REVIEW OF NICHOLAS BOOTH'S "LUCIFER RISING" : A LESSON TO SLOPPY HISTORIANS

          BOOK REVIEWS BY WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

LUCIFER RISING 

British Intelligence and the Occult in the Second World War

NICHOLAS BOOTH

The History Press ( 2016)

Evan Morgan and Blue Boy

Sloppy History on Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar of MI14

As Evan Morgan’s only published biographer and the author/ co-author of several books on the Welsh peer, occultist and eccentric also known as Viscount Tredegar, I feel obliged to draw attention to some inaccuracies in the book.

Tredegar- as Evan Morgan- is indexed at pages 92-4,171-2 and 337.

My comments arise from research over many years at the National Archives, Kew. Clearly Mr Booth has not consulted the primary documents there as his claims about Viscount Tredegar’s war service do not match the official papers.

The back up of evidence to Viscount Tredegar’s war in a book entitled “ Hush Hush, The Peculiar Career of Lord Tredegar” is also unsound - that book has never appeared anywhere.

Compounding these flaws the result of allying his existing text with genuine official sources makes a mockery of the important service readers, authors, students, researchers and bibliographers depend for veracity’s sake in identifying the contents of relevant files in National Archives and other archives to validate claims made and so merit citation elsewhere.

Mr Booth highlights at page 373 various National Archives files in his research. WO 71/1078 - does mention Viscount Tredegar - but I will cover the factual part of its contents below. He also refers to three KV ( Secret Service) files KV4/229 KV 4/230 and KV 4/231.

I am well acquainted with the KV files series that liberally appear in the text and sources pages. Having checked the original files and my extracts again including one downloadable file from NA’s website, none of these above files mention Viscount Tredegar. This is not surprising as the papers relate (for the period 1945-1953) to proceedings on the “Control and Maintenance of Pigeons” by the Security Services years after Viscount Tredegar had left the army and indeed long after he was dead.

A colleague and I transcribed file WO 71/1078 for ‘Aspects of Evan : The Last Viscount Tredegar’ … a book we wrote about Viscount Tredegar. The book details Tredegar’s Court Martial verbatim, and was published in 2012. At the time of release a copy of the book was given both to the Tredegar House library in Newport ( the seat of the Tredegars now managed by the National Trust) and personally to Mr Booth’s joint collaborator in compiling Viscount Tredegar’s war service.

The WO file 71/1078 relates to the Court Martial of Evan, Viscount Tredegar in 1943 for three offences under the Official Secrets Act. It makes clear that he was held on open arrest at Chelsea Barracks, tried there and found guilty on two of the three charges and “severely reprimanded”. The great advocate Sir Walter Monckton defended Tredegar’s corner making a plea of mitigation saying the Viscount was a product of a dysfunctional family.

Before WO 71/1078 was released for public access in the 1990s no one was certain about Viscount Tredegar’s wartime service.

In 1981 Nigel West, the celebrated spy author, wrote the book “MI5: The British Security Services Operations 1909-1945.” Mr West cautioned that in writing his 1981 book he did not have access to the actual Security files but relied on the testimony of former Secret Service Officers..

Competent historians pride themselves on keeping their findings updated with new emerging information. The same applies for a new book such as this – its sources need to be new or current if the work is to be taken seriously.

Below I offer the facts for the record that quashes most of the erroneous, antiquated references to Viscount Tredegar’s war history in Booth’s book.

The Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport were always a family of characters in search of an author. In the years when Tredegar House was in the ownership of Newport Council, guides relied on snippits from books, gossip and their own invention to tell the story of the House and the family – but things have changed and primary research discredits some of these albeit amusing yet wild, inaccurate tales.

The National Trust who now manage Tredegar House, say they are concerned about misrepresentations and have a plan to stamp them out with a “myth- busting” initiative. I welcome and applaud this.

Because of space and continuity I will confine matters in the remainder of this review to addressing the primary material about Viscount Tredegar’s war using NA file WO 71/1078 and others.

First, it should be noted that Tredegar only spent a few months as the “Officer Commanding Special Section (Carrier Pigeon) Service” based at Wing House, Piccadilly where he had risen to “substantive Captain, Acting Major” in a part of the Intelligence Service known as MI 14.

