Fanhams Hall in the war years...

Fanhams mysteries of its wartime years 
articles reproduced from the Mercury Hertfordshire 2001

A missing chapter in the history of Fanhams Hall in Ware has been completed by a man who spent two wartime years there as a child. The historic hall was a hospital for children, according to Jim Myers, who was just five when he was taken from his East End family home to Fanhams Hall in 1940. And he believes that as ‘Chaney Hospital' it may even have been a front for a secret base used by high-ranking British officers during the Blitz.

Decades later Mr. Myers, now 65 and living in Sawbridgeworth, felt compelled to search for his childhood home. Mr. Myers said: "One Sunday about nine years ago my wife said: ‘Why don't you look for it?' I found that in Ware nobody had ever heard of Chaney. "Then I found these gates, and I said: ‘This is it.' It was very exciting."

Having finally stumbled upon Fanhams Hall, he could find no-one to confirm that it was a former hospital until years later, when he uncovered crucial evidence. "When my mum died, she left a cardboard attaché case. In it were photos of me she had been given by the press from the London newspapers. I think I spoil every one."

Mr. Myers amazed Fanhams Hall staff by showing them the 1940s photos of himself and others at the site. And this time his story rang true with housekeeper Audrey Want. She explained: "About eight years ago in the Great Hall, I found a picture postcard. It was addressed to a little boy who was staying here in hospital."

The little boy was not Mr. Myers, but the postcard was further evidence that Fanhams Hall was once used for something quite different than the lavish functions it now hosts. The postcard is currently part of the archives kept by Sainsbury's — which owns Fanhams Hall — in Holborn, London.  Mr. Myers remembers little about why he was evacuated from home. "I know I got on a bus and I remember having a label on," he said. But he believes the secrets of Fanhams Hall — then owned by the Page Croft family — run much deeper.

He remembers Lord Gort, commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary force at Dunkirk, living at the hall and being visited by high-ranking officers. "I used to join them at tea parties. I think the Government, knowing Lord Gort lived there, said: ‘Call it a hospital' and rounded up 80 kids. But I was never sick." Dave Perman, a member of Ware Society, discredits this idea but accepts that it was a wartime hospital.  "Most big houses around here were used as hospitals or children's homes," he said.

Interestingly the following week there was the following letter in the Mercury,

I READ with interest the report on Fanhams Hall ("Fanham's mysteries of its wartime years", Mercury, July 27) and the childhood memories of Jim Myers as an evacuee there, as I am writing a book for Ware Museum on the part Ware played in the Second World War.

During my research I have found several references to the 'Chaney Hospital' and the military at Fanhams Hall. The Chaney Hospital was in fact the Cheyne Hospital for Children, which was definitely at Fanhams late in 1941, early 1942 under Matron Miss E M Price SRN.

A report in the Mercury records that "the Ware Rangers and Guides helped out at Western House and at the Cheyne Hospital for Children, evacuated to Fanhams Hall in 1942, for which the girls were especially commended at national level".

Kellys Directory for Ware records that the hospital was at Fanhams in 1943. Two other hospitals were evacuated to Ware in 1941- St Mary's Paddington and Saint Mary Abbotts Children's Hospital, Chelsea. The former went to Western House while Saint Mary Abbotts was billeted at Great Cozens (opposite Fanhams Hall).

A nurse who came to Ware with the patients is still living in the town. She has no recollections of children being at Fanhams Hall when her hospital arrived at Great Cozens. In 1943 an LCC nursery was established at Widbury Mount.

Documents deposited at the Hertfordshire Records Office and in Ware Museum clearly show that Fanhams Hall was used by the military, although not in the way suggested by Mr Myers. Early in 1940 the military in the environs of Ware made arrangements with fire captain Arthur Brazier of the Ware Town Fire Bngade to protect their installations.

Correspondence stamped "Secret" shows that the commander of a supply depot run by the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) at Fanhams Hall wanted to be assured that the town's fire-fighting services would be able to provide adequate cover.

The Parish Defence Plan for Ware prepared by the local Home Guard in 1941 gives the impression that it was a RASC administrative unit.

A chap living at Stanstead Abbotts who, as a boy, started work at the hall as a gardener towards the end of the war tells me that the military occupied the basement area to one wing, which was definitely out of bounds to the hall's employees. No evidence has come to light to suggest that Fanhams Hall was a secret headquarters for Lord Gort.

The remainder of Fanhams Hall was occupied by Lady Ann Brockett throughout the war. Her brother, Lord Croft, was Joint Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for War and frequently returned home at weekends with service guests, one of whom could have been Lord Gort. Another pertinent point is that both Lord Gort and Lord Croft were similar in stature and likeness.

In November 2002 we also received contact from Richard Bament (now living in Australia) "My recollections of Fanham Hall differ slightly from Mr. Myers, I only ever knew of the property as Lord Croft's and was certainly sent there due to ill health, being a severe Asthmatic at the time. I only remember a small number of patients as depicted in your photographs and further supported by lack of anybody in the background of the two attached pictures.

The first is myself with my father and sister, I assume my mother was behind the Brownie Box camera. The second photograph is again myself in a Red Indian outfit that must of come with the family visit and may well have been a birthday present, I was born on 9 March 1936.

I have no knowledge of how I arrived or left Fanhams Hall but was moved to another convalescence establishment run by nuns at Ventnor on the Isle of White and was there for nine months. I returned to Walthamstow towards the end of the war  as I remember the V1 flying bombs and shortly after the V2's - this may help define some dates. "

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