MILITARY OBSERVATION

 

Don’t take too much comfort

From having the enemy in view

Because if the enemy is in range

Then by extension so are you

THE AVRO SHACKLETON

 

The Avro Shackleton

Was a long-range British

Maritime patrol aircraft

Which came into service

With the RAF in 1951

It was a distant cousin

Of the legendary Lancaster

Which evolved first

Into the Lincoln

And then into the Shackleton

Its speciality was

Anti-submarine warfare

Then airborne early warning

And search and rescue

It was finally retired in 1990

VENGEANCE WEAPONS

 

Vicious product of the conquered

Exploding on the unsuspecting

Not aimed at the soldiers

Generals or other men of war

Experimental weapons

Aimed not at military targets

Nor at the politicians that send men to war

Chariots of death

Exploding on the innocents

Wiping out whole families

Eliminating the non combatants

Aimlessly targeted at a city

People helpless to escape

Ordinary people doing ordinary things

Not foot soldiers on German soil

Spiteful vengeance of Hitler

THE AIRSPEED HORSA

 

The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa

Was a British World War II

Troop-carrying glider

Used for air assault by British

And allied armed forces

Like other British gliders

Of the Second World War,

Gliders were named

After military figures

Whose name began with H,

So it was named after Horsa,

The legendary 5th century

Jutish Conqueror of southern Britain.

But on D-Day 1944

The Horsa showed

It was not a conqueror

But a liberator of Europe

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – D-DAY THE SIXTH OF JUNE (1956)

 

D-Day the Sixth of June, Directed by Henry Koster, tells the tale of a love triangle involving a British Officer, Lt Colonel John Wynter (Richard Todd), American Captain Brad Parker (Robert Taylor) and Red Cross Nurse Valerie Russell (Dana Wynter).

The story unfolds aboard an allied transport on the eve of D-Day shown in flashback, as the two officers reminisce about their individual relationships with the beauteous English Rose.

But who will the nurse choose? A married American Staff Officer or the gung ho British Lt Colonel.

THE ENGLISH ELECTRIC LIGHTNING

 

The English Electric Lightning

Was a supersonic jet fighter

From the days of the Cold War

Noted for its great speed

The only all-British Mach 2 fighter

And the first in the world

Capable of Supercruise

Renowned for its interceptor capabilities

The Lightning was the best of the best

THE WACO HADRIAN

 

The Waco CG-4A

Was the most widely used

Troop/cargo military glider

Of World War II

Named the Hadrian

THE GENERAL AIRCRAFT HOTSPUR

 

The General Aircraft

GAL.48 Hotspur

Was a military glider

Commissioned at the behest

Of the then Prime Minister

Winston Churchill

In order to transport

Airborne assault troops into battle

The Hotspur was the result

But its tactical limitations

Meant it was only used for training

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE DAWN PATROL (1938)

 

“Dawn Patrol” is a war drama based on the story by John Monk Saunders and Directed by Edmund Goulding.

In 1915 in France, Major Brand (Basil Rathbone) has the burden of command of the 39th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps sending pilots to almost certain death every day.

The young airmen go up daily in bullet-riddled “crates” and the casualty rate is appalling, but Brand can't make the high command at headquarters see reason, and if that was not enough insubordinate air ace Captain Courtney (Errol Flynn) and his sidekick Scott (David Niven) are constant thorns in Brand's side.

The film is a very gritty and accurate look at life, and death, in a Royal Flying Corps fighter squadron and has a strong supporting cast including, Donald Crisp, Melville Cooper, Barry Fitzgerald, Carl Esmond, Peter Willes and Morton Lowry.

THE GENERAL AIRCRAFT HAMILCAR

 

The General Aircraft

GAL. 49 Hamilcar

Was a large British military glider

Produced during World War II

Commissioned at the behest

Of the then Prime Minister

Winston Churchill

In order to transport

Airborne assault troops

And heavy cargo into battle,

When completed

The Hamilcar was capable

Of transporting heavy equipment

In support of airborne troops.