According to the Court Martial record of April 1943 Viscount Tredegar was appointed to MI 14 in November 1942 and he left the army in May 1943. Mr Booth’s narrative gives the impression that Viscount Tredegar’s war heroics lasted much longer.

However, true to form Viscount Tredegar’s war service in the Second World War was eclipsed – as it was in the Great War - with illness and incompetence. In the World War 2 Evan’s service for King and Country ended in humiliation.

Before November, 1942 Evan is officially recorded in an MI5 surveillance file note in file KV 2/2869 – from 7 October 1942. This gives details of his perverted life style and the dubious personal contacts surrounding him and his Russian wife, Princess Olga. Tredegar is said to be involved “….in connection with carrier pigeons” at Wing House but the informant adds “ He is at present on sick leave” . Tredegar took up duties in MI14 at Wing House a month later.

Booth’s claim is that Tredegar was “ training pigeons to carry secret messages. As a result, he [ the Viscount] was the most exotic employee for MI8....” This is wildly drawn. WO 71/1078 reveals that Tredegar had a lowly job in MI 14. Based on a scrutiny of the Unit’s War Diary file WO 165/38, for MI8, Tredegar was not serving there, although for the sake of being thorough in investigating Tredegar’s dates and postings I discovered the true position when examining file KV 4/10. A few pages there relate to the so called ‘ Falcon (Interception) Unit ’ - that Nigel West first mentioned and claimed a link to Tredegar as being a ‘ keen falconer’. Booth repeats this at page 171.

Tredegar loved birds, he sought to secure legislation in Parliament against killing animals, there is no evidence of falcons at Tredegar House, I conclude he indulged in no such sport as falconry. His name does not appear in file KV4/10, one man only who stands out is the famous Flight Lieutenant Richard Melville Walker – ( incorrectly cited here at page 171 as a “Wing Commander”) whose story is very well told in Ben MacIntyre’s book “ Double Cross” an infinitely better researched work about the use of pigeons, and falcons in war as well as coverage of the goodies and baddies involved in the run up to D- Day.

It is also clear from file WO 71/1078 in Sir Walter Monckton’s interrogation of Sir Russell Wilkinson ( Tredegar’s doctor ) that Tredegar was a patient under Sir Edmund Spiggs at Ruthin Clinic in North Wales in the summer of 1942. This corroborates MI5’s account of Tredegar’s ill health and confirms he was only ever involved in anything within Intelligence circles from November 1942 onwards.

The next silly claim by Booth is that “ Viscount Tredegar actually spent time in the Tower [of London] for an indiscretion that he always claimed came about thanks to Lady Baden-Powell. [and] ..he was arrested after talking about his work to Lady Baden-Powell over lunch and was overheard.”

Tredegar was never held as a prisoner in the Tower of London, such cases of detainment are well documented and his name is absent. Indeed in a published memoir he was to be seen socialising the night before his trial with Richard Buckle (later a notable dance critic), also stationed – as was Viscount Tredegar- at Chelsea Barracks, where according to Sir Russell Wilkinson Tredegar was medically examined on his fitness to plead.

Nor did Viscount Tredegar inform Lady Baden- Powell of anything secret nor is it true to say she ‘ sought to see him brought to account’.

All this is tittle- tattle copied from Nigel’s West book on MI5, written some 35 years ago in 1981 before the Freedom of Information Act and the liberated release of personal and Security files.

These fossilised offerings in the book are therefore more than three decades old, they have been embellished too but more to the point the material has been superceded. West’s text was also overtaken in the 1990’s by the release of the true events in Viscount Tredegar’s Court Martial evidence and our books on Lord Tredegar from 2012 onwards that have sold hundreds of copies, and are available for researchers in the legal deposit libraries.

The Court Martial file shows Viscount Tredegar’s main wartime responsibility was to ensure that pigeons were bred and available for use by MI 14 including in operations abroad, the actual direction of the home and foreign operations being the responsibility not of Viscount Tredegar but of others in MI 14. Tredegar was also involved in the development of the so called ‘questionnaire’ that was put inside the message containers that were attached to the carrier pigeons. It was all otherwise work that although essential and secret was not operational.

