Jill Monk from Aylsham in Norfolk has passed away at the age of 89.
During the war Jill worked for the Special Duties Branch (part of the Aux Units) as a message courier for her father’s secret radio station. This was cleverly hidden in the coal hole of the family house at Aylsham where he was a doctor.
Jill would be sent out at night, commonly on horseback, to deliver any messages they had received. The messages were hidden inside split tennis balls and deposited via a disguised pipe. Jill had two horses, one chestnut, for riding during the day, and one black, for night exercises when she would ride cross-country.
Towards the end of the war Jill became a radar operator at the Chain Home Radar Station in Stoke Holy Cross. In 1946, she competed at the Aylsham Show on her then favourite mount, Merry Monarch, a horse she had also favoured, because of its dark coat colour, when out at night delivering secret messages. She remained a regular competitor at the Aylsham Show for many years, first as a horse rider and later as a judge and sponsor of the Highland Pony in-hand classes.
Her remarkable story is catalogued both in ‘With Britain in Mortal Danger’ and ‘Churchill’s Underground Army’ by John Warwicker or you can read our interview with her here.