Beaulieu

by Cyril Cunningham

  While Philby and Hill were still at Brickendonbury with their saboteurs, Colin Gubbins was attending to the problem of setting up a training school for teaching student-agents the clandestine trade crafts. He had made a visit to Brickendonbury to study its curriculum and had added a few ideas of his own. In the late autumn of 1940 he appointed ‘Jimmy’ Munn as Commandant of the new school and in the early months of 1941 Munn visited the Intelligence Training Centre at Matlock in Derbyshire to start recruiting officers for the training department of the proposed new school at Beaulieu.

  Chapter II

  THE REQUISITIONING

  According to official sources, steps were taken at the end of 1940 by SOE’s London headquarters to set up a Finishing School for its secret agents, and at an early date it had been decided that the curriculum would be based on that of the MI Wing at Arisaig and the clandestine training school at Brickendonbury.

  It is tempting to assume that the School was created from scratch soon after the appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel J.W.Munn early in January, 1941. But evidence from Lord Montagu’s archives and several different sources, including Kim Philby, who was one of the first on the scene, indicates that prior to the founding of the Finishing School and probably prior to Gubbins’ appointment as Head of Training and Operations, at least four different sections within SOE had separately made haphazard contingency plans for clandestine operations and had earmarked personnel and requisitioned premises for their training. The evidence indicates that some of the former Section D personnel at Brickendonbury were transferred to Beaulieu prior to Munn’s arrival to set up a small spy school with a capacity for a handful of students. Three other sections had requisitioned houses for use as holding stations for foreign special service troops who were being held in reserve for secret operations. One of these, containing Free French parachutists, was located at Inchmery at the mouth of the Beaulieu River. It was destined to provide some of the very first SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France, some time before the formation of the RF Section, long before any students were available from the Finishing School, and many months before the major reorganization of SOE’s administration in the autumn of 1941.

  In the autumn of 1940 Colin Gubbins was already busy recruiting staff for the new school. Kim Philby relates that he was summoned to attend an interview at the London headquarters and found that the atmosphere in Gubbins’ office crackled with energy, so much so that Philby sat up and took notice. In a friendly tone Gubbins asked Philby, briefly, if he knew anything about political propaganda, and, when Philby said that he did, Gubbins explained that a new training establishment was being planned ‘on an ambitious scale’. Underground propoganda was to be one of the subjects in the curriculum and a suitable instructor was being sought. He invited Philby to produce a draft syllabus.

  Gubbins already possessed some ideas about the organization of the school. Ideally, it needed a number of houses sited within a convenient distance of a main headquarters so that small parties of student-agents could be segregated by nationality and for security purposes to receive instruction from a central pool of peripatetic specialist instructors.

  In the event it took many months to find a suitable collection of houses. The selection of Beaulieu as a suitable site for the Finishing School came about, like many of SOE’s acquisitions, by the ‘old boy’ network. Brigadier Gerald Buckland of the 8th Ghurkas, who lived in Beaulieu and had already been recruited into SOE was aware that several houses on Lord Montagu’s estate had been vacated by their owners early in the war. He suggested to Colin Gubbins that they might make excellent secret training establishments, since they were well hidden among the trees amidst the New Forest and could be easily guarded.

  The existence of private country residences on the ancient Manor of Beaulieu is said to have arisen in 1905 when the second Baron Montagu suggested to a number of his friends that they might like to buy several parcels of land on his Beaulieu estate on ninety-nine year leases and build themselves substantial country houses. Most of the residences that were built lie within extensive private grounds, are out of sight of each other and out of sight of the Montagu’s family seat, Palace House, and can only be approached by rough tracks or private roadways. They vary in size, some having a modest seven bedrooms, some thirteen and some nearer twenty, plus the appropriate number of reception rooms and bathrooms.

  A prevalent post-war rumour insists that the SOE spy school and headquarters was established in the Montagu family home, Palace House, but in fact it was never requisitioned during the war. However, it was used as a local Air Raid Precautions headquarters and as D-Day approached it was earmarked as a stand-by headquarters for the Allied Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower.