In the case of the reference in the book to “..an indiscretion….a couple of years later [ to] a Group [of Girl] Guides on a tour of his office when he showed them various items from his safe which he shouldn’t have done..”

This is out of time and at variance with WO 71/1078. On the charge sheet – and Court transcript there is only a mention of Lady Baden -Powell watching a pigeon display from the rooftop of Wing House, Piccadilly on 15 March 1943 and the file records “then she went away”.

The reference in the book to Tredegar revealing “far too much about his war work during a talk he gave at a hotel in London “ is also spurious. The basis of the charge for careless talk were remarks made by Tredegar to a group of pigeon breeders in Ipswich.

There were two Girl Guide ‘Leaders’ Viscount Tredegar met on the same day as Lady Baden -Powell was visiting Wing House. The disclosures to these two young ladies are the subject of another charge allied with two female subalterns ( who were witnesses) but were not named in Tredegar’s charge sheet. The Guides are named in the statement by Tredegar to the Court :

“I told the Girl Guide leaders [ named Nora McIntyre and Helen Margaret Isherwood ] on 15 March 1943 that the green message containers were used in connection in the pigeons bringing back information from occupied territory.

Incidentally these containers were not in a safe but a drawer in Viscount Tredegar’s Office he shared with another officer who had operational duties.

The Guides, their leaders and other influential ladies in the Guide movement were being given a special treat in part to encourage their fathers to consider breeding pigeons for the war effort and as a ‘thank you’. Guides were amongst those trained nationwide to rescue injured or stray pigeons ( especially those found with small canisters/containers attached to their legs– carrying messages) and to ferry these to Police Stations. The Police then contacted MI 14 for retrieval of the bird and its precious container.

Turning to the references about the map in Tredegar’s office. The actual map referred to in the book can be examined in National Archives file WO71/1078 as it was an exhibit in the Court Martial.

The description in the book is absurd of “ a gigantic map of Europe ( Bomber Command –style) with pins which indicated where pigeons was being dropped, which also in another account, revealed where the Dieppe landing was being planned.”

The last point first. The famous raid on Dieppe of August 1942 took place several months before Tredegar joined MI14 He did meet Signalman Taylor, the famed Canadian hero of Dieppe who released two carrier pigeons with news of the ill- fated raid in which over 900 of his countrymen lost their lives and many more wounded or captured. In February 1943 Taylor was invited to join an MI14 Public Relations exercise at Wembley Stadium ( during an England v Wales soccer match) when the RAF “ released six containers [ of pigeons ] in parachutes. Once the containers had fallen to the ground, Taylor released the birds, which carried messages supporting the Wings for Victory campaign.”

Otherwise for truth and history’s sake WO71/1078 records the fact in Tredegar’s own statement to the Court when he declares :

“I have in my office a map showing England and part of the continent. This map has a number of coloured pins affixed to it. Those in England indicate the pigeon lofts in this country and those on the continent were affixed by a Dutchman a Mr Ray who had recently escaped Holland.”

Although there are numerous other points I could make towards correcting inaccurate, contrived and far fetched statements on Tredegar and his family’s personalities and his relationship with the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley, this review is already long enough.

The history of Viscount Tredegar’s war may or may not be essential to the general reader. It will I hope have some value to good researchers who follow this subject and those who expect accuracy, truth and integrity in historical works.

As for Mr Booth and his publisher if they are concerned enough to present the precise history of Evan Tredegar’s war then should they have any further edition of    “ Lucifer Rising…” planned including a paperback they may gain some respect by expunging the devil’s work in the current hardback edition.

William Cross, FSA Scot

Enquires - email Will

williecross@aol.com

Copies of  " Aspects of Evan: The Last Viscount Tredegar" are available from Will.

  

 

Forgotten Scribes : John Keir Cross : 19 August 1914 - 22 January 1967

 

Writer & Scriptwriter

John Keir Cross

A Forgotten Scribe 

1914-1967

John Keir Cross was an author of adult fantasy and horror stories. He also wrote many books especially for children. In addition he wrote and adapted stories for radio, famously working for several years as the  main scriptwriter  on “ The Archers” – for  BBC Radio- a programme still going strong today.

