Close Encounters of the Hampshire Kind

In the late 50’s and early 60’s, for most school boys like myself, flying saucers were small spherical capsules of rice paper filled with sherbet.

However by the late 60's, with all the tensions from the Cold War and the Space Race, paranoia about new technologies and innovations was at its height.

Further fueled by TV programs such as Quatermass and Dr. Who, the UK was in the grip of UFO fever and not a week went by without multiple reported sightings of saucers, flying cigar-shaped objects and strange lights across the country.

In 1967 alone there were 360 reported British ‘sightings’ nearly one a day, and extraterrestrials were regularly making headline news in the papers and on TV.

Fifty years ago this week, on September 4, 1967, a flying saucer shaped object was discovered on a golf course near Bromley. Within a couple of hours five similar objects had been discovered.

They had big metal domes, emitted a piercing wail and were discovered in the early morning in a straight line, the same distance apart, across the country from the Bristol Channel to the Kent coast.

Believing that alien spaceships had landed the army's southern command, four police forces, bomb disposal units, RAF helicopters and the MoD's intelligence branch were all mobilised in the early hours to meet the threat.

One of the "saucers" was sent to be examined by Home Office scientists at Aldermaston and another was inspected by the chief designer of the guided weapons division of the British Aircraft Corporation.

It was not until a Scotland Yard bomb disposal squad arrived at Bromley police station with orders to check one of the objects with portable X-ray equipment, that “the saucer” was found to contain Ever Ready batteries and the whole episode was exposed as Britain’s most successful UFO hoax after putting Britain on alert for a full-scale interstellar invasion.

The ringleaders, aged just 21 at the time, were a handful of clever, mischievous trainee engineers from the MoD’s Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough in Hampshire. They came up with the idea to raise money for charity as part of the college’s Rag Week. They also wanted to see how the authorities would react if there was an alien invasion, and to find out just how prepared Britain was.

The students built six oval objects, moulded from fibreglass and laced with artist’s graphite to give them an eerie sheen. 

The extra-terrestrial crafts were filled with “alien goo” made from boiled bread dough. Each saucer was fitted with electronic sound equipment which was activated when the saucers were turned over allowing them to be quietly transported during the night to their resting place.

The authorities tried to keep the discoveries a secret, but the hoaxers’ cover was blown by a newspaper reporter who knew the RAE students were renowned for pranks.

At a time before mobile phones or email where the only form of communication was the postal system, telegrams and telephones it was surprising how rapid the official response was, but in true Brian Rix fashion, it quickly descended into farce.

Once the MoD was involved, intelligence staff and a senior unnamed flight lieutenant, later to become a missile security adviser to the Thatcher government, took charge.

The first thoughts in Whitehall were not of an alien invasion but of a Soviet attack thinking the Russians had sent a fleet of robots, possibly loaded with nuclear warheads or chemical weapons, as the first wave of an invasion of the West.

The MoD asked Britain’s radar stations if they had spotted anything unusual the night before, but drew a blank.

Britain’s top intelligence officers and policemen were mobilised and decided to keep the saucers secret, but news had already broken.

A senior London detective arrived at Bromley only to find the police station mobbed with reporters and two TV crews filming the policemen, all happily posing with what might be a Soviet weapon of mass-destruction or an alien spacecraft. The detective exploded with rage.

Intelligence agents with Geiger counters followed from Whitehall and found the saucer was not radioactive. 

By this time the police had already drilled into the saucer discovering the rotting, smelly goo inside and for a while it looked as if Bromley would have to be put into quarantine. 

A Ministry of Defence helicopter was expedited to the Isle of Sheppey “saucer”.

Meanwhile the “saucer in Winkfield which was no longer making any noise was stored in the lost property office of the police station.

To top it all bomb-disposal experts blew up the “saucer” in Chippenham in a controlled explosion.

Had they contained anthrax, smallpox or some deadly Soviet material, never mind alien technology, it could have been a catastrophe.

