Aug 222020
 

More information up on our new site on the Special Duties section.

This time about a Father and Daughter team, George and Mollie Phillips https://www.staybehinds.com/mollie-doreen-phillips

https://www.staybehinds.com/george-phillips

Mollie was a pre-war Olympic skater and by all accounts quite a character! From this new information we have also discovered for the first time that they operated from separate ‘hides’.

If anyone in the Carmarthenshire area has any information we would love to hear from you! www.staybehinds.com

Nov 042018
 

A nominal roll for Special Duties Operators has yet to be found. Could it still be “Top Secret”?

Thanks to Roger Parsons of Millfield School, CART has obtained a photograph of a Special Duties Operator in Somerset.

Code named “Chirnside 5” the wireless Out Station was in a chicken hut at Edgarley Manor Farm. Locally it is suggested a woman was the main operator. The couple are Kenneth and Dorothy Marsh. So was it Dorothy in charge of sending secret messages on the wireless?

Having married in Kuala Lumpur the couple lived in Federated Malay States (today Malaysia). During the 1910s and 20s they often travelled backward and forward from the UK, his occupation recorded as “Planter”.

On May 14th 1942 The Wells Journal ran an article on Kenneth Marsh and his farming methods which was broadcast by the BBC. The article records the Farm is predominantly rearing and selling poultry rather than selling the eggs. It also notes the feed is produced in vast sums from local food waste and army swill from military camps. This shows the Marshes would have frequently and freely travelled the area collecting waste and be able to monitor local situations if necessary.

www.staybehinds.com/station/edgarley-outstation

Jul 272018
 

Jim Gascoyne is the son of an Auxilier & an ATS “secret sweetie” Special Duties operator. Jim has marched with Auxiliary veterans at the Cenotaph in memory of the Auxiliary Units.

The talk is at Willesborough Windmill TN24 0QG, 18.45 for 19.30 start. Guaranteed to be an excellent evening!

Read about Golding Zero Station

Oct 242012
 

Today we have added info on the Ousden Special Duties Section Control Station located at Littly Wood in Suffolk. Stations on the Inner network did not have outstations of their own but rather served the purpose of gathering (and under certain circumstances relaying) information.  All these Inner network stations were in contact with one or more Control stations that were supplied with information by their own specific networks comprising a number of out and sub-outstations.

A fairly complicated set up which has been clearly explained by our researchers here

Oct 212012
 

Bachelor’s Hall in Hundon, Suffolk was the first headquarters of the Special Duties Section or SDS. The top secret communication network set up to allow SDS members to report on German troop movement if we had been invaded.

The report is based primarily on information supplied by Capt Ken Ward (Royal Corps of Signals), the leader of the original TRD design team (interview 10 August 1999) and it can be read here.

Sep 132012
 

Devon’s Golding 1 Able Sub Out Station used by members of the Special Duties Section (SDS) has been added to the site by CART CIO for Devon Nina Hannaford.

The radio was located in the large attic of the Public House near Ottery St.Mary.

You can see the full report here

Sep 082012
 

On Thursday we saw the start of a new series on BBC2 called Wartime Farm.

Steve Mason, our CIO for Hampshire was featured in the show and went to pains to advise the production company on the accurate history of both the Auxiliary Units and SDS.

Sadly, like many TV companies, they got it wrong so we have produced a the correct version below.

Jun 072012
 

Norwich Zero Station – Many 0f our researchers believe this to be the most significant ‘find’ in terms of research into the Special Duties Section in the last decade.

In the spring of 2012, we were contacted by a retired grounds man who informed us about the existence of a secret WWII ‘bunker’ and a meeting was arranged within the same week.

Armed with spades, shovels, a crow bar, and a metal detector we met the owners’ development manager at the site. What we found left us quite breathless (in more than one way)

The property owners acted swiftly and with great responsibility in that the in-house surveyors as well as Norfolk County archaeologists were informed within hours. Furthermore, thanks to the owners’ generosity and trust we were the first to carry out a detailed survey before anyone else came on site, and for this we are immensely grateful. Bound by our promise not to talk about what we had seen, we quietly continued our research and we produced a report to be used for guidance by all concerned – knowing that nobody would be familiar with what they would be seeing, and that for this reason not only would many small details go unnoticed but, more importantly, the importance of this find might not be fully understood. Nowhere in the UK was there another Zero-station in a similar state of preservation and with so many original features still in place. Consequently, we suggested that the structure is of national importance and that it should for this reason be preserved in its entirety.

In due course, the Norfolk County archaeologists requested our presence when conducting their own assessment – needless to say that we were very pleased to be invited to meet them. To our great delight, they unanimously decided on the spot to involve National Heritage, resulting in the Zero station being declared a Scheduled Monument of national importance. Our report now forms part of the archaeological survey of the site.

Our thanks go to the landowner and the hard work Evelyn and Adrian have put in to producing this report.

See the full exclusive report here

 

 

Mar 162012
 

Last week we added a report on the Aylsham Special Duties Out-Station in Norfolk.

The Out-Station used to be located in a large town house called ‘The Beeches’, in the historic market town of Aylsham (North Norfolk). The property was owned by Dr Alec George Holman and his wife Grace Kathleen. Their daughter, Jill (now Jill Monk, seen left), recalls that her father was one of the first civilians to be recruited by SDS to gather information because of his local knowledge. Jill was only 14 years old when she was enrolled.

You can see the full report here