John also wrote the script for the first episode for Dr Finlay’s Casebook for TV and was a regular name as an adaptor of  Stevenson’s children’s classics, “Treasure Island”, and “Kidnapped”, for radio and TV. 

Born in Carluke, his childhood years were spent there and in Perth  in Scotland where  he became a well- kent children’s entertainer , with a remarkable feat for ventriloquism. But his job was in insurance and he soon tired of its boredom and routine. 

Son of Hugh Anderson Cross ( a school dentist)  and Lizzie Birch, there was a brother Harry who was lost at sea in WW2 and a brother David who established a large Cross clan in Glasgow and Dunbartonshire.

In 1937 John famously walked from Perth to London, with rucksack and frying pan dangling  from his back,  to seek fame and fortune and wrote an early autobiography telling of this  eventual trip, called “ Aspects of Life”, later appearing on the radio’s popular show, “ In Town Tonight”  to repeat the story of his epic journey where he was arrested en route for a murder.

John was  an  early pioneer of radio for the BBC and helped set up  the BBC studios in Glasgow in WW2 , where he became a regular Saturday night broadcaster, whilst secretly working for the Ministry of Information and was an unsung amongst  many scribes who hit hard  for the war effort behind a typewriter or a microphone.

John also wrote under the name of Stephen Macfarlane.

His fantasy titles include “ The Man in Moonlight” (1947), “The White Magic” (1947) and “The Dancing Tree (1955).  His historical tales include “ The Owl and the Pussycat (1946), “ The Other Side of Green Hills ( 1947).

As Macfarlane John  produced a series for younger children including “ The Blue Egg” (1944, “Lucy Maroon, the Car that Loved a Policeman” (1944, “Mr Bosanko and Other Stories” ( 1944) and “The Strange Tale of Sally and Arnold” (1944).

His stories for adults include  “ The Other Passenger: 19 Strange Stories ( 1944). Look out for the  1961 reprint with surreal full-colour illustrations by Bruce Angrave (1912-1983).

One reviewer says  "The Other Passenger" is an excellent Doppelgänger tale, and "The Glass Eye" one of the better Ventriloquism tales, though only "Clair de Lune" and "Esmeralda", both Ghost stories, are unequivocally supernatural…”

The Glass Eye”, was adapted for the Alfred Hitchcock TV series with Jessica Tandy as a lonely woman smitten with a ventriloquist, and also starring a very young William Shatner.

John anthologies include “Best Horror Stories” (1957), Best Horror Stories 2 ( 1965) and Best Black Magic Stories ( 1960).

Some of his other television work includes two episodes of the series “Sir Francis Drake” in 1962, a couple of “made for television” movies as well as adaptions of John Wyndham's “The Kraken Wakes”; Charles Dickens' “A Tale of Two Cities” and “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s adult romp,  “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.

John Keir Cross died  today, on 22nd January, in  1967 . He had a  working farm called “Brushford” in Diptford, Devon, where he authentically wrote his work for BBC's “ The Archers”.  59 years ago this week many of  his BBC colleagues descended on "Brushford" to see how John intended the storylines of " The Archers" to pan out.

He was the sole writer. A lesson was learned that scripts for programmes should be generated by a team of people. 

John's  widow Audrey survived him and there were several children.   

William Cross, FSA Scot

( A cousin )

More information : contact williecross@aol.com

SOME COVERS  ETC OF JOHN'S BOOKS 

 

The Notorious Mitfords : A Talk From Tom's Biographer, William Cross, FSA Scot

 

“The Notorious Mitfords”  

Above: Unity, Tom, Deborah, Diana, Jessica, Nancy and Pam 

A Talk By William Cross, FSA Scot

Cwmbran, South Wales: 21 January 2026

The six famous Mitford sisters  led notorious lives in feats of scandal,  love, adultery, divorce and  following fascism as part of the 20th century's greatest  high jinx tales, and real  history and folklore.  No one  was allowed to ignore the Mitford clan. They are still talked about. The TV drama series called  “Outrageous” is  a word that sums them up perfectly.