At the end of a day that just couldn’t be scripted, the RAE apprentices held a press conference admitting their guilt saying they believed that flying saucers would land one day, so they landed their own to give the authorities some practice.

The police and government bodies were made to look stupid and inept and they were furious threatening prosecution. 

However, in the end, they backed down, probably realising that dragging the whole episode through the courts would bring more adverse publicity and subject the Establishment to more ridicule.

The hoax, costing the students £30, exposed the fact that at the height of the Cold War, the British authorities had no idea how to respond to an alien invasion or to an attack by a hostile nation using unconventional weapons.

As a result of all the publicity, the students raised around £2,000 for charity.

"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said.

"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but still they

come!"

Hey Ho!

The Mystery of the Foul Fowl - Prologue

The Year of the Partridge - 1931

Winston Churchill resigned from Stanley Baldwin's shadow cabinet after disagreeing with the policy of conciliation with Indian nationalism.

Oswald Mosley formed the New Party which was to become the National Union of Fascists having resigned from the Labour Party.

The Socialist Government resigned and a National Administration was formed, with Ramsey MacDonald as Prime Minister, as well as including Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain.

English writer Arnold Bennett died of typhoid in London shortly after returning from a visit to Paris, where he drank local water to prove it was safe.

The Highway Code - with motor traffic becoming more and more common the first edition of the Highway Code was issued priced at 1d.

Les Dawson, Lonnie Donegan, Diana Dors and Lionel Blair entered the world.

In America, Al Capone, gang leader and public enemy number one, was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment, and a fine of £20,000 for evasion of the income tax laws.

Nearer home, in Camberley, the population was 13,676, (in 3,406 houses) and a four bed roomed detached house would cost you £1,000.

In Farnborough, Ellen Yeomans left the Fox Inn, where she had been landlady for 20 years. 

As Mrs. Yeomans called last orders for the final time she could never have imagined that she would soon be appearing as a principal witness to one of the most intriguing unsolved murders of the 20th century.

The Cast of Characters

Major George Thompson Trevelyan “Trev” Jackson

Major Jackson qualified as a veterinary surgeon in 1898 and the following year volunteered to serve as a civilian vet for the British Army in South Africa. In 1901 he accepted the post of Lieutenant in HM Armed forces where he remained for twenty years until he left the army, as a Major, in 1921 and set up a civilian veterinary practice in Eastbourne.

Major Jackson had married Mabel Palmer in 1909 but by now, with the long periods away from each other, their relationship had broken down and at the beginning of 1922, with Jackson already involved in a relationship with a young heiress, they separated and started divorce proceedings.

Frances Howard Chevis (nee Rollason)

Frances Rollason was born on March 10^th 1902, the daughter of two extremely wealthy parents whose families were extremely successful industrialists. Her father died on April 16^th 1902 and left his fortune to Frances, held in trust until she reached 25 or was married.

The six week old Frances had become heiress to a fortune worth today at least £16 million.

In 1918 Frances, now a lively, beautiful young lady, moved to Eastbourne with her mother.

Frances entered into a relationship with Major Jackson, a local married veterinary who was old enough to be her father. Very soon Frances, not yet 21, was with child.

Frances moved to a nursing home in Bournemouth where she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Boden “Libby” Rollason on June 4^th 1922. There was no fathers name stated on the Birth Certificate.

18 months after the birth of Libby, on November 19th 1923, immediately after Jackson’s divorce finally came through, Frances, married Major Jackson.

Following a honeymoon in Monte Carlo, her husband gave up his veterinary practice in Eastbourne to concentrate on his sporting activities – he was a regular polo player, huntsman and golfer. The couple settled in Bournemouth wasting no time in having another daughter, Pauline Frances, the following year. In 1927 a son, Peter Hubert Howard, was born by which time Frances had already caught the eye of a dashing, handsome army lieutenant.

With the Major frequently away from home engaged in series of romantic adventures, Frances and the army lieutenant embarked on an affair. 

Frances filed for divorce on June 11^th 1928 alleging that Jackson had committed adultery with four women, two of whom were respectable married women, one the wife of a prominent local doctor.

To avoid the obvious scandal, the couple immediately left town - Frances to her London flat and Jackson moving back to Eastbourne.

The divorce, as was common at that time, was a costly, long drawn out affair with Jackson repeatedly denying the claims of adultery. 

With the evidence against him mounting and his money running out, Jackson finally withdrew his defence and the decree nisi was issued. Frances was granted custody of the three children and costs of £1666 6s 6d were awarded against Major Jackson.

Hubert George "Hugh" Chevis

Hubert George "Hugh" Chevis was born at Rawalpindi which was then part of British India but now is in Punjab Province, Pakistan. His father was a Divisional Judge who went on to become a Punjab High Court Judge and receive a knighthood. Hugh and his older brother William were sent to England to receive their education attending school in Boscombe then Stirling House Prep School, Bournemouth before going on to Charterhouse.

In 1922 Hugh Chevis graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and took up a position as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery.

He was a handsome, popular young officer of great physical strength – it was said that he could pick up a full grown man with his right hand and another with his left. He was an exceptional sportsman having played hockey at club and county level as well as rugby for Woolwich Garrison.

He was also an accomplished horseman and it was horse riding which first brought him into contact with Major George Jackson and his wife Frances (nee Rollason). 

While visiting his parents, who had returned from India in 1923 and settled in Bournemouth, Chevis was introduced to the Jacksons by a mutual army friend. Major Jackson, who kept several horses and a string of polo ponies, invited the lieutenant to ride with him on several occasions. During this time Hugh Chevis and Frances Jackson became infatuated with each other and their relationship blossomed.  

The couple planned to marry as soon as Frances got her divorce but by the time the decree absolute was granted, in June 1929, Hugh Chevis had been posted to India.

On 20^th December 1930, on his return from India, Hugh and Frances were finally married at Chelsea Register Office.

Ivy Thorne

Ivy Blanch Thorne was engaged as a nurse/midwife to Frances just prior to the birth of Peter Jackson in 1927. She remained with Frances after her marriage to Hugh Chevis becoming more of a companion/secretary as well as a live in nanny to Frances's three children residing in Frances's London flat.

Ellen Yeomans (nee Youmans)

In 1908 Ellen Youmans married Albert Yeomans of Cove who had served in the 50th (Hampshire) Company, Imperial Yeomanry during the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa, between 1900 and 1901.

Following the marriage Albert took up the position of licensee of The Fox Inn (Beer House) in what was then called Fox Lane, Farnborough. Assisted by his wife Ellen he ran the pub until he died suddenly on May 10th 1913 from a brain haemorrhage, aged 33.

Ellen Yeomans remained at the Fox, with her two young sons, taking over the licence and running the pub with help from Mrs. Vera Hayes, who also resided at the Fox.

In 1931, with her two sons grown up, Ellen Yeomans left the Fox and moved to Mychett, She took up a position of lady's maid and cook in the household of Lieutenant Hubert Chevis at Blackdown Camp, Deepcut.

Nicolas Bolger

Irish born Nicolas Bolger joined the British army prior to Irish independence.

Gunner Bolger married a local girl, Amy Parker, The couple lived in Lightwater and in March 1931, with his wife expecting their first child, Bolger took up the position of batman for Lieutenant Hubert Chevis at Blackdown Camp, Deepcut.  His duties involved serving at table, cleaning silver and acting as the officers's valet.

The Scene of the Crime - Blackdown Camp

Blackdown Camp much later to become Blackdown Barracks then the Princes Anne Barracks was established in the late 1903 initially to accommodate artillery and infantry.

In 1931, 28-year-old Lieutenant Herbert "Hugh" Chevis, now an instructor in the Royal Artillery, and his wife Frances were living at “D” hut, Aisne Road, Blackdown Camp, Deepcut.

Frances still had her London flat, where the three children from her previous marriage and her nanny/companion, Ivy Thorne, lived. Frances owned a motor car and employed a chauffeur to drive her between the flat and the military quarters in Deepcut. 

The Fateful Day - June 20th 1931

On the morning of June 20^th 1931, Hugh Chevis awoke in his bungalow a contented man.

Not only was Hugh happily married, in good health, prosperous and well-liked by everyone who knew him but he had no known enemies or any notable personal difficulties.

His life was as good as it gets.

The Chevis’s were looking forward to attending the Aldershot Tattoo later that evening, but by the next morning the following events would make headlines in the daily papers.

In less than 24 hours, just six months since marrying the wealthy and glamorous Frances, Lieutenant Chevis lay dead in Frimley Cottage Hospital.  

To Be Continued.

But in the meantime, here is Cab Calloway with his Cotton Club Orchestra performing the top selling song of 1931:

Hey Ho, Hey Ho, Hey Ho!

Stand and deliver............

..... your money or your life!

Last week saw the fiftieth anniversary of the first ATM machine transaction.

On June 27 1967, “On the Buses” star Reg Varney made the very first withdrawal from the world's first voucher-based cash dispensing machine outside the Enfield Town branch of Barclays Bank.

The ATM was the brainchild of John Shepherd-Barron who worked for De La Rue the printer of bank notes.

In 1965, accompanied by his 7 year old son James, he approached his bank in Dorking High Street to withdraw cash and the bank door slammed shut in his face. James recalls that it was the only time he ever heard his father swear. His father immediately said “I can’t allow this to happen! Its Saturday morning, I need cash and the bank door has shut in my face, so let’s make cash available 24 hours a day”.

Later while taking a bath and considering the problem of bank opening hours he conceived the idea for a self-service machine dispensing cash. Shepherd-Barron recalled in BBC interview that he was inspired by chocolate vending machines: "It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, anywhere in the world or the UK. I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash.”

He and fellow engineers at De la Rue devised a prototype and obtained funding.

Later that year, he bumped into the chief general manager of Barclays Bank who was about to have lunch. Over a pink gin, Shepherd-Barron asked him for 90 seconds to pitch his idea for a cash machine.

"I told him I had an idea that if you put your standard Barclays cheque through a slot in the side of the bank, it will deliver standard amounts of money around the clock.

"He said, 'Come and see me on Monday morning'."

Barclays commissioned Shepherd-Barron to build six cash dispensers, the first of which was installed at a branch in the north London suburb of Enfield 1967 with the others rolled out later that year in Hove, Ipswich, Luton, Peterborough and Southend.

It is estimated that today there are over 3 million ATM machines installed throughout the world.

Shepherd-Barron tested the prototype at home with his family initially proposing a PIN length of six digits based on his army number but his wife Caroline complained that six was too many and the longest string of numbers that she could remember was four. 

As a result four-digit PINs were chosen and as ATMs expanded across the globe, this became the world standard.

Back in sixties bank cards bearing magnetic strips were not invented. Shepherd-Barron's early machines used special cheques that were chemically coded by being impregnated with carbon-14, a mildly radioactive substance. Customers placed the cheque in a drawer, the machine detected the material and matched the cheque against a PIN before paying out a maximum of £10 a time which, according to Shepherd-Barron, was "quite enough for a wild weekend"!

For his services to banking as "inventor of the automatic cash dispenser", John Shepherd-Barron received the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 New Year's Honours list. He died on 15 May 2010 after a brief illness at the age of 84 in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Scotland.

I’ll give the last word to a bespectacled Stuart Leslie Goddard (aka Adam Ant)!

Hey Ho!

Holy High Jinks!

On Friday night, 60’s Icon Adam West, best known for his role as the comic book super hero Batman alias Bruce Wayne in the 1960s television series, died at the age of 88 in Los Angeles following a short battle with leukemia.

His first role was in the film The Young Philadelphians which starred Paul Newman in 1959 and his acting career went on to span 50 years.

West was 37 years old and twice-divorced when, after years of small roles, he was deemed to be Batman material after bosses saw him playing a 007-type spy in a Nesquik advert and was offered the role that would define his life.

In 1970, he was offered the role of Bond by producer Albert Broccoli for the film Diamonds Are Forever which he rejected as he believed the role should always be played by a British actor.

But, if you believe what you read in the tabloid press, behind the bat mask was a sex-mad actor who turned to booze when the show was axed.

Caped Crusader star who died on Saturday aged 88 was a 'sexual vampire' behind the mask and turned to alcohol when the show was axed.

He and co-star Burt Ward, who played sidekick Robin, also romped with eager groupies in their dressing rooms in between scenes.

In fact West discovered the only limits to his bedroom bat powers were those caused by his famous costume.

HOLY FAMILY VIEWING, Batman – it turns out the Caped Crusader’s fetching satin pants spent a lot of time on the floor.

Tight squeeze … Adam West covers what co-star Burt Ward called his ‘Bat bulge’!

There’s no doubting that Mr. West had an eye for the ladies and dated many fellow stars including actress sisters Natalie and Lana Wood, and Raquel Welch.

But let’s remember him for those memorable performances on the TV screen, this one with actress Jill St. John:



And let's not forget the villains:



Hey Ho!

Still Blowin' in the Wind

When Mrs. Beatrice Zimmerman gave birth to Robert on May 24, 1941 she could never have imagined, even in her wildest dreams, that he would go on to become one of the most prestigious, prodigious and richest singer song writers of all time. Now aged 76 Bob Dylan is still writing, recording and touring on what he calls “The Never Ending Tour”.

His achievements are best summed in by this extract from Wikipedia:

Bob Dylan is an American poetic songwriter, singer, painter, writer, and Nobel Prize laureate. He has been influential in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when his songs chronicled social unrest. Early songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement. Leaving behind his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone", recorded in 1965, enlarged the range of popular music.

Dylan's lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the song writing of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning more than 50 years, has explored the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and the Great American Songbook. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his song writing is considered his greatest contribution.

Since 1994, Dylan has published seven books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a musician, Dylan is one of the best-selling artists of all time – in 2008 he had sold 120 million albums.

He has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

In 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For me, Dylan’s influence of popular music has been immense. He has written in excess of 500 songs, released 38 studio albums, 11 live albums, 85 singles and 26 notable extended plays.

Whether you love him or hate him, and I know many of you won’t share my enthusiasm, there have been nearly 1500 cover versions of his songs by over 600 artists making him the the most recorded popular music songwriter of all time.

A staggering 63 artists have recorded “Blowin’ in the Wind” closely followed by “Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright” with 50 cover versions.

Many artists have had major hits with Dylan songs early in their careers:

The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man

Jimi Hendix - All Along the Watchtower

Bryan Ferry – A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall

Adele - Make You Feel My Love

Stevie Wonder – Blowin’ in the Wind

Van Morrison and Them - It's All Over Now Baby Blue

Manfred Mann - If You Gotta Go, Go Now

The fact that major international artists from many genres of popular music have recorded his songs  including Bette Mildler, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Bobby Darin, Bruce Springstein, Carl Perkins, Johny Cash, Willie Nelson, Ben E King, Dionne Warwick, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz , Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Harry Belafonte, Glen Campbell, Joe Cocker, Neil Diamond, Nina Simone, Rod Stewart, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Four Seasons, The Rolling Stones to name just a few, demonstrates his extraordinary song writing skills.

There are over 200 albums of entirely Dylan songs including these major artists:

There’s even an internet radio station devoted to Dylan cover songs – Tangled Up in Bob.

On Saturday 15^th July 1978 I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life when I chose not to go just up the road to Blackbushe Aerodrome thus missing the only opportunity I would ever have of seeing Bob Dylan play live, but that is another story!

Here is a selection of my favourite Dylan cover versions in an attempt to demonstrate the diversity of his song writing talents and win over some of you doubters:

And to finish a song by the man himself that IMHO is the greatest pop song of all time, a view shared by Rolling Stone Magazine who, in 2011, voted it Number 1 in their Top 500 Songs of All Time:


Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan from Mr. Harrison on Vimeo.

Sorry about the video but it's the only one available with the original track!

Hey Ho!