  The truth is that the first houses to be requisitioned for use for the training of secret agents were acquired piecemeal and the house which later became the headquarters of the SOE complex at Beaulieu was The Rings, which was demolished soon after the war because it was in a dilapidated state. It was situated in a wood about a mile and a half to the north-east of the present National Motor Museum, on the northern fringe of Hartford Heath close to Beaulieu Heath. It had thirteen bedrooms, three bathrooms, two reception rooms, a study and a kitchen. It was originally built in 1910 by Mr Justice Ridley, but by the outbreak of the Second World War the lease had passed to a heart specialist, Sir John Parkinson, who spent most of his time in his main residence in Devonshire Place in London.

  Documents in Lord Montagu’s archives reveal that SOE was not in fact the first military unit to occupy The Rings. It was first requisitioned on 21 July, 1940, to house the officers of the 9th Battalion of the King’s Own Royal Regiment. Among the archives are the requisitioning order and neat hand-written lists of the furniture required to furnish it for two majors, by name Bernays and Jowers, five captains, Bentley, Castle, Dickinson, Hall and Key, and one lieutenant, Dobbyn. Each required a bed, mattress, chair and a mirror; the Commanding Officer (unnamed) and the majors were also allowed a table and an extra chair. The furnishings in the reception rooms and the hall and kitchen seem to have been requisitioned from Sir John Parkinson.

  Soon after the requisitioning, Captain Widnell was harrying the authorities for compensation for the gas oil and the log wood that the Battalion had taken over with the house and for the increase in fire insurance being levied by the insurance company for requisitioned properties.

  On 19 October, 1940, four months after the original requisitioning, Captain H.S.R. Widnell, the Montagu Estate’s land agent, and a veteran of the First World War, received a letter from the requisitioning authorities in Southampton stating, ‘It has been decided to surrender The Rings as no use can be made of it during the winter’. A month later the Battalion moved out, to Boscombe.

  However, they had scarcely departed when Widnell received another letter saying that immediate arrangements had been made to reoccupy part of The Rings for a Bomb Disposal Unit, and in the same breath it stated, ‘But the Section has not arrived and it is doubtful if they ever will.’

  Just over a month after that, very early in January, 1941, The Rings was among the first group of properties to be requisitioned for SOE. The other properties taken over at about the same time were Hartford House, a cottage situated nearby, requisitioned at the request of its owner, The Vineyards and Boarmans, which lie half a mile to the east of Palace House and a mile to the south of The Rings. Also requisitioned at this time were two houses on the west side of the Beaulieu river. The House on the Shore and The Drokes. The Rothschild residence, Inchmery House, at Inchmery on the eastern side of the Beaulieu river overlooking the Solent, four miles to the south-east of Palace House, was also requisitioned by SOE at about the same time.

  Hartford House (also known as The Fisheries) was the smallest of all the houses requisitioned. Described by one of the SOE senior instructors as ‘a pretty little house’, it was the first of the houses to be used for segregating students from the staff by the spy school that preceded the
founding of the Finishing School. After the founding it was very often unoccupied but when in use accommodated between one and three students and an instructor. It was built at the turn of the century and was part of the trout hatcheries at Hartford. At the outbreak of war it was occupied by a widower, Major Dixon.

  The Vineyards and Boarmans lie to the west of the B 3054 road which runs from Hilltop and the Royal Oak pub on the edge of Beaulieu Heath down a hill into Beaulieu. The Vineyards lies on the side of a hill in an area of Palace House grounds now frequently used for special events and car rallies, and can be seen from the road just before entering Beaulieu. It was built in 1908 by Sir James Kingston Fowler, a physician to Queen Victoria and honorary warden of Beaulieu Abbey. When war was declared it was occupied by a widow, Mrs Grinnell, who left for the USA. Boarmans, which was to become famous as the preferred house for the French Section trainees, and where many women agents were trained, is not visible from the road and can only be approached by crossing a cattle grid and driving down a long private track. The house was built about 1935 by Commander E.C. Wrey who was called up at the outbreak of the war.