 

The girls were Nancy (1904-1973), a writer, Pamela  (1907- 1994), ( Rural Miford ), Diana ( 1910-2003 ),  who deserted her first husband for the dangerous Oswald Mosley), Unity ( 1914-1948)  ( who pursued Adolf Hitler), Jessica (1917-1996),   (a Communist, a writer, & who became an American citizen), and Deborah, ( 1920-2014) , the youngest of the tribe who became Duchess of Devonshire & chatelaine of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.  There was one boy in the  line up,  third born, Tom, ( 1909-1945). He was not a headline seeker like his sisters, but a barrister, soldier and talented concert pianist.  Yet, he is as controversial as his sisters with a mangle of  love tangles & affairs involving both sexes. A handsome devil with a passion for married women.

 

The Mitford parents were minor British aristocrats.   David Freeman-Mitford ,  the  2nd Baron Redesdale  ( known to his children as "Farve" ) and his wife  Sydney Bowles ( known to her children as “Muv”).  They married, for  love, in 1904, but it was a underlying  business deal. The  Great War affected David’s position as the family’s “spare” after his elder brother was killed in action and so he became the Redesdale heir on his father’s death in 1916.

 

One  Mitford ancestor was a Lord Chancellor of England, another a notable traveller in Japan, who was a well known landscape gardener designing several Royal Estates for King Edward VII.   The Bowles family were sailors, Sydney’s father  was an  MP and publisher of  magazine titles including“ Vanity Fair” and “ The Lady”  .

 

Childhood for the Mitfords was in London and after the Great War, they lived in a succession of properties mainly in the Coltswolds. The countryside offered  a safe but fragile upbringing, with many madcap rituals, overseen by Muv,  nannies and governesses.    Money was tight but despite this it was remembered mostly with affection, although Nancy and Jessica  published critical accounts of their childhood. Each thought Muv was unloving and harsh and Farve a bully. Tom  was indulged by his parents and often resented by his sisters as he always got whatever he wanted.

 

Farve was an upright figure, a farmer/squire &  Peer, eccentric,  a stickler for rules, one being that girls should not be educated at  any school, only at home.  Tom however the family heir was  sent to preparatory and public school.  Muv was a curiously hands on character, with rules on food, health, based on her own upbringing with a ban on pork and shellfish and bizarre beliefs  that the good body did not need any  medicines, the good body would eventually  heal itself,  Muv  was a watchful wife and kept Farve from straying into the arms of other women, but he flirted with several domestic staff. Later, he had  a mistress whom he lived with for many years,  separating from Muv in the 1940s.  He died at Otterburn,  a Mitford homestead in Northumberland in 1958. Muv survived until 1963, and died in Scotland. Farve, Muv and four of the sisters, Nancy, Pam, Unity and Diana  are all buried at St Mary’s Churchyard, Swinbrook, a Mitford heritage site.  A memorial to Tom is also to be found inside the Church.

 

Farve  admired Muv’s ability with housekeeping budgets,  seeing that all six girls were prepared for presentation  at Court as debutantes and experienced foreign travel. The idea being that this route would find them husbands. The girls had they own ideas and each of them were a trouble to their parents  all their adult years.  Tom  was   Farve’s pride and joy. And Tom  was also always there for his sisters, despite their  many antics at home and abroad  and choice of husbands and lovers and friends and politics.  When troubles hit hardest Farve bought a Scottish Island, Inch Kenneth,  near Mull, which became the family’s refuge. Tragedies hit the Mitfords hard. Tom was killed in 1945  fighting the Japanese. Unity was reduced to a child like creature after attempting suicide and this led to her early death in 1948. The other girls lived to old age.

 

Will Cross  has made a close study of the Mitford clan  for a biography entitled  “ TOM MITFORD : A FEARFUL OLD TWISTER” & written  articles for the Mitford Society Journal.  He  is a writer and lecturer based in Newport,  a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.  Will’s  e-mail for enquiries on books/talks  williecross@aol.com

LINK TO EBAY

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205914483358

 

 

ANGUS McBEAN : SECOND COMING : AT ART ON THE HILL, NEWPORT, SOUTH WALES

 

ANGUS McBEAN’S SECOND COMING

IN ART ON THE HILL : ST MARKS CHURCH 

NEWPORT, SOUTH WALES NP20 4PH

SAT 29 NOVEMBER –SUN 30 NOVEMBER

12pm-5pm

FREE ENTRANCE

ST MARKS CHURCH NEWPORT NP20 4PH

ANGUS McBEAN ORIGINALS FROM THE PERSONAL COLLECTION OF WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

SOME THEATRE ICONS

PHOTOS ON  BACK ROW :   NAMES  OF ACTORS/ ACTRESSES AND SETTING

PAUL ROGERS, (1917-2013),  in “JB’,  by Alexander Macleish  at the Phoenix Theatre,  London, 1961.