The glider could transport

A single light tank

Or two Universal Carriers.

Hamilcars were only used

On three occasions,

But only in support

Of British airborne forces.

They first saw action in June 1944

Transporting anti-tank guns

Assorted armoured Vehicles

And Tetrarch light tanks

Into Normandy during Operation Tonga

They were used in a similar way

During Operation Market-Garden

And finally in March 1945

During Operation Varsity

When they landed in Germany

THE LOCKHEED HERCULES

 

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules

Is a four-engine turboprop

Military transport aircraft

An uncomplicated work horse

Take-offs and landings

Can be made on any unprepared ground

And its uses are too numerous to mention

In fact, it would be easier to list

What the Hercules can’t do

THE AVRO VULCAN

 

The Avro Vulcan

Was an RAF

Delta Wing strategic bomber

And was the backbone of the Uks

Airborne nuclear deterrent

During a long period

Of the Cold War

It carried no defensive weaponry

So had to rely on its high-speed

And high-altitude flight

To evade interception

Until the advent

Of Electronic countermeasures

And although it spent

Much of its career

Armed with nuclear weapons

The Vulcan was still capable

Of performing conventional

Bombing missions

A fact underlined

Very effectively in 1982

When it was used in

Operation Black Buck

During the Falklands War

THE SHORT SANDRINGHAM

 

The Short S.25 Sandringham

Was a medium range

British civilian flying boat

Converted from Shorts Sunderland 

And replaced the Short Empire

Carrying passengers and mail

Between Britain and the British colonies

THE SHORT EMPIRE

 

The Short Empire

Was a medium range

Four engine monoplane flying boat

Carrying passengers and mail

Between Britain and the British colonies

VILLAIN OF THE PEACE

 

In 1914, David Lloyd George

The British prime minister of the day

Could have avoided the Great War

By simply not getting in Germany’s way

THE AVRO YORK

 

The Avro York

Was a British transport plane

And was yet another Avro aircraft

Derived from the legendary

Lancaster heavy bomber,

Which was used in military

And civilian roles

Between 1943 and 1964

 

 

ON CHRISTMAS DAY 1914

 Just after midnight on Christmas morning the unofficial “Christmas Truce” began, German troops ceased firing their guns and artillery and then started singing Christmas carols. Later in the day men from both sides left their trenches and met in No man's land where they traded gifts with the enemy. The truce lasted for three days.

THE AVRO LANCASTRIAN

 

The Avro 691 Lancastrian

Was a mail transport

And passenger aircraft

Used by Canada and Britain

In the 1940s and 1950s

The Lancastrian was basically

A modified Lancaster bomber

And delivered people and mail

As efficiently as death

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968)

 

Where Eagles Dare is a WW2 drama film, screenplay written by Alistair MacLean based on his book of the same name and, directed by Brian G. Hutton.

After a British Mosquito aircraft is shot down over Nazi held territory, the Germans capture American Brigadier General George Carnaby (Robert Beatty), and take him to the nearby S.S. headquarters at the Schloss Adler, the Castle of Eagles, because the Germans believe the General is privy to details of the D-Day operation.

So Admiral Rolland (Michael Hordern) and Colonel Turner (Patrick Wymark) of British Intelligence assemble a crack commando team led by Major Jonathan Smith (Richard Burton) to rescue him before he can divulge any details of the plans for the Normandy landings.

Amongst the team of Brits is an American Ranger, Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood), who is puzzled by his inclusion in an all British operation, and when two of the team are killed soon after arriving in Germany, Schaffer suspects that Smith's mission has more than one objective.

It’s a fast moving war movie with plenty of action and a number of twists and turns along the way to hold your attention all the way to the tense unexpected ending.

