By Jim Cuming
A little bit of local history. In August 1940, the Cuming family, having lost their home in a bombing raid on London, arrived at Great Missenden and were kindly taken in by local country families at Ballinger and Lee Common.
In 1941 the family were lucky enough to be allocated a condemned cottage at Kings Ash, owned by the Liberty Estate. It was a primitive cottage with earth toilet and oil lamps and was in a dilapidated state. The Estate manager, Mr Harry Jacobs, allowed us to occupy the cottage rent free for six months until the Estate maintenance man, Frank Pierce, could replace some roof tiles and repair broken windows etc., after which a rent of 3s 6d per week was charged (approx. 16 pence in today’s money).
Many visitors
Having secured this accommodation and having many London relations, many of whom were enduring the bombing in London, requests were numerous from aunts and cousins to come to stay for a short break and a safe haven.
In the autumn of 1941, when an aunt and cousin were staying in the cottage, two quite startling things happened. In Swan Bottom cross roads, a small detachment of soldiers in two Nissen huts had been set up. This included a large heavy artillery revolving gun and other equipment.
My aunt, cousin and I were on our way to the local shop run by Mr and Mrs Lovegrove near The Swan public house when an air raid siren wailed and we knew a raid was imminent, but being over 30 miles form London we felt no immediate danger. We turned left at the cross roads when my aunt said she could hear a German bomber aircraft approaching. She grabbed my cousin and me and pulled us towards a large beech tree as a twin-engined German bomber passed overhead at tree top level. We could plainly see the iron cross on its wings and two occupants visible in the Perspex front of the plane. At the same time, a number of soldiers rushed out to man the gun, but by the time they were in position it had gone. We continued somewhat shaken to the shop where Mrs Lovegrove, who had heard the plane’s engines, kindly invited us to the back of the shop where we were given a cup of tea and were treated for shock!
A disturbed picnic
In the afternoon members of my family, together with relatives, all went off to an area called Concord, near Kings Ash, for a picnic and to gather rose hips, as payment could be obtained for them from the Food Office at Chesham. When we reached Concord, my mother and aunt laid out the picnic food whilst my sister, cousin and I collected the hips. Suddenly my cousin Brian called out that he had found some bombs. We all went over to him and saw a small number of metal objects with fins on the ends. We hastily packed up our picnic and raced home.
A job for the police
My mother went to nearby Little Kings Ash Farm, farmed by a Mr Upton, and telephoned the local policeman PC Douglas Lapham at Lee Common. Early in the evening Mr Lapham appeared on his bicycle and went with my mother to look at the objects. Dusk was gathering when they returned and PC Lapham cycled to Wendover to report his findings and to perform police duties as Wendover was his headquarters.
Many years later I learned that he was reprimanded that evening for reporting late for duty and when his Inspector cautioned him, he explained the incident. The Inspector seemed to imply that PC Lapham should have brought the articles to the Police Station! However the following day a unit of bomb disposal personnel attended the scene at Concord and removed what indeed turned out to be high explosive incendiary devices. We never knew from which aircraft they had been dropped but PC Lapham made us feel much safer by his action.