VIVIEN LEIGH, (1913-1967), in 1955,  as Viola   in Shakespeare’s  “ TWELFTH NIGHT” .

LAURENCE OLIVER,  (1907-1989 ) as  “ Titus Andronicus”  Stratford,  1955 Season.  

RICHARD BURTON, (1925-1984 ), as King Henry  V at Stratford Memorial Theatre, 1951.

PATRICK LUDLOW, (1903-1996). Best known for his roles in Noel Coward Comedies.

PHOTOS IN MIDDLE ROW : NAMES OF ACTORS/ACTRESSES AND SETTING

OKLAHOMA’. DRURY LANE, LONDON. 1948.  Howard Keel ( 1919-2004) as “Curly”.

DONALD SINDEN, (1923-2014),  as “JB’  at the Phoenix Theatre , London,  with  CONSTANCE CUMMINGS, ( 1910-2005). 

DONALD SINDEN, (1923-2014),  as “JB’  with PAUL ROGERS, ( 1917-2013),  as Nickles, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1961. 

Two Unknown Players in a Kodak reproduction. May be MICHAEL GOODLIFFE (  1914-1976) and ROSEMARY LEACH ( 1935-2017)  c1961. Kodak Image. found in a junk shop.

Appearing left to right   RODDY MAUDE –ROXBY (born 1930 ),  DONALD SINDEN,  (1923-2014),   GEOFFREY CHATER, (1921-2021),  &  FELIX FELTON,  ( 1911-1972), “ JB”, London. 

PHOTOS ON BOTTOM ROW: NAMES OF ACTORS/ ACTRESSES AND SETTING

Actress/ Fashion Icon AUDREY HEPBURN ( 1919-1993)  Poster Girl.  c 1950 Audrey in an  advert for LACTO-CALAMINE.

A Personal Christmas Card  Image from Angus and his partner David Ball to a friend, Marika. The message  reads “ For Marika Happy Christmas Love Angus and David”.

From 1936, Actors  IVOR  NOVELLO ( 1892-1951)  and MARIUS GORING ( 1912-1998)  in the play   “ The Happy Hypocrite” ,  HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE, LONDON. 

VIVIEN LEIGH,  (1913-1967), as Blanche de Bois in  Laurence Olivier’s English  Premier production of “ STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE”, in 1950, at the Aldwych Theatre, London.

GERALDINE McEWAN, (1932-2015) , in 1954,  as Annie in  “For Better, For Worse”, Comedy Theatre, London and on UK Tour. Studio Photograph by McBean.

QUENTIN CRISP, (1908-1990). Raconteur, Author and art model. Lover of  McBean in the 1930s.  The 1968 cover for Crisp’s  memoir “ The Naked Civil Servant”  is based on a photograph by Angus  McBean.

BEATRIX LEHMANN, (1903- 1979) Actress.  Studio Work,  London, 1938.

IVOR  NOVELLO,  (1892-1951) : Playwright  & Actor.  1930s.   Studio  Portrait. Portsmouth.

IVOR NOVELLO,  (1892-1951):  2nd image (c1930s) Studio Portrait. Portsmouth.

FRASER CAMERON LOWDEN, ( 1932-2003). Producer & Actor. Worked with Angus  McBean  in the 1958 Manchester production of “ WEST SIDE STORY”.

Further information/ contact William Cross on email

williecross@aol.com

BRIEF LIVES: GEOFFREY GOMER DAVIES: 1908-1954

 

BRIEF LIVES: GEOFFREY GOMER DAVIES: 1908-1954

ACTOR AND THEATRE OWNER WITH DAVID LAMBERT

Geoffrey Gomer [Davies] was born in London  on 7 February 1908 and died today on 4 November 1954 at Dartford in Kent.