THE BRISTOL BEAUFORT

 

The Bristol Beaufort

Was a British twin-engine

Torpedo bomber

Which saw service

With RAF Coastal Command

And then the Fleet Air Arm

Of Royal Navy

They were versatile and not

Used exclusively as torpedo bombers,

They were also utilized with great effect

As conventional bombers and mine-layers

However despite distinguishing themselves

In the Mediterranean

And in the defence of Malta

Their day in the sun

Was over all too soon

They were relegated to a trainer

Until the war ended

CHARLES THE MARTYR

 

Charles the first of England

Walked through the snow

Wrapped up against the chill

So no shake would show

Parliament chose to kill

The rightful king of the land

An outrageous act at Whitehall

Perpetrated by the puritans

An axe man on the scaffold

Executing him matter of fact

The cold January snow

Almost purifying the act

A dignified monarch 

Unwavering in his belief

His daughter Princess Elizabeth

Broken hearted died of grief

Those Memories Made on Teardrop Lake – (24) The Christian Lady and the Pagans

It was in the middle of the 7^th Century when 17 year old Olwen, the youngest daughter of King Osric, was pledged in marriage to young King Ryce of West Untenena.

King Osric’s tribe was in the east bordering Cantwarena and the marriage was designed to affect a treaty between the two tribes and preserve the peace by forming a mutually beneficial alliance against West Sexena.

 

Osric’s tribe in East Untenena were Christina converts and because of her faith, Olwen only agreed to the union if she could be married at St Augustine’s Church in the place of her birth.

 

The citizens of East Untenena were very pleased with the union as they hoped it would lead to a lasting peace.

Olwen was very popular among her people and the wedding was the cause of much celebration with seven days of feasting.

 

It was a joyous occasion and when it ended Olwen and her new husband then travelled under heavy escort to her new home.

Soldiers of both East and West Untenena made up the escort as an act of solidarity.

Olwen was also accompanied by her maids Esme and Elwin, and by her priest Father Audley.

 

Her new home was the great hall of King Ryce which stood in a settlement at the head of the Lake Tåre Drape on the edge of the great forest.

 

Although the marriage was forced upon her she was not disappointed with the union, Olwen liked Ryce and in time she grew to love him very deeply.

And she also grew to love her new home very much.

But she came from a Christian realm and she had married into a pagan one.

Though Ryce was prepared to adopt the new faith his subjects and more importantly, his chieftains, were not.

Although most of his subjects took to the new Queen and loved her almost as much as her own people did.

Though not all of them, in fact two of them were openly hostile to her and a third, Holt had threatened to kill any Christians who dared practice in his lands.

 

For the first year Olwen was content to have Father Audley attend to hers and her maid’s spiritual needs in her private chambers but she was not prepared to deny herself a place of worship forever.

 

So at the beginning of her 19^th year she broached the subject with Ryce when he asked her if she was happy in his kingdom she replied rather unconvincingly

“Yes”

“You are unhappy?” Ryce asked

“No I’m not unhappy” she replied “but...”

“You still miss your home” he said

“A little yes” she admitted

“But really I miss my Church”

“I see” he responded “the one thing you miss is the one thing I cannot give you”

“Not even a small Chapel for us?” she asked in her most feminine voice.

“I can’t grant you that” Ryce said

“It’s doesn’t have to be grand or ornate”

She pleaded

“If I was to openly build a Church in this settlement it would give Holt the excuse he needs to move against me” He said and Olwen was crestfallen.

“I’m sorry” he said

“What if we built one in secret?” she asked

“Where?” he asked

“In the forest” she said

The King was very thoughtful for a few minutes and then he said

“I will give it some further thought”

Then he took his leave.

 

Olwen took that to mean no, but she left it at that for now, she didn’t want to back him into a corner.

But that didn’t mean she would give up.

 

After several days Ryce gave Olwen his decision as they lay in his bed.

