Page 24 - Thrapston Life March 2022

GLANCE
AT THE
PAST
Eric Franklin looks back
At the end of the 1930’s and during WW2 there was a military camp at the Denford Ash turn on the road to Huntingdon. Two recent pictures of the remaining huts taken by Nigel Howe are included in this ‘Glance’, to whom
I give thanks for both the pictures and the original idea for this item. This is essentially a compilation of old newspaper items, each of which is cited. If you have any information about this camp, I should be pleased to hear from you. Nigel remembers his Uncle Dennis Howe, a despatch rider for the R.A.F. going to the camp.
In 1938 it was occupied by the 46th Lincolnshire Regiment T.A. Battalion Royal Engineers who were engaged in anti-aircraft exercises in conjunction with a similar camp on Oundle Town FC’s ground. 48 detachments with ten men in each along with their equipment, including a searchlight and sound detector, were deployed between Kettering and Peterborough for a weekend.
A letter printed in a national newspaper one week before the Second World War started brought widespread fame for one resident.
Daily Mirror Saturday 26th August 1939
“A pigeon that is so tame that he goes into his meals every time “Come to the cook-house door” call is blown on the bugle is in camp with a Territorial Unit at Thrapston.
Not having any boots to clean or early morning fatigues the pigeon is the first to answer the bugle call to breakfast. As the men file in for their meal the pigeon is already perched on a bucket outside waiting for his feed. At dinner, it waits by the fire alarm gong for the men to throw its ration of rice and corn. At tea-time it waits just outside the mess-tent witing for tit-bits whilst after supper it retires to bed in the NCO’s hut.
It has been given an identification number of R.N.R.43 N.U.39. (Believed to be Royal Naval Reserve).
Information submitted by Rifleman H. Rees, Section 9, Headquarters,455th Company 1st Mon T.A. Camp, Thrapston”
Northants Evening Telegraph 11th August 1939
An advertisement was placed seeking a navvy ganger for Thrapston Militia Camp with the contact person named as G Walker Slater.
24