THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
 The subtle autumn tints of the Blackpatch Hillside caught by my camera in October 2007. |
LEONARD THOMAS SHEPPARD
Copyright Valerie Martin 2003
A 14 year old Findon boy, Leonard Thomas Sheppard was killed by a mortar one foggy Sunday morning in 1945. He and his friends, Gordon Smith and Gordon Bedson, had found what they wrongly thought was a parachute flare at the bottom of Blackpatch Hill which at that time was an army training ground.
When Leonard attempted to prise it open (some reports say he was sawing it apart) back at New Barn Stables at midday — when it exploded. He was trying to extract the parachute to take the silk home to his mother One of the boys raced home to fetch Leonard's father who then had the task of searching the foot of the hill for the body of his son.
Many incorrect stories were printed at the time about the incident, but the above facts have now been given to me and clarified by Leonard's sister, Mrs W. Ayling (née Sheppard) still living in Findon at the time of writing this.
The late Tony Hammond, a Findon schoolboy at the time of the calamity, always understood that Leonard was trying to take a 2 inch high explosive mortar to pieces. These looked almost identical to the ones which held the parachute flares.
In November 2002, I received more clarification of the story from Barrie Smith —
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15th November 2002.
......I REMEMBER ONE RAINY SUNDAY MORNING WHEN MY YOUNGER
BROTHER AND MY COUSIN WITH A BOY FROM THE FARM WENT ON TO THE DOWNS,
WHICH AT THAT TIME WAS AN ARMY TRAINING GROUND. AND THEY FOUND A BOMB
WHICH THEY TRIED TO TAKE APART; THE BOMB WENT BANG; THE BOY FROM THE
FARM WHOSE NAME I THINK WAS SHEPPARD WAS KILLED AND MY BROTHER HAD SCHRAPNEL WOUNDS TO HIS HEAD AND HAND.
I REMEMBER THE COLONAL DRIVING HIMSELF HOME FROM THE
STATION ONE NIGHT FORGETTING THAT HE HAD SPEED BUMPS INSTALLED IN THE
DRIVE, WHEN HE HIT THE FIRST BUMP HIS BOWLER HAT JAMMED OVER HIS EYES.
BARRIE BARRIE SMITH, FOLKESTONE, KENT.
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16th November 2002. I HAVE JUST READ YOU STORY ABOUT LEN SHEPPARD, MY BROTHER GORDON SMITH WAS ONE OF THE BOYS, HE STILL HAS A SMALL PIECE OF SCHRAPNEL IN HIS HEAD AND ALSO A PIECE IN HIS RIGHT THUMB, THE THIRD BOY WAS MY COUSIN GORDON BEDSON WHO ESCAPED UNIJURED. THEY WERE LOOKING FOR PARACHUTES THAT WERE USED IN MORTAR BOMBS, AS USED AS PARACHUTE FLARES, THEY HAD TAKEN A HACKSAW WITH THEM TO SAW THE BOMB OPEN WHEN THEY HAD SAWN HALF WAY THROUGH IT MUST HAVE SEEMED A BIT TEDIOUS SO LEN STARTED TO KNOCK THE BOMB ON A STAKE, UNFORTUNATELY WE ALL KNOW THE RESULTS.
MY BROTHER WAS BANDAGED UP AND A FEW DAYS LATER THE
LOCAL NURSE DROVE HER CAR UP THE DRIVE TO CHECK ON GORDON AND
COMPLAINED TO MY MOTHER THAT ON THE WAY UP SHE HAD PASSED GORDEN GOING
DOWN ON HIS BIKE WITH HIS FEET ON THE HANDLE BARS.
BARRIE BARRIE SMITH, FOLKESTONE, KENT. |
Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne of Muntham Court had a daughter, Ulrica, and she was out riding her horse at the time of the above accident. She apparently came across the accident during her ride below Blackpatch Hill. She remembered there being three boys and not two involved. They were the two sons of the groom at Muntham Court who were unharmed, plus Leonard Shepherd who was killed. Ulrica arrived back at the mansion very distressed about the whole episode and the children in the household were chivvied away.
Other nasty objects abandoned in the Findon area by the troops were phosphorus grenades. These appeared to be completely innocent squat glass bottles. They had a crimped cap and looked similar to an inviting bottle of ginger beer that could be bought at Winton's shop in The Square. Tony Hammond recalls discovering several crates of these discarded grenades laying in trenches at the top of Church Hill — and guesses they may still be there hidden in the undergrowth.
The late Ron Gardiner who lived in Nepcote shown me the fin from a mortar he picked up. It carried the date 1942 and he found it on the track heading east from Canada Barn below Cissbury Ring. This is a grim reminder that troops were deployed on Cissbury during the Second World War and the surrounding countryside may still littered with the debris.
Obviously, the mortar fin would have been a small boy's collectors' item back in the 1940s and was one missed by the local village lads during their searches on the Ring for wartime memorabilia.
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21st November 2003 Mortars I remember when I was about 13 or 14 yrs old finding an unexploded mortar shell way up at the back of North End with my mate at the time Mervyn Stone we carried up to the top of the nearby hill and threw it off probably thinking it would explode, luckily it didnt. Bloody stupid thing to do. Hindsite is a wonderful thing.
Charlie Costello
Charles Costello, Findon Village, West Sussex.
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Continue if you would like to read The Sheep Fair Returns to Findon After the War — 1947.
This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.
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E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com |
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