding but there was no mistaking the enthusiasm of the members of staff and post-graduate students who made the presentation.

Magnificent Mr. Lucy. There have been two references to Sir Henry Lucy in recent Newsletters. One further story we published in NL98 is worth repeating, since it reflects well on his character. At the end of the '14/18 War there was delay in repatriating the many Canadian soldiers who had fought in the trenches for the Empire and were now abandoned and apparently forgotten by their own country. Some were looked after by friendly local families but not surprisingly, having nothing to do but wait and drink, many of them got into trouble from time to time. A Westminster Gazette article was quoted in full in the Hythe Reporter of 19 July 1919 (and found for us by Denise Rayner). It is datelined ‘Somewhere in Kent' but clearly Hythe is meant, for it is by Sir Henry. It describes two cases which were dealt with at the Quarter Sessions held in Hythe Town Hall, one of theft (a Corporal stole items from a house and tried to sell them on in the Bell Inn) and one of vandalism (a ‘fine soldierly fellow' smashed the window of a chemist's shop when drunk):

‘Here was a nice thing. What was a man doing…who four years ago left work, home and family to fight for England, was kept idling around with nothing to do, hope of a passage home daily disappointed, so he up with his stick and smashed every pane of glass…'

It is a sympathetic account, yet the Lucy's had some cause to complain at drunken behaviour, for:

‘There passes my house every night a squad of men in khaki…singing at the top of their voices…beating an accompaniment with a stick from my fence…These are the justly honoured heroes fresh from the battlefields upon which they have raised the fame of England among the nations higher than it was lifted at Crécy and maintained at Waterloo.'

Note that “justly honoured ”. Despite the routine disturbance by soldiers returning to East Sandling Camp along North Road, Sir Henry recorded with pleasure that the Judge and Jury took the view that the thief and the vandal were not wholly or primarily responsible for these ‘illogical actions', and he even throws some of the blame on the ‘dubious fluid which as one consequence of the War …has taken the place of good old English Ale.'

The Hythe Reporter – 1907. Our review of the 1907 editions of this newspaper has revealed several interesting sidelights on life in Hythe a century ago.

For instance, marriages were reported in much greater detail than today. An example is the wedding of Miss Dorothy Deedes of Saltwood Castle which merited no less than four full pages (in a 12-page issue) including full details of a dinner for 80 local people at the Village Hall, a reception for 280 parishioners of Saltwood, Aldington and Postling at the Castle and the Ceremony itself together with a list of all those invited and - just think of it! – a full list of all the wedding presents and their respective donors. They were rich pickings by the look of this list but the item that serves most to emphasise social change is, surely, “Tenants & Cottagers (Aldington Estate) – Silver Bowl”.

On 9 th November 1907 a report was printed of a debate at the Conservative Club on whether “the socialism preached by Socialists of this time is practicable”. This report generated pages of correspondence, some of it in quite colourful language, including a letter from H.G.Wells, then living in Sandgate, strenuously refuting the suggestion that he advocated “free love” as a socialist principle. Political philosophy doesn't seem to feature in our local newspapers today!

Finally, noting that the Imperial Hotel is now about to undergo a complete overhaul in the hands of new owners, we wonder if they will have a grand re-opening with a version of the following “advertorial” from the 16 th November 1907 edition – “The Directors also issue Special Week End Tickets from London ……including 1 st Class return rail ticket by any train with bedroom, light (!), attendance, breakfast, luncheon and dinner ……with free golfing on the Hotel Links each day” Cost: £2.12.0. (£2.60p in today's money) for three nights!

[surely, at that price, they must have been fighting them off! Quite a good example of where rampant inflation gets you. – Ed.]

click here to go back to the top of the page.

PLANNING MATTERS

There have been a number of recent examples where planning applications have been reported in this Newsletter but because of our relative infrequency of publication it is too late for members to object personally. If you have given us an e-mail address we shall advise you directly but, otherwise please note that everyone can keep an eye on applications through the local press, obtain further information from the sources quoted therein and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - write individual letters of objection to: Shepway District Council, Castle Hill Avenue, Folkestone, CT20 2QY quoting the Application Number mentioned in the advertisement. The Council is bound by law to take all objections into account and the weight of numbers does make an impact.

Recently an application was granted for a detached house to be built on the F & D Water Services land at the Eastern end of North Road including demolition of the historic “dividing weir” which was built in the early C19th to control the flow of spring water between Mackeson's Brewery and the Town supply. Thanks to swift action by Committee member Alan Joyce and local historian Denise Rayner, Town Clerk Judith McCormick ensured that SDC made appropriate provision for its preservation.

We are aware of a festering “non-planning” matter concerning the Seapoint Canoe Centre Charity which provides tuition to over 2000 disadvantaged children every year at their “Centre” close to the Seabrook end of the R.M.Canal. We use the word “non-planning” advisedly because this organisation's excellent work has been blighted for several years by the total inability of SDC and KCC and the site developer (who paid £660,000 to KCC for the land with outline permission for 22 residential units!) to agree on the way forward which has to include reasonable provision for the Centre's future accommodation. The volunteers involved give up a lot of their leisure to provide a super experience for these children and it is tragic that they should have had to use over £11,000 of their own scarce resources on fees for consultants hired by SDC to produce little or nothing of value.

If any readers feel moved to help we would ask for you to write to SDC (as above, quoting reference Y02/1270/SH) asking to know what intentions the council now has in respect of this development and the future of the Centre.

Important Member Announcement At least three Committee members have indicated that, after many years service, they will be retiring at the next AGM. Continuing members have volunteered to take over most of the formal work that they do but we are very anxious to recruit new members to join, learn the ropes and later graduate to one of the many responsibilities that can provide a rewarding role for anyone to serve our community in a sociable and constructive atmosphere. Please contact any Committee member to learn more.

Annual subscription for HCS membership is £8 per household .
We are on the Web : www.hythe-tourism.com/civic
You can also reach us at: www.hythe-kent.com/societies1
You can e-mail us at: hythecivicsoc@tiscali.co.uk

click here to go back to the top of the page.