NEWSLETTER 10th November 2018
Forthcoming K&DLHG talk. On Friday 16th November our member Brian Morgan will give us a talk on The History of Moreton Hall at Moreton Morrell. 
The Hall has already featured in a number of our talks, most recently in John Berkeley’s description of its requisition by a unit of the Czechoslovak Field Artillery in WWII. Brian’s position as a long serving member of staff at the Agricultural College, which now occupies the Hall and its estate, has given him an insider’s view of its development, and he has been writing the official history. We have already enjoyed Brian’s original take on hedge laying, with his display of his bonsai laid hedge at our Christmas Treats in 2016.
Report on 19th October talk by John Berkeley entitled the Czechs in Warwickshire in World War II. John began by repudiating the title of his own talk, acknowledging that it should relate to the Czechoslovak Free Army. Using the personal journeys 
of individuals from their villages in eastern Czechoslovakia, John recounted their tortuous routes to England to escape the Nazi persecution about to overtake their homeland. The British military facilitated the evacuation of 4,000 Czechoslovak army volunteers from the south of France via Gibraltar. Once here, as the Czechoslovak Free Army, they moved around the country, training in Scotland, at Cholmondeley in Cheshire, and sent to duties in Seaton in Devon, Leigh on Sea, Lowestoft and Harwich. Their quarters around south Warwickshire included Leamington, Moreton Paddox, Moreton Morrell, Butlers Marston, Walton Hall, and Kineton.
John gave us some surprising (to me at least) information, for instance the ubiquitous Bren gun was designed by the Czech Vaclav Holek in Brno and manufactured under licence at Enfield, hence BR(no)EN(field). The Free Czechoslovak Army seems to have been treated with some circumspection by the British authorities, being assigned mainly to “home guard” type duties, guarding vulnerable ports, and, in this region, guarding crashed aircraft.
However, in 1940 a small detachment of Czech soldiers were secretly trained in Warwickshire by the Special Operations Executive for Operation Anthropoid, a mission to assassinate the SS Deputy Chief Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. Despite setbacks (heavy snow, a parachute jump from 500 feet, and the target area missed by 50 miles) the mission was ultimately successful, although it led to savage reprisals. John’s talk revealed the links between Warwickshire and what Neville Chamberlain called “a faraway country [and] people of whom we know nothing” including John’s own family connections. George Lokuciejewski gave our thanks to John for his illuminating talk on this chapter of our history which showed a glimpse of what we owe to “faraway countries”.
Other Societies’ events
Leamington History Society .Monday 26th November 7.30, Dormer Conference Centre, Dormer Place, Leamington. John Wilmot on The History of Rock Mill, Leamington.
Warwick Market Square Museum, Thursday 
29th November 5.00pm – 9.00pm Victorian Evening and Craft Fair
Warwick Market Square Museum. Thursday 6th December 1.00pm – 1.30pm Show and Tell: Roman Coins 
from the South Warwickshire Hoard, (these are from our local hoard)
Banbury Historical Society, Thursday 13th December, 7.30, Banbury Museum. Carol Anderson FSA Tranks, Slitters, and Fourchettes, the rise and fall of glove making in West Oxford.
Banbury Historical Society, Thursday January 10th 2019 Banbury Museum 7.30, Dr Rowena Archer The Rise and Rise of Alice Chaucer (d. 1475)
Portcullis History, Friday 11th 2019 Hatton Village Hall, 10.00am – 2.30pm Dr John Hunt Edward I and his Welsh Castles
KDLHG Committee Matters.
Our treasurer Richard Hurley is leaving the committee at the next AGM in March 2019, so we have an urgent requirement to find a new treasurer. Please seriously consider this if you or someone you