On this day in 1941 Flight Lieutenant Hugh Speke DFC died in a flying accident. He is at rest in the village churchyard at Dowlish Wake, South Somerset.

Hugh Speke was a descendant of the noted English soldier and explorer John Hanning Speke who discovered the source of the River Nile.  Speke was born in South Africa on April 14^th 1914, but after the early death of both his parents, William Speke and Gwendoline Constance Speke (nee Maitland), he came to England with his twin sister and brother to be brought up by relatives in Pigdon, Northumberland.

He joined 604 ‘County of Middlesex’ Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, in 1937 and subsequently began full-time service on 24^th August 1939.  On the outbreak of war the squadron was flying the twin-engined Blenheim Mk IF, a not very successful fighter as it was merely a conversion of the Blenheim light bomber fitted with four .303 inch machine guns in a pack under the fuselage.

With 604 Sqn. now operating in the night-fighter role, on the 24^th August 1940 Speke’s Blenheim crashed near Odiham during a night patrol – fortunately both he and his gunner escaped unhurt.  However, before the end of 1940 Speke and his gunner, Sergeant A. K. Sandifer, intercepted and damaged He111s on two occasions.

By the spring of 1941 many of the RAF’s night fighter squadrons were using to good effect the radar equipped Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF.  It was armed with four 20mm cannon and powered by 2 Bristol Hercules radial engines which gave it a top speed of 324 mph at 11,750 feet and a service ceiling of 27,000 feet.

In May 1941 Flt. Lt. Speke was flying a Beaufighter with 604 Squadron from Middle Wallop in Hampshire, an airfield in No.10 Group of RAF Fighter Command.  At 0100 hours on the 4^th he shot down a He111 of 1/KG26 which had just bombed Bristol.  The German bomber crashed in Binford Wood, Crowcombe Heathfield, in Somerset.

On the night of the 7^th/8^th July Speke, assisted by his radar operator Sergeant G.L. Dawson, shot down a He111 of Kgr100 into the sea off Bournemouth.  Twenty-seven minutes later near Lymington he shot down another He111 from the same unit.  The next night he shot down a He111 from 3/KG26 near Lulworth.

On the 26^th July Flt. Lt. Speke and Sgt. Dawson were killed during a night flying test flight in Beaufighter X7548 NG-S.  For reasons unknown the aircraft flew at high speed into Oare Hill near Pewsey in Wiltshire. 

On the 27^th July 1941 Hugh Speke was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for destroying 4 enemy aircraft at night and damaging at least 2 more.

Speke is buried, alongside several of his ancestors, in the churchyard of St. Andrew’s in Dowlish Wake, near Ilminster, in South Somerset. The tomb of his ancestor John Hanning Speke is within the church itself.

The grave of Flt. Lt. Hugh Speke DFC in the churchyard of St. Andrew's Church Dowlish Wake, South Somerset.  

The Church of St. Andrew in the village of Dowlish Wake, South Somerset.

Sadly, Hugh Speke’s brother, Captain William Maitland Speke MC, was killed in action at the age of 35 in Libya on 18^th February 1942 while serving with 72 Field Regiment Royal Artillery. He is buried in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma in Libya.

A visit to Natural England's Barrington Hill National Nature Reserve in South Somerset.

I put some fuel in the car on July 16^th  - the first time since March - and decided to take a run over to Natural England’s Barrington Hill National Nature Reserve.  The entrance to the reserve is on a country road around half way between the South Somerset villages of Horton and Bickenhall – about 4 miles north-west of Ilminster.

There is only enough space for about 3 cars at the entrance to the reserve which is set back off the road, but luckily I found no-one around.  It was a very hot sunny afternoon with a slight breeze so it wasn’t too difficult walking up the quite steep slope to the highest point on the reserve.  The going was firm underfoot – no mud!

Although not especially high the nature reserve has some pleasing views in an arc from the north-east to the south-west.  I think I could make out the church towers in the villages of Ashill and Broadway, and the field patterns on Herne Hill south of Ilminster.  I will have to take some bearings and check the OS map next time I visit.

The view to the south-east from Barrington Hill Nature Reserve in South Somerset.

The view to the south west from Barrington Hill Nature Reserve in South Somerset.

Lots of common knapweed on Barrington Hill Nature Reserve in South Somerset.

Windmill Hill as seen from Barrington Hill Nature Reserve in South Somerset.

The view to the north-east from Barrington Hill Nature Reserve in South Somerset. The church tower in the village of Ashill is just visible on the skyline to the right.

An expedition to Hinton St. George, a village in South Somerset.

On a recent visit to Merriott in South Somerset I noticed a signpost for Hinton St. George so one day at the end of June I decided on a trip there to take some photos of the church and village.  I took a route through the very narrow country lanes from Kingstone, south east of Ilminster.  However, my navigation went awry driving through steep, deep cut lanes, but I found myself at Dinnington and then followed the Fosse Way to Lopen where I turned right onto the road to Merriott.  On the outskirts of Merriott the signpost for Hinton St. George – the one I had noticed previously - directed me along a gently rising country lane to the centre of the village.

The village cross at Hinton St. George in South Somerset.

Maxwell Fraser, writing of Hinton St. George in his Somerset (Great Western Railway Company, 1934.), informs us that: “It was the ancient seat of the Poulett family, who settled there in the reign of Henry I, and whose magnificent tombs enrich Hinton church.  It was one of the Pouletts who became the keeper of Mary Queen of Scots during her imprisonment. There is a fine cross in the centre of the village and a delightful old house known as The Priory.”

Amias Poulett, “the keeper of Mary Queen of Scots”, was ordered to treat her with severity, but instead, while declaring he would kill her rather than let her escape, paid the expenses of her large household from his own pocket.*

Paul Newman in his Somerset Villages (Robert Hale Ltd., 1986) writes of a seventeenth century Poulett:  “John Poulett (d.1649) was a fervent Royalist, in many ways an intemperate and self-seeking man, who was heavily fined for his allegiance after the triumph of Cromwell’s army.  The fact that he was the brother-in-law of the immensely effective Parliamentarian commander General Fairfax might have proven a mitigating circumstance.”

The Pouletts, originally from Pawlett near Bridgwater, held the estate at Hinton until 1968 when the 8th and last Earl Poulett  (b.1909 d.1973) sold up and moved to Jersey.

The Priory, Hinton St. George, South Somerset.

I parked the car opposite The Priory and walked the short distance to St. George's Church where I took some photos and had a look for the three Commonwealth War Graves which are listed as being in the churchyard.  I did find one headstone which looked very much like a CWGC one, but the inscription was, unfortunately, practically indecipherable.

St. George’s Church is described by Arthur Mee in his Somerset, The King’s England (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1968) as having: “. . . a fine tall tower with pinnacles and pierced battlements, and a window on every side to let out the sound of the bells.  The porch has a ribbed stone roof and an old traceried door, and ancient timbers make the panelled roofs of the nave and south aisle.”

The Church of St. George in the South Somerset village of Hinton St. George.

The war memorial is just inside the gates to the east of the church.  It commemorates 18 men from the First World War including Captain William John Lydston, the 7th Earl Poulett, who served for 3 years in the Royal Artillery, and later in the Anti-Aircraft Corps, but died in the 1918 influenza epidemic at the age of 34.*

There is only one name on the memorial remembered from World War Two; that of  Lt. Col. William Murray Leggatt who served in the Royal Artillery and spent most of the war in North Africa. He was awarded the D.S.O. for his part in the Second Battle of El Alamein where he commanded the 11^th Regiment (HAC) Royal Horse Artillery.  When his health began to fail he was posted home to England in May 1944 and given another command, that of 3^rd Royal Artillery Reserve Regiment.  In April 1945 he was sent on sick leave. On the 13th of August 1946, aged 45, he died of a heart attack in the Cavalry Club, Piccadilly.

The war memorial in the South Somerset village of Hinton St. George.

*Robert Dunning Somerset Families (Somerset Books, 2002)