  On the opposite side of the Beaulieu river The House on the Shore, as its name implies, is situated close to the shore of the Solent, near Sowley. It is the most isolated of all the houses requisitioned for SOE and was built for the Montagu family as a beach home in 1914 using materials from the Beaulieu estate. At the outbreak of war it was in the hands of the present Lord Montagu’s mother, the Hon. Mrs Pleydell-Bouverie and had been let to Major and Mrs W.S. Wilkinson. The Drokes, which is near the west bank of the Beaulieu river, can just be seen among the trees from a boat sailing down the last reach of the river. It was built just before the First World War by Colonel Dudley Mills and at the outbreak of the Second World War was occupied by the widow of a stockbroker, Mrs Burge, who, of course, had to leave. It has thirteen bedrooms and two cottages in its 24 acres of ground. One of the cottages was occupied by her head gardener, William Durey, and his family, who were permitted to remain there throughout the SOE occupation. Thanks to William Durey’s stepson, Denis Hendy, who as a boy lived in the cottage throughout the war, we have an eyewitness account of many of the events that took place at The Drokes during the early days of its occupation.

  Captain Widnell usually received advanced warning of the intention of the War Office to requisition properties on the estate and advised the owners to instruct a reputable firm to take a schedule of the property.

  The threat of requisitioning precipitated a barrage of paperwork between the owners’ solicitors and surveyors and the requisitioning authorities in Southampton, and also between the authorities and Captain Widnell, guarding the interests of the Montagu estate. The properties had to be surveyed by the owners’ representatives and later, jointly, by the authorities and a representative of the Montagu estate. Agreement had to be reached on such details as the value of the property at the time of its requisitioning, the rental to be paid by the military authorities and who would attend to and pay for the upkeep of the grounds and fences and any sheds, outhouses and cottages within the grounds. The rents payed by the Ministry of Works seem laughably small by today’s standards, and were no doubt pitifully low at the time. The Rings was rented for a mere £225 per annum!

  There were disputes over what rights would be accorded to the military once they had taken over. For instance, would they be allowed the use of existing garden tools, and would the existing staff, especially gardeners, continue to be employed? Some of the gardeners had been in the employ of the house-owners on the Beaulieu estate all their working lives. One appears to have lost his job after forty-two years’ service.

  The flurry of paperwork created by the requisitioning must have been costly and it seems that the costs had to be borne by the unfortunate owners, struggling to protect their rights and interests in their absence. Some of them were abroad on war service. No wonder that in most cases the military take-over was most unwelcome and caused considerable distress. As one of the leaseholders wrote, ‘It is a bitter blow as I kept hoping (to be able to) return (to Beaulieu), though it was always postponed for one reason or another. I should be very grateful for any information as to what purpose they will use my house, if it is the same department which has taken over the other houses in Beaulieu.’

  Once the requisitioning had been completed, the houses, as already stated, seem to have been allocated to several different sections within SOE during a period preceding the founding of the school, and were apparently operated independently of each other. We know that The Rings and Hartford House were used to train some of the first secret agents and were staffed largely by instructors drawn from Brickendonbury. Official sources state that The Rings was at first in multiple use as a training headquarters, a school, and for staff and student accommodation. Since it possessed only seventeen rooms and it is known that lectures were given in the lounge, there were probably only four or five resident instructors, two administrative staff and less than half a dozen students. Philby is said to have taken a ten-day agent training course at The Rings before taking up his appointment as the Finishing School’s tutor in propaganda warfare and he mentions that soon after taking up his post he was teaching black propaganda to two French trainee agents. He also mentions that a couple of Dutchmen were being trained as radio operators. He states that at this time one of the instructors was George Hill, who had moved with him from Brickendonbury.

  One of the earliest students, Hardy Amies, (Sir Hardy Amies the couturier) mentioned that when he arrived the instructor in codes and cyphers was a civilian expert, thought to have been Professor Eric Patterson, also from Brickendonbury. Another source intimates that Malcolm Muggeridge was among the earliest instructors. Several of the Intelligence Corps officers who arrived later as instructors refer to Philby, Hill and Patterson as being already there.