His father was Robert Cropley Davies , ( 1874-1941),  a  solicitor, his mother, Ethel  Beatrice Woolf ( 1878-1952),  was a Yorkshire lass.  The family home  with several siblings, was first at Gerrards Cross and Geoffrey later moved to Hartford, near Dartford.

He was educated at Lancing College, West Sussex,  and became an army cadet, he later joined the Territorial Army and he was also a Police Reservist.

As “ Geoffrey Gomer” he made a name for himself  as a stage  actor and stage manager  with  his  close friend and business partner, David Lambert, whose family was based in Lewisham, South London.

                              The Richmond Players

The Gomer/ Lambert combo thrived  for many years, with weekly rep played out at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln and  The Scala, Dartford.  As the “Richmond Players” they toured the country  in a number of shows, including Emlyn Williams’ drama “ Night Must Fall”, the screw ball American comedy        farce “ Arsenic and Old Lace” and Noel Coward’s “ Hay Fever”. 

                             Where the Rainbow Ends

In the 1930s, a notable role for Geoffrey as an actor was to play St George for four years at the Holborn Empire in “ Where The Rainbow Ends”,  a favourite Christmas children's entertainment.

In 1932 Gomer received rave notices for his performance in an epic show,  “ Miracle at Verdum”, a war parable  staged at the Embassy Theatre, London.

He also co-starred  at the Apollo Theatre, with stage luminaries Sybil Throndike and Marie Tempest in “ The Distaff Side” and with Ellen Pollock and Leo Glenn in “ Beggars in Hell” at the Garrick Theatre, in 1933.

             Geoffrey the Broadcaster in Rome in WW2

During the Second World War Geoffrey was a prominent radio producer and front man for the BBC, broadcasting at ‘pop up’ stations throughout Europe. He was later on the staff of  the BBC’s Light programme department. He also formed the Geoffrey Gomer Agency, providing freelance news services.

After demob from the army he joined up with fellow actors  David Lambert (1916-1979)  and Kenneth Cleveland (1920-2004),  with a season at the little Torch Theatre at Hyde Park Corner, in Knightsbridge. Their first presentation was Jack Alldridge's war story, set in Italy,  “All This Is  Ended”.

 Geoffrey later appeared in an early live recorded  BBC TV film,  of  "All This Is Ended"   the play produced  at the Torch, about the affects of war and  "Without the Prince"  ( 1947)  another BBC production,  an adaptation of a stage play by Philip King, a farce set in a rural English village. 

In the 1950s, despite  success and popular support  Goeffrey and David's beloved  Richmond Players were hit hard with financial problems, worries over the lease of  the 900 seat  Scala Theatre at Dartford.  

Scala Theatre, Dartford ( now closed)

These two bold and brave theatre men tried to keep a brave face on things, forming a Theatre Club but other factors were beyond their control.

The last shows  at Scala in the mid 1950s remain the last legacy of  Geoffrey Gomer and  David Lambert.

https://theatricalia.com/place/64y/scala-theatre-dartford-dartford

But  the much  greater sadness was over the uncertainty created by the deterioration in Geoffrey’s health  and this brought  its own dire climax.   

  Geoffrey Gomer Davies Grave at All Saints, Hartley

The end came suddenly, Geoffrey died  at  the early age of 46, with so much left to do. He was buried at All Saints, Hartley, where a small gravestone ( much weathered by time) can be found.

Another of the very great what might have beens.

 

William Cross, FSA Scot

4 November 2025

For more information, contact Will by email.

williecross@aol.com

For more information contact Will 

 

Remembering Lt. Hon. Simon Fraser: Gordon Highlanders: Killed in Action 29 October 1914

 

                        

                              Hon. Simon Fraser (1888-1914)

                                 KILLED IN ACTION TODAY  29 OCTOBER 1914

                          A WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

The photograph of Simon, above, is from Charterhouse School. [1]  The only surviving photograph of  Simon otherwise is as a young boy. [2]   Alas, no photograph survives of him  in the Gordon Highlanders Museum Collection.