“You may have your secret Chapel” he said

“Thank you my King” she said excitedly

“But it must remain secret” he reiterated

“If Holt or his kinsmen find out, there will be open revolt”

“Yes my Lord” 

“No materials or craftsman from my realm can be used”

“I understand” Olwen said

There was a regular caravan that travelled between East and West Untenena so over the following 18 months Stone was brought in secret from Thanet Island in small quantities and an Alta stone was transported from Lindisfarne via a circuitous route.

 

Firstly a large area of forest was cleared and building began on a small timber Chapel to Olwen’s specific design.

The Thanet stones were placed around the outline of the building in the traditional cruciform shape and some locally acquired flag stones formed the floor and the Lindisfarne Alta stone was given pride of place.

The Chapel walls and roof were made of Dancingdean timber and only a small number of trusted woodsman knew what was being built in the woods.

There was also a large baptismal bowl set into the floor of one side of the transept where Olwen’s husband Ryce and their children were baptized.

Its Water was drawn from a natural spring besides the Chapel clearing which the faithful claimed only sprang forth when the church was completed.

 

The first service was held on Olwen’s 22^nd birthday and monthly thereafter so as not to draw attention.

This went on regularly for four years without incident until one spring when her brother Hugh and his wife Henrietta were visiting with her for Olwen’s confinement.  

She was six months pregnant with her third child and she was praying this one was a boy.

So she made more regular visits to the Chapel so she could pray to God to grant her wish.

 

It was on a bright spring day when Father Audley led Olwen, Ryce and their daughters, Lucetta and Annis, and her brother and his wife along the hidden path to the Chapel.

But as the priest stepped into the sunlight Ryce was struck on the side of the head with a sword hilt and fell to the ground.

“You will die for this Holt”     

Olwen screamed as she saw the face of her husband’s assailant.

“I think not” Holt said as he brandished his sword “You will all die here today at your holy place”

And his kinsman Irwin drew his sword at the same moment.

Thankfully Godwin the woodsman who had been instrumental in the Chapel’s construction was already inside when the attack began and without thinking he took up his axe and charged out and cleaved Irwin’s head in two. 

As Irwin fell down dead it distracted Holt long enough for Hugh to burst out of the trees and thrust his sword through Holt’s throat, and he turned to look at Hugh with a look of surprise and then dropped his sword.

“God has spoken” Olwen said and he fell dead to the ground.

 

It was all over in a trice, fortunately Henrietta had taken the young girls away at the first sign of trouble, so were spared the bloodshed.

Ryce was helped to his feet as Father Audley gave the dead men the last rites and Hugh and Godwin went in search of the chieftain’s horses.

 

The bodies of Holt and Irwin were draped across their horses and then Godwin led them into the deep wood and the bodies were never seen again.

With the resistance to the new faith gone the following year work began on a new Church adjacent to the great hall.

There were mutterings from those close to Holt about what had become of him and his kinsman but they were silenced when rumours spread that the one true God must have smite them down. 

 

The Chapel fell into disuse after the new Church was built though Olwen would visit it from time to time but no one went there after she and Ryce had died.

And ten years into her son Hugh’s reign a war began with West Sexena and Hugh had to abandon the Great Hall and the Church which were then destroyed.

By the time West Sexena were defeated and driven out 20 years later by Olwen’s grandson Edric all memory of her Chapel had faded and was all but forgotten until early in Queen Victoria’s reign.

 

 

THE ARMY GAME

 

Salute it only if it moves

Pick it up if it doesn't move

If you can't salute it

Or pick it up just paint it

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961)

 

The Guns of Navarone, is a classic War movie based on the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name and directed by J. Lee Thompson.

A British led team of six Allied and Greek soldiers is sent to the Greek island of Navarone, occupied by German forces, to destroy the massive German gun emplacement that commands a key sea channel, which threatens the safe evacuation of British troops from a neighbouring island.

As if the mission is not perilous enough, with such a large German presence on the island, they also have a traitor in their midst.