  The Drokes and The House on the Shore were first used to accommodate Spanish troops, under the command of Major J.H.P. Barcroft. Denis Hendy described him as ‘a very important man’ who spent much of his time in London, which suggests that he was reporting to London and not to The Rings. At a guess he belonged to the forerunner of the Iberian Section. He was assisted by Captain Barry, the ‘housemaster’ at The Drokes, and by Captain Tidmarsh who was ‘housemaster’ of The House on the Shore.

  Inchmery House was taken over by Free French parachutists under Gubbins’ direct intervention, and there is some evidence that The Vineyards and Boarmans were also occupied by foreign troops, possibly Italians! Lord Montagu’s mother, the Hon. Mrs Pleydell-Bouverie, told me, shortly before she died, that The Vineyards was known to her as ‘The Pub’, because it had a drinks licence and was occasionally used by the SOE staff to entertain their civilian guests between intakes of trainees.

  There seems, therefore, little doubt that in the first quarter of 1941 the training taking place in these houses was being run separately by four different sections of SOE and the courses then being run at The Rings were being run separately from the other three sections by instructors who had come from Brickendonbury, itself originally staffed by trainers from Section D of the SIS.

  Denis Hendy is adamant that the first students at The Drokes were Spaniards, a fact supported by a former corporal of Field Security who was stationed at The House on the Shore. Hendy has also given a detailed description of the arrival of the British troops to take over the house in the days before the Finishing School was officially in being.

  ‘They arrived one winter’s evening at about 9pm, in the pouring rain from Brockenhurst station,’ he said. ‘There were about twenty of them under Captain Barry. There was a Quartermaster Sergeant, “Tansy” Lee, of the Wiltshire Regiment, Corporal Walker and Lance Corporal Stidwell. These NCOs and the Captain lived in the main house and the privates lived in the other cottage. Among the men were two from the Army Catering Corps, Privates Morris and Purdy.’

  One of the soldiers whose home was nearby at Blackfield, a village on the western edge
of Southampton Water, knew the Beaulieu area well but did not realize where he was until the vehicle in which the party was travelling rumbled down the hill towards Beaulieu from the direction of Brockenhurst and made the awkward, ‘backhanded’ turn on to the narrow road out to Buckler’s Hard. On arrival at The Drokes, he lost no time in finding someone to lend him a bicycle to pedal home to visit his wife.

  This party arrived a few weeks before the first intake of students, to attend to the furnishing of the rooms with standard service bedding and furniture, collecting stores and mess traps and settling in.

  Denis and the Durey family were not allowed anywhere near the front of the main house and were forbidden to have any visitors, even close relatives, despite the fact that the cottage in which they lived was a quarter of a mile away from the house. Notices were posted all round the grounds forbidding anybody to enter on pain of being shot if they did. It was not an idle threat because the students and the staff used to practice using hand guns with live ammunition in the grounds and copses of the property. The Dureys rarely saw any of the visiting instructors because they always arrived in a vehicle that drove straight past the cottages and up to the house.

  A regular visitor to The Drokes during this early period was Major J.H.P. Barcroft, thought by Hendy to be the first commandant of The House on the Shore but who was in fact in charge of both The Drokes and The House on the Shore. ‘Barcroft,’ said Hendy, ‘very often came down and asked my father if he could go fishing across the marshes towards Gin’s farm or off Gin’s pier. He used to make regular visits to the War Office in London.’ He was responsible for getting Hendy’s stepfather, William Durey, who was about thirty years of age and therefore eligible for call-up, exempt from war service in the armed forces. ‘He said my father was doing a far better job here feeding the troops than he would be doing if he was in the Army peeling potatoes. Mark you, my father had to cultivate three acres of land but sometimes the troops would go out and give him a hand. During the winter months I would go out with him and some of the lads, the Quartermaster Sergeant and one or other of the Corporals, into the woods and pop one or two pheasants off their roosts. We’d come back and pluck and draw them and my mother would roast them. Around 10pm about a dozen soldiers, including some of the students, would come over to our cottage for a meal of roast pheasant and fresh vegetables from the garden. My mother considered it her contribution to the war effort.’