A trip to Bath...
...and following up new leads arising out of recent posts
A warm welcome to this post to all readers, especially those who have signed up in recent weeks - it is really good to have your company on this research quest!
In today’s blog, I am following up on further leads which have come out of recent posts In Search of Adela Curtis, a Modern Mystic. Through this project, I am making contact and in some cases, meeting face to face, with people who have information or connections to share - and they do so with generous hearts. I’ll introduce you to some of them below…
Meeting Yvonne Jarzebowska
Early last month, I posted a blog about Adela Curtis’ biggest and most ambitious project, the Settlement she had built at Cold Ash for the School of Silence.
In that post, I mentioned Yvonne Jarzebowska whose mother, Irma Black, had attended the children’s school which ran for a few years as part of Adela’s vision. Yvonne had contacted us at Othona a few years ago to let us know about this connection and she had shared the photos which her mother had kept of the Settlement at Cold Ash. Last week I went to Bath as I was keen to meet Yvonne and to see the photos for myself.
The photos of Cold Ash have generally been well preserved in a small (about 5” x 5.5”) handmade album, with a cover made from rough parchment. There are 17 pictures, including a few of the buildings but most are of people, both adults and children involved with the Settlement. We think the album must have been made by one of the adults and then given to Irma, as she would have been too small to take the photos and create this album for herself. On the inside first page there is faint writing which I think might read Sr Sybyl - perhaps the name of the creator? It isn’t a name I have come across before in my research. Yvonne says that Irma loved being at the school and that Irma’s mother, Lorna, may well have stayed at Cold Ash and also been part of the community on a part-time basis. The children attended a small boarding school on site where amongst other things they were taught to make their own shoes and at least some of their own clothing. This would have been very much in line with Adela Curtis’ vision for encouraging self-sufficiency.
Irma’s good friend at the school was Veronica Bigham who is pictured above and was about a year older than Irma. One of the very few personal letters found amongst Adela Curtis’ papers after her death was written by Veronica in the late 1950s and from this we know that Adela was her godmother, so whatever link there was between the Bigham family and Adela had begun before Veronica’s birth. Veronica’s father, Trevor Bigham, was Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police during the time she was at the school. According to Yvonne, Veronica didn’t enjoy the school and had some eating issues whilst there - she does look a bit gaunt in this photo. However, in the mid 1920s when Adela started to teach once again, she set up a weekly Bible Club in London and Veronica was one of the members, along with Phil and Eve, Adela’s nieces and others, a number of whom had been at Cold Ash.
It was so nice to spend the day with Yvonne and to see the precious photo album and learn more about her family connections with Adela and the School of Silence.
More from the front line in WWII
In February I posted about Adela Curtis and the community during WWII and how Sarah West from the West Bay Discovery Centre had shared information which meant I could identify the regiments that had been billeted in Community House and many of the associated huts in wartime.
Following on from that blog, I thought I would see if any further information could be discovered about 8th Battalion the Essex Regiment, as they had been billeted here for a period. I therefore made contact with Chelmsford Museum and Connie Pitcher kindly shared some photographs they had of troops from 8th Essex in Dorset during the war.
It doesn’t look as if any of the photos were taken on this site (which would have been extraordinarily lucky if they had!) but the one above was taken on the coast just a few miles east of Othona, near Langton Herring. On the back the location is identified further as Chesil Bank Back Water, which is now more widely known as the Fleet, the inland water to the north of Chesil Bank.
The museum also forwarded my request to the Trustees of the Essex Regiment and Peter Williamson, the former chairman of the trustees, has been in correspondence with me, sharing the relevant sections from the Regiment’s published history, (The Essex Regiment 1929 - 1950 by TA Martin) and also from its War Diary held at the National Archives (WO 166/4276) at Kew. Peter made a special journey to Kew last week to photograph over 70 pages of the War Diary, both for the Regiment’s records, and also for me. I am truly grateful to Peter for the trouble he has taken over all this.
On 21 March 1941 Operation Order No.1 was issued for 8th Essex, with the recognition that ‘The possibility of invasion becomes more imminent with the approach of spring.’ The intention was to defend these Dorset beaches if an invasion did take place, as the following quote makes clear.
Method. There will be no withdrawal from the beaches. Any landing will be defeated on the beaches. Any local counterattacks will be delivered onto the beaches.
Any troops landing on the beaches, or any body of troops 6 or more strong, moving inland from the beaches, whether dressed in British battle dress or not, will be treated as hostile, and, if active operations have begun, will be destroyed, unless it is known for certain through previous notification or agreement that the body in question is in fact composed of British soldiers. [The National Archives WO 166/4276]
In the War Diary, the Christian Contemplatives’ Charity is referred to as the ‘Nunnery’, as seen below in the Signal Diagram. Nunnery is on the most westerly side of the area covered by 8th Essex, with Battle HQ more centrally based at Abbotsbury, and Langton Herring to the east.
The second image shared here from the War Diary comes from Administrative Order No 1, dated 23 June 1941. It is fascinating to see how much detail went into the orders issued, with 5 pages covering 11 topics, ranging from ammunition to the reporting of casualities. 30 copies in total were to be made of these orders and distributed to the companies on the ground plus others, including the chaplain. Two copies were kept for the War Diary.
‘Nunnery’ is mentioned a couple of times on the page pictured above:
In paragraph 5: Engineering Services, Nunnery and West Bexington Farm are styled the two right flank companies and as such they will be served by a garrison engineer at Bridport. The left flank companies, including the one at Portesham, will look to Weymouth. As Peter Williamson has explained to me, the right flank always refers to the right hand side when you are looking towards the enemy. West Bexington farm is likely to be the one now known as Tamarisk Farm.
Then in paragraph 6: Medical, Nunnery is designated a Company Aid Post (Coy.A.P.) On the far right of the diagram below, Nunnery is shown as the Coy.A.P. for the Right Sector and it was to have 3 regimental stretcher bearers attached to it. At Swyre, a couple of miles away, Car Post No.1, was to have 1 Ambulance Car, 1 Wheeled Stretcher, 1 Non-Commissioned Officer and 7 Stretcher Bearers. This would support both Nunnery and West Bexington, should the need arise.
This has been just a glimpse into some of the information from the War Diary. It brings home the threat of invasion that was felt and being prepared for by the army. The detailed orders and planning revealed here is impressive. I am particularly interested to learn that ‘Nunnery’ wasn’t just a place where soldiers were billeted but it was part of the bigger defence picture eg as one of the Company Aid Posts. It also highlights for me again the vulnerability of the civilian population - at the Community and nearby, who found themselves living right on the front line in the early years of the war.
And finally - in search of the trench shelter which was built in the grounds in the early months of 1939. Tony Jaques, Warden of Othona West Dorset believes he knows where it is in the Othona grounds and we inspected the area earlier this week.
Adela would have passed this spot every day on her way from her hut, Littleness, which is where Largesse is now, to the main Community House, so I can imagine how the constant sight of it caused her so much grief in early 1939, as the sides fell in and the costs mounted. Perhaps one day we will get the chance to investigate it more thoroughly!