Hon. Simon Fraser, 2nd Lieutenant 3rd Battalion (attached to 2^nd Battalion) Gordon Highlanders was  killed in action on  29 October 1914. [3]  He is remembered on Panel 38 Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.  Son of 18th Baron Saltoun and Lady Saltoun, of Philorth, Fraserburgh, Aberdeen. Several of  the sons of the Saltouns served in the Great War.  [4]

Simon was born on 7 September 1888, educated at Winton House, Winchester (prep school) and Charterhouse School, Godalming. He took up a business career in the City of London with Greenwell & Co, and in 1912 became a member of the Stock Exchange.  He was gazetted a 2^nd Lieut. 3^rd Gordon Highlanders 7 September 1914.  Served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders. Later attached to the 2^nd Battalion of the Gordons.

Simon had everything to live for, handsome, sporty, a talented young man, like so many that were killed in battle in the Great War.  A what might have been, had he been spared. In the last year of his life he was often seen in the company of Hon. Gwyneth Ericka Morgan, ( 1895-1924), a childhood and family friend, they enjoyed each other's company at dances, balls and weekend jaunts to house parties.

Lieut. Col. H P Uniacke, commanding the 2^nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders, wrote on 3 November 1914: “It is with the deepest regret that I write to tell you that poor Simon was killed .... when fighting a difficult rear guard action. Willie [5] (Simon’s younger brother) buried him in the morning of the 29 October in the grounds of an old chateau.”

  

A fellow officer, 2nd Lieut. Peter Duguid, adds: “Simon and I were with our platoons in a trench on the left of the Gordons’ position. The Germans came up on our left and drove back the troops there, and we had to take up new positions as we were enfiladed by a machine gun. In doing this I got a bullet through the flesh of my right arm. When we had time, Simon put on a field dressing for me, and also attended to two of his own men who were hit. We had to fall back to the village of Zandvoorde, where we helped to organise the men. About noon Simon very gallantly carried a box of ammunition to a machine gun over an open field under fire. I  rejoined him later and we took cover in a ditch during some very heavy shelling about 2pm. He had offered me a drink of water and had changed his position to further down the ditch when a shell burst near him and though I ran to him at once there was nothing I could do. I am sure he did not suffer.  I shall always think of his cheerfulness and fortitude whatever had to be done, He had an extraordinary aptitude for the work, and all his men liked him.” [6]

Ypres -Menin Gate Memorial

EXTRACTED FROM "THE MORGANS OF TREDEGAR HOUSE GREAT WAR ROLL OF HONOUR": BY WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

CONTACT THE AUTHOR  FOR FURTHER DETAILS

williecross@aol.com

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[1] Provided by Mrs A C Wheeler of Charterhouse School in 2008.

[2]  Enquiries were made in 2008 to establish whether a photograph of  Simon Fraser  survived in his family.  His niece [ the late]  Lady Saltoun was  approached by e-mail.  This is her reply of 6 January 2008. “Dear Mr. Cross  I should love to help you but I think you know more than I do about Uncle Simon's life.  The only photos of him extant in the family are photos of all four brothers aged from c.9 down to 5,  playing at Philorth, which are in the family album,  and I am not quite sure which is Simon and which is my father! They were very close in age. The family album is at Cairnbulg Castle,  Fraserburgh,  AB43 8TN,  which now belongs to my eldest daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Nicolson.  I don't for a moment suppose that a possible photo of him as a small boy is quite what you had in mind!    In the unlikely event that it is,  I am sure my daughter would let you send someone to photocopy the photos,  in that case you should write to her direct,  at the address I have given you. Yours sincerely, Saltoun”

[3] Simon Fraser was killed on 28 October 1914 and buried by his brother Hon. William Fraser (serving also in the Gordon Highlanders, 6^th Battalion) on 29 October 1914.

[4] Lord Saltoun’s eldest son, Alexander, The Master of Saltoun (1886-1979) (from 1933 20^th Lord Saltoun)  was also a Lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders and was taken prisoner after the Battle of Mons. The 2nd son, the Hon. George Fraser (1887-1970)  (later a Rear Admiral)  was a Lieutenant  in the Royal Navy in the Great War.  The 4^th Son, William Fraser (1890-1964), also in the Gordons.

[5] William Fraser ( 1890-1964). A British army officer in both world wars. Reached the rank of Brigadier.

[6] Extracted from the book “  Menin Gate South: In Memory and In Mourning” By Paul Chapman, Pen and Sword (2016).