The menacing naval guns are embedded in a cliff with a big rock overhang, so the RAF are unable to destroy them from air, which is why a commando team is put together under the command of Maj. Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle), a renowned mountain climber, Capt. Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck) to get them up the formidable cliffs, a couple of native Greeks, Col. Andrea Stavros (Anthony Quinn) and Spyros Pappadimos (James Darren), explosives man, Cpl. John Anthony Miller (David Niven), and a tough anti-fascist veteran of the Spanish Civil War, CPO 'Butcher' Brown (Stanley Baker) and they are joined on the island by resistance fighters Maria Pappadimos (Irene Papas) and Anna (Gia Scala).

The film is full of tension as the group keep getting into and out of one situation after another and it crackles with excitement up to the dramatic conclusion, a film not be missed.

THE ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST’S

 

The mountainous lands of Armenia

Populated since prehistoric times

Was the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden

And the Armenian highlands surround Mount Ararat

Upon which Noah’s ark came to rest

They were appropriately the first nation in the world

To adopt Christianity in AD 301

As its official state religion

The Christian Armenians lived

Under the ottoman empire’ oppressive yoke

For almost four centuries

When in august 1896

A small band of Armenian freedom fighters

Seeking international recognition of their plight

Raided the headquarters of the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul

They murdered the guards

And took more than 140 staff hostage

However, their plan backfired

When it brought down upon their heads

The wrath of their Turkish masters

And provoked the first Armenian holocaust

When Mobs of Muslim Turks

Massacred more than 50,000 Armenians

This was however spectacularly surpassed

Almost 20 years later

When in the spring of 1915

A concerted effort by the Kaisers allies in Istanbul

To systematically set about the removal

Of their Armenian problem

And the Muslim overloads ordered

The Butchery of one and a half million

Armenian Christian souls

And providing the Germans with a template for the future

THE VICKERS WELLESLEY

 

The Vickers Wellesley

Was a British light bomber

That was all but obsolete

By the time the war came

It was totally unsuited

To the European air war

Of the Second World War

But the Wellesley found a purpose

In the desert theatres

Of East Africa, Egypt

And the Middle East

 

Those Memories Made on Teardrop Lake – (16) The Fortunes of War

 

Henry Beaumont was the only son of the 10^th Earl of Dancingdean.  

Henry was a strong man, straight backed and powerful with a square jaw and chestnut brown hair, a gifted scholar, sportsman and a natural horseman.

 

It was early summer and Henry had just returned from Abbottsford University to Dancingdean Hall, the family home overlooking Teardrop Lake.

His lifelong friend, neighbour and fellow returnee Sebastian Blackburn lived next door at Bridge House.

The year was 1914 and they were on top of the world with a bright future ahead of them and only 21 years behind them.

Little did they know as they sailed on the picturesque waters of the lake that glorious June, that their futures would start to unravel with the death of an obscure minor royal of the Hapsburg dynasty on the 28^th of that very Month.     

 

Sebastian was destined for a career in his father’s bank and marriage to Lady Theresa Edgson in the following year.

While Henry was to be groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps, which would culminate in his wearing the ermine in the House of Lords as the 11^th Earl of Dancingdean.

 

All through the month of July they carried on with their lives, and the usual round of social engagement totally oblivious to the treat of impending war.   

Henry even found time to fall in love.

The object of his affections was Christine Turner a tall auburn haired girl with a smiling freckled face, a sweet nature and a kind heart.

She was three years older than him and she had been employed as his mother’s companion for a year and a half.

 

And he had been attracted to her for every single day of that year and a half but she had always resisted his advances.

And dismissed his feelings as mere infatuation but she filled his every waking thought on his last year at University and when he was home it was her he wanted to see first.

Christine though was resolute in her opposition, month after month, even though she shared his feelings.

But on the balmy evening of the 3^rd of July, when his father was staying at his club and his mother had taken to her bed with the vapours, he kissed her on the terrace and she reciprocated.

“We shouldn’t be doing this” she said

“I know” he whispered and kissed her again.

 

For the remainder of that month he fulfilled all the social engagements he was expected to attend so as not to arouse suspicion and then they would meet in secret and snatch intimate moments wherever and whenever they could.

But they told no one, because they could tell no one.

 

On the first of August, the day on which Germany declared war on Russia, was also the day that Henry made a declaration of his own.

It was Christine’s day off and they had arranged a secret rendezvous up at Lovers Leap, a rocky shelf that jutted out above the cliffs, which were an extension of those that formed part of the northern side of Teardrop Lake and formed the natural border between the Teardrop estate and the Dancingdean Forest proper.

Lovers Leap was so called because it was where desperate and broken hearted lovers would leap to their deaths although there was no evidence that anyone actually had.

It was just a promontory that offered a stunning view, but it was a very rainy day so they met at Dancingdean Folly instead.

 

The Folly was built by the 8^th Earl of Dancingdean who had it erected for himself, in the style of a Castle Keep.

He was always prone to delusions of Grandeur.

He had it erected on top of a hill and then had the surrounding Forest cleared so everyone for miles around could see his standard flying high from the turret.

 

The scene was very different almost a hundred years later as the forest had begun encroaching on the cleared land.  

Henry got there first and immediately took shelter and then waited anxiously in the doorway for Christine to arrive.

He had been up there for almost an hour and he was just beginning to think she wasn’t coming when she appeared, running through the trees and straight into his arms. 

“I thought you weren’t coming” he said

“Sorry darling, your mother was being difficult” Christine explained and then she kissed him.

She and Henry ate their picnic sat on a tartan rug in the old Folly looking out at the rain.

When they had finished Henry refilled their glasses with champagne and as he raised his glass in a toast he said   

“Christine Turner, will you marry me?”

Henry waited expectantly for her answer but she looked down at the ground and said nothing.

“I’m not joking” he said “I love you and I want to marry you”

“I love you too” she said “but I can’t marry you”

“Why not?” he asked

“Because you’re the next in line to the title and I’m a Lady’s companion” she explained

“But I don’t care about that” Henry said taking her hand

“But your father will, and your mother will, and so will all your friends” she said

“I don’t want the title” he said “I only want you”

“But what will we live on and where will we live?” Christine asked

“I have some money left to me by grandfather and a small house in Abbottsford”

He explained but she was still unmoved

“Its madness” she said “you will be throwing away your future”

“I have no future if it doesn’t include you” he said earnestly

She thought for a moment then held his hand to her lips and said “Yes”

 

They couldn’t tell anyone, Henry couldn’t even tell his best friend Sebastian, they just continued to meet in secret and bide their time.

But time was not a commodity they had in abundance.

A point that was heavily underlined when Germany invaded Belgium and Britain declared war.

 

Henry was not a soldier either by nature or profession, he was a pacifist by ideology and content to be so.

However he and Sebastian enlisted at the earliest opportunity and joined the Downshire Light Infantry.

They were both commissioned as Lieutenants and reported immediately to the camp at Nettlefield.

Henry and Christine saw little of each other over the coming weeks and had to conduct their love affair via the mail.

Their engagement remained a secret and she had to wear her engagement ring on a chain about her neck.

Which she would kiss each night before she slept.

 

The training at Nettlefield was intense and rigorous and was completed in under six weeks and when the boys returned home on their pre-embarkation leave they were resplendent in their uniforms.

When they presented themselves to their respective fiancée’s they were viewed with a mixture of pride and sadness.

Christine broke down and cried when he told her he only had 4 days leave before he left for France.

 

Henry’s father, George’s reaction was slightly different.

“For God’s sake boy you don’t have to go” he yelled “you are my heir”

“I have to go” Henry replied

“No you don not” his father argued

“I have to go” Henry repeated

“Then let me pull some strings and get you a staff post”

“No father I don’t want any special treatment” he said

In retrospect he should have said “ok pull your strings on condition that I can marry Christine Turner”

But he didn’t.

 

Sebastian Blackburn allowed his father to pull strings on his behalf however, but not to get out of the firing line, Seb wanted to marry Theresa before he left for France.

So a hastily arrange ceremony was performed at Olwen’s Chapel.

 

Olwen was an Anglo Saxon Lady who was one of the early converts to Christianity but her pagan husband’s tribe would not accept the new faith and she was forced to worship secretly in the forest.

Her chapel actually appeared to me little more than an assortment of stones on the forest floor arranged around a granite altar stone in a woodland clearing, the wooden structure long since rotted away.

It had been rediscovered early in Queen Victoria reign and had been lovingly maintained ever since by a local society.

 

So on September 13^th 1914, Sebastian Blackburn the tall, blonde, classically handsome lieutenant with the dazzling blue eyes, wed the petite, dark haired Theresa, she dressed in ivory silk, he in his dress uniform.

With best man Henry by his side.

After the reception Henry crept to Christine’s room and knocked lightly on her door.

She opened the door in her night things

“What are you doing here?” she whispered through the crack in the door

“I just wanted to say that on my next leave you will be the bride” he said and kissed her goodnight.

 

Three days later they checked into the Railway Hotel in Abbeyvale as Mr and Mrs Beauchamp on the eve of his regiment’s embarkation, when their love was made manifest.

 

On the platform of Abbeyvale station the next morning he saw her onto the Shallowfield train and as he held her hand through the open window he said

“I love you Christine and I promise we will be married when I return”

“Just come home safe darling” she said as train pulled slowly out of the station.

He stood on the platform looking on and waving until she was out of sight. 

 

They wrote to each other every few days over the weeks he was away, each letter more heavily laden with romantic sentiment than its predecessor.

Even when the First Battle of Ypres began on the 19^th of October his romantic fervour was not abated nor did it, by its end on the 22^nd of November and all through that winter it was his love for Christine that kept him warm.

 

In his letters to her he didn’t mention all the harshest realities of life in the trenches and in return Christine didn’t burden him with the knowledge that she was pregnant with his child.

 

As winter faded into spring the conditions in Belgium had not improved and the Second Battle of Ypres commenced in April and Christine was fast reaching the point that it was going to be difficult to conceal a pregnancy in her Edwardian outfits.

Then on the 2^nd of April her worst fears were realised when the telegraph boy arrived at Dancingdean Hall.

 

The telegram read

“We regret to inform you that on the 29^th of May Lt H G M Beaumont was killed while trying to rescue a mortally wounded comrade from no man’s land”

 

Christine hadn’t seen the boy arrive but was alerted to its contents when Lady Dancingdean went hysterical and started throwing things around her room.

The Earl was unable to calm her so he left her to Christine and dealt with the news of his only son’s death by going out to the woods to shoot things.

Christine wanted to scream out in grief at her loss but felt compelled to placate her mistress instead.

 

That afternoon however she was taken to the asylum in Pepperstock which she would never leave.   

George, 10^th Earl of Dancingdean never returned from the woods either because after he tired of shooting the wild life he turned the gun on himself.

 

That evening as darkness fell so did Christine Turner’s mood.

She sat in a leather chesterfield in George Beaumont’s study, a large glass of brandy in one hand and the telegram in the other and tears streaming down her cheeks.

Dancingdean Hall was not the only recipient of the Telegram boy’s grim correspondence.

The inhabitants of Bridge House were informed of Sebastian Blackburn’s death.

How typical of the man she loved to risk his live to save his wounded friend.

Christine fell into a black despair and could see no way out.

She would soon be unemployed and as soon as the baby showed she would be unemployable and she had lost the man she loved and the father of her child.

The burden was too great to bear and so she drained her glass.

Her heart was broken and there was no future for her and her lover’s child, weighed down by grief in her heart and rocks in her pockets Christine walked onto the terrace where she had first kissed Henry and then crossed the lawn from Dancingdean Hall and jumped off the east cliff into the black lake below.