Kingham Past. 4
Empire day, Wartime,
The home guard and
the 'bouncing bomb'.
Empire day and Wartime in Kingham
Empire day at Kingham
Empire day was first celebrated in 1902, it took place on May 24th the date of Queen Victoria's Birthday. It ended in 1958 when it was renamed as Commonwealth day. It was mostly an event for the children.
The day was usually celebrated by the display of the union flags, parades and the singing of the national Anthem.
Judging by the amount of photographs of the event it seems that the day was well supported by Kingham folk.
Empire day 1928 by Frank Packer
Empire day 1928
Empire day (date unknown)
Empire day (date unknown)
Empire day 1928 by Frank Packer.
Empire Day 1914
Empire day in Kingham in 1914 was a very patriotic day starting with a procession. Lady Cunynghame raised the Union flag on a very tall pole on the green and Edward Eaton sang Land of Hope and Glory. None that day would have been aware that very soon the country would be at war.
Lady Cunynghame was the wife of Sir Henry Cunynghame who inherited the Lodge, he appears to have been clever in engineering and inventing things including a Frost Predictor.
Wartime and Peace celebrations
Land Army Girls WWI. Only lady I know is row 2, far left (large brimmed hat) Elizabeth Stayt (Palmer) my grandmother.
Peace Celebrations at Kingham after WWI
The school is in the background .
Not sure what significance the cycles are?
The smartly dressed young man with his cycle in the middle of the image in front of the tree looks to me very much like Mr Charles E Lainchbury.
Mr C.E. Lainchbury was one of the three sons involved in the Kingham company of Lainchbury and sons.
You can read all about Lainchburys in my sister site. Lainchburys of Kingham
Peace celebrations held in Kingham during 1919 to celebrate the ending of world War I.
Many men from Kingham served during both World wars sadly a few never returned.
(Photographs kindly supplied by Gillian Eaton)
1939-1945 2nd world war.
During WWII, part of the Lainchbury works at Kingham was involved in vital war work, and to that end on October 7th 1940 Lainchbury and Sons Ltd commenced munitions work for the war effort, largely organized by Mr Charles Lainchbury.
Throughout the war, a range of items were made including rocket heads and parts for mines such as bulk heads for magnetic mines.
It is not known exactly what items Lainchburys manufactured for the war effort however one item in particular remained on the official secrets list into the 1960’s, sometime after the war had ended.
During the war Lainchbury's continued to manufacture their normal peace time agricultural items as these were also essential for the war effort.
One of the items made were rocket heads, and quite a lot is known about them now, and many still survive. These were not actually used directly as a weapon they were used as aiming devices and emitted light from the holes around the top.
After the war had ended Lainchburys stored many boxes of these in a yard next to the primary school where we used to play.
They were harmless of course as they were just empty shells. Eventually they were scrapped when the yard closed but my late uncle could not resist saving quite a few which naturally I took on after he died.
You can learn more about the rocket heads by watching my video here
Another item machined at Lainchburys was a large circular disc which was very secret at the time and for a long time afterwards.
The purpose of this disc was only known by Mr Charles Lainchbury and it seems that only two people at the works were involved in machining this very secret part
The part in question was a disc or end cap for Barnes Wallis’ so called “Bouncing bomb”. In actual fact, this “bomb” was not a bomb at all; it was a mine with its proper name being ‘Upkeep Mine’. The mine of course was used in the famous and effective dam’s raid which took place on May 17th 1943, as portrayed by the movie “The Dam Busters” where the term bouncing bomb originated.
The mine was of course invented by the wonderful engineer Sir Barnes Wallis. You can find out more about the part played by Lainchburys in the making of the Bomb here
You can read much more about Lainchburys and their war work on my other website entitled Lainchburys of Kingham.
Kingham Home guard 1940-1944
Home guard 1942. Sunday parade. Elevators in the background
The first Home guard 'stand to' September 1940
By May 1940 the German armies had swept through Europe and within a short time had occupied most of it. Britain was on it's own. On May 14th Anthony Eden appealed for men to join the Local Defence Volunteers, later changed to The Home Guard, commonly known as 'Dad's Army'. Many men from Kingham responded to the call. At the start they only had two rifles and ten rounds of ammunition. As the war continued some recruits lost interest so Mrs H.L. Scott offered a cup to encourage them, it was awarded to H.G. Hoverd for the greatest number of attendances.
In December 1944 they wore uniforms for the last time when the No 5 platoon made up of men from Kingham, Sarsden and Churchill met for a dinner in the village hall. The history of Kingham home guard is fully covered in the book Kingham the beloved place published in 1957 by the Alden press and written by E.J.Lainchbury junior.
Last training exercise September 1944
LDV (soon to be Home Guard) making barriers June 1940
The Home guard set up a defence point at Trigmoor turn and a member of the home guard E.J.Lainchbury Jnr relates a story of a disgruntled tramp that was stopped there and refused to give his name or show any ID informing them that the war had nothing to do with him and he wouldn’t care if Hitler did invade. The tramp was held at gunpoint on grounds that he might be a fifth columnist.
A call was made to Chipping Norton police who sent out an officer; who on arrival knew the tramp and told him to B **** off down the road to Gloucestershire and not come back to Oxfordshire.
You can read a comprehensive history of Kingham Home guard in E.J. Lainchburys excellent book about Kingham entitled Kingham the Beloved place
Kingham Home Guard 1940-1944
Kingham Special Policemen
Kingham Special Police force
During WWII some men joined the special Police force rather than joining the local Home Guard unit.
The force included C.E Lainchbury, W. Guy, L Stanway, W Shepard, J Farnborough, G. Collins, R. Terry and G. Jackson.
Centre front in the picture is Charles Lainchbury, his two brothers Ernest and Arthur joined the Home Guard.
They were so effective in their duties and were asked to continue to serve after the war had ended.
(Thanks to Nigel Drinkwater for the photo)