A Che ning Ad nture
VE
Reflections of Hope and Courage
VE
Chapter 5
Waiting in the office, the twins considered the gems that had been buried in the field. They split the work, James trying to get the strange typewriter to function in order to input the numbers from the photo while Sarah attempted to make sense of the letter.
Her eyes rested on the recommendation of Churchill. Of course, Churchill’s House was in Westerham, just a few miles to the West. What if the ‘CH’ stood for Churchill? Suddenly she had a hunch: ‘First Lord of the Admiralty’ – who were the others? Quickly searching using the office computer, Sarah found what she was looking for:
TRH Winston Churchill followed…
TRH James Stanhope!
What if this letter was from James Stanhope?
The 7th Earl’s wife was…. Eileen! It all fit. Flexing her code-breaking sinews, Sarah quickly looked for a 7 letter word that might be ‘Stanhope’ in the cipher text so that she could use substitution to decode the message.
“That’s it! There’s something secret hidden at…”
Suddenly, Sarah was interrupted by the wail of sirens. She scanned the CCTV screen in the office to witness the Bomb Disposal Squad race up the drive. The Colonel must have been worried that the explosive items in the cache were still live.
It is strange to think that after so many years, the devastating explosives of WW2 might still pack a punch. In a few days it would be the 80th Anniversary of Operation Dynamo, when Britain tried desperately to evacuate the BEF from Dunkirk. In her research for school Sarah had found that many ships and boats had been sunk not only by the Luftwaffe dropping bombs, or torpedoes from the U-boats; but also by hitting sea mines. The minesweepers had worked tirelessly to try to clear routes, but little is mentioned of their essential toil in the history books.
Any remaining mines would probably have given in to the corrosive nature of sea salt by now, but not necessarily the unexploded bombs underground. Sevenoaks was on the bombing route to and from London. Then there was the target of Biggin Hill. Kent was known as 'Hellfire Corner' by the end of the war. Even Chevening House had been lucky to escape as a bomb fell through the roof, through the kitchen and into the basement - but fortunately didn’t explode.
​
James started to pack their finds away while Sarah watched the screen’s various feeds intently. The Bomb Squad had set a perimeter and moved the children to the far part of the carpark where Bertie was stationed. A strange caterpillar-tracked robot appeared out of the back of the van.
​
“Wait,” mouthed Sarah without words, as the gate camera witnessed Bertie leaving for safety with the key-worker children securely aboard.
​
“OK – We’ve got to go! Leave the machine but grab the letter,” commanded Sarah.
​
Thinking they had been left behind, the twins raced down the steps waving furiously, only to see Bertie disappear into the distance towards Chevening Cross.
“Perhaps they are heading to church? We can follow and check out the new lead at St Botolph’s. Maybe later we can follow the abandoned railway track at Chevening Halt where the Westerham Flyer Steam train would run towards Chartwell.”
The Children ran past the stables and raced over the bridge and out of sight just as the Colonel arrived at the office to find them missing. He locked the typewriter in the cabinet and picked up the phone..
Out of breath, the children arrived at the church, nestling adjacent to the estate of Chevening House; but the bus and children were nowhere to be seen.
​
“OK look – while we are here, the plaintext said that secret documents were hidden under Lady Stanhope’s protector. The 7th Earl’s wife is buried here somewhere. You look in the church and I’ll try outside.”
​
A rapid search of the graveyard, and the headstone was quickly discovered. The inscription read ‘She spent her life making other people happy.’
​
But there was no protector to be found.
Dismayed, Sarah opened the church door to find James leafing through the abandoned service sheet for the VE day 75th Anniversary. Before all the churches had closed their doors to services the Rector had been planning a service based on the one from Westminster Abbey at the end of WW2.
​
“Look at these,” said James. “Here is a service sheet for VE day. It used part of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration speech. The part about charity to the widow and orphan got me thinking.” He pointed to a fine white marble monument depicting a woman with her child in the Chantry.
James flicked through the pages of a Parish History book. “Then I found this! I was reading the 5th Chapter, looking for clues about the church; but just look what comes next…” James held the book open, showing the Stanhope Family Tree.
“There was more than one Lady Stanhope you know; and more than one James Stanhope too. The 3rd Earl was quite the inventor and way ahead of his time.” He lifted his eyes from Sir Francis Chantrey’s beautiful monument, up the wall, towards the roof timbers. Sarah followed his gaze to see a column from which hung a helmet, gauntlets, spurs and sword. “Protector?” James offered.
​
Quickly James gave Sarah a leg up to reach the gilt armour. Fingers outstretched she tipped the helmet and a small package dropped to the floor. It was wrapped in red and yellow silk standard with CHHQ emblazoned on the top. The children looked at each other and said in unison “Chevening House!”
