Family & Community Historical Research Society

Thank you to all who are sending items to me for inclusion and an appeal to the rest of you to put pen to paper, email or word-processor and send me some more. If the contributions continue at the same rate we will be able to keep publishing every three or four months.

If you have any interesting pictures I can include them but I would rather you did not send originals, just in case they go astray in the post. Please indicate if you would like them returned.

In this issue we have reports on our three visits held since the last issue was published. While we are on the subject of visits the committee would welcome any suggestions of places to visit. Ideas to any committee member listed on the back cover.

Finally I would welcome any comments on the newsletter especially suggestion for improvements. Articles for the next issue should be submitted by the end of January.

Having completed our tour Derek introduced us to Sheila Millard of the Odiham Society who entertained us with a talk on the history of brewing in Odiham. During the course of the talk Sheila discussed some of the many breweries and pubs that existed in Odiham. Amongst these she described the history of The George from its being built in 1474 until its sale at auction in 1905.

Many of the publicans of the era fulfilled a dual role in providing varied services, from carriers, coal merchants, butchers, canal boat hire and steam threshing machine operator.

Ever since 1924 when it began life as the summer camp for 13 Squadron at Andover, Odiham has been at the spear head of our defence. To site it the squadron began a large aerial photographic project and the whole county was surveyed to find a suitable field in which aircraft could land. An area between Down Farm and Snatchanger Farm was chosen and there will still be people living in this area who recall the long fleet of lorries it took to move the equipment and personnel from Andover. And this was only a beginning, as many suspected.

Canvas hangars were erected in the fields bought by the Air Ministry as a landing ground and here the aircraft were kept under cover. It was an eminently suitable site being easily accessible from Farnborough and Aldershot with whom the station was to be in close touch not only for support exercises with the army. WW1 had taught both services that co-operation was important and the best way to proceed in future. But there was a lot of time to make up.

In 1936 the accommodation was shared by 4 Squadron which came to join them on a more permanent basis, since both flew Bristol fighters and A W Atlas aircraft. Later they were to add Hawker Audax machines. The RAF Expansion Scheme of the 1930's and the unrest in Germany had shown the RAF would have to create a bigger presence in the area if our defences were to be viable. Even then, the powers-that-be seemed reluctant to accept that there was a threat, though the Czechoslovakian crisis had shown to those who saw further forward, that even an increase in the number of airfields was not enough. The year that followed provided time to make up that shortfall without which we should have lost before 1939 was out.

More acres were bought and 150 added to the landing site so that more squadrons could be accommodated. A three squadron unit was planned and by the time Lindsey Parkinson Ltd, the contractors, moved out, much needed work had been provided at a time when unemployment was high. Not far from the A32 the familiar H type barrack blocks, domestic offices and administrative building were changing the landscape but in a way as not to be obtrusive.

Added to these was the Station HQ, permanent hangars and technical storage buildings as well as runways and a wide perimeter track. It had come a long way from the canvas town of a summer camp.

Huge though the undertaking was, most of it was complete by the end of 1936, enabling it to be formally handed over to 22 Group having cost about ,315,000. RAF Odiham, 50 Wing HQ, was the first unit of the Home Establishment to use the Wing system since the idea was born in 1922. In spite of the remaining mud and the bad weather 4 and 13 Squadrons were moved in by February 1937 to make it their home. When the Audaxes arrived they needed all the space a big base provided for their temperamental engines were unfamiliar and caused many problems for the ground staff. Even so the usual exercises with the army took place watched by many VIPs from London and elsewhere. This was now a showplace and a foretaste of things to come.

The most surprising of these VIPs, especially at this date, was the German Secretary of State for Air, General Erhard Milch, specially invited to open the new RAF Odiham.

How innocent and naive can we be?

Although a hopeful gesture of friendship, naturally he was very observant of what he saw, since Germany had been forbidden the building of military aircraft and may only produce gliders and civil machines. It was not known at the time, except by such as Milch, a WW1 ace, that every Lufthansa airliner could be converted almost overnight into a bomber, and its crew were specially trained to observe what they saw below as they flew their civilian passengers over England. What was more, glider pilots, so seemingly innocent and quiet, received intensive, though clandestine military training.

53 Squadron brought their Hectors to join 50 (AC) Wing in 1938 while 4 and 13 received Lysanders. (AC-Army Co-operation). The Lysanders however were not sprightly fighting machines and though used much later for dropping, from here and Tangmere, SOE agents into the occupied countries, were not what a front line station needed. There were several accidents.

 Copyright © Eunice Wilson 1999

The series followed the loves and fortunes of the four Lennox sisters - Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah daughters of the second Duke of Richmond and great -granddaughters of England's "Merry Monarch", Charles II. Lady Sarah Lennox the youngest of these four sisters was an instant social success when she arrived in London from Ireland in 1759 and was courted by King George III. The romance did not prosper, he married the German Princess Charlotte and Sarah made a disastrous marriage to Charles Bunbury which ended in scandal and divorce.

General Maitland, who is also buried in Tongham churchyard commanded the 1st Guards Brigade (composed of the 1st and 3rd Battalions Grenadier Guards - each a thousand strong) at the battles of Quatre Bras (16th June) and at Waterloo, 18th June 1815. It was in the final stages of that battle when the French Imperial Guard had approached the British Line to within twenty yards that the Duke of Wellington said to Maitland "Now Maitland, now's your time". The Guards, lowering their bayonets rushed forward and hurled their enemies before them. It was this incident which attributed to Wellington the words "Up Guards and at them". The Duke himself said that his words probably were "Stand up Guards" and that then he gave the order to attack. There is a picture of this historic scene (somewhat romanticised) in the National Army Museum in Chelsea.

Sarah and Peregrine had several children who are also buried in Tongham churchyard. Their son Charles Brownlow Lennox Maitland became a soldier like his father, served in the Crimean War, retiring as a General in 1886. His younger brother Horatio Arthur Lennox Maitland (named for Wellington and Nelson) lived from the eighteen eighties at Tongham Manor (in The Street where there are now council flats) and later at "The Elms" (also now demolished) in Manor Road, Tongham. He became an Admiral, his name is listed on the memorial plaque on the Village Hall and he died in 1904. Another brother George died in infancy.

Of their three daughters two married. Charlotte Caroline Maitland married John George Turnbull of the Indian Civil Service and lived on the Hogs Back at Whiteways. Sarah Maitland their eldest daughter married Lieut. General Thomas Bowes Foster. Sarah Maitland's eldest daughter Susan married the Rev. Charles Garbett, the first vicar of Tongham and they lived at Tongham vicarage. Susan was thirty years younger than her husband Charles who was a widower of sixty with a grown up family when she married him in 1873. Despite the disparity in their age they were extremely happy and devoted to one another. They had five children: Cyril, Basil, Clement, Leonard and Elsie. There is a memorial to Basil Garbett in Tongham church as he was accidentally drowned in India in July 1900. Cyril Foster Garbett became Archbishop of York and died in 1955. Had the Archbishop lived to enjoy the peerage conferred upon him on his retirement and gazetted in the New Year's Honours List of 1956 he was to have taken the title "Lord Garbett of Tongham".

After showing us the public areas and explaining how to use the facilities Oliver took us behind the scenes to see areas not normally open to the public. As well as the repositories with some remarkable documents and just as remarkable storage facilities we were shown the conservation area where there were display cabinets containing documents and wax seals in various states of decay and conservation.

One of the conservation staff showed us a series of photographs he was working on. The photographs were the work of Edward Muybridge. Muybridge is famous for his study of the motion of humans and animals by the use of multiple still cameras that could be tripped sequentially to take a series of photographs. By using this method Muybridge was able to prove that when running a horse had all four feet off the floor at some point.

For those of you who would like to go behind the scenes the PRO are running tours of building 2 on the following dates in 1999. 12th November and 10th December. No need to book, assemble at main reception desk at 12.30 pm.

Moving on to Samuel Boon I had more luck. I knew Samuel was a Lance Corporal with the Middlesex Regiment and had died on the Somme on 18 August 1916. I soon found his records , albeit a bit burnt around the edges, and the photocopies I obtained were perfectly readable and gave a lot of personal information. Some of this was totally new to me. Samuel Boon was, according to his records, 5ft 7 ins, weighed 126 lbs and had brown hair and blue eyes. He also had tattoos on both forearms. My mother tells me that she only ever saw a black and white photographs of him in dress uniform so did not know any of this.

I would recommend a visit to the PRO to anyone with an interest in WW1 servicemen. Not all of the burnt documents have been transferred to microfilm yet so I have included details to save you from a wasted journey.

The following surname letters are available :-

A, B, C, D, E, F, N, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, Z

During the tour, we were able to follow the processes which newspapers undergo from arrival at the repository to ironing, microfilming, checking and finally storage stages. We finished the tour with a visit to the reading rooms, which we were then able to access for our own research - a very satisfying end to an informative and interesting day.

The Newspaper Library is open 10.00 to 16.45, Monday to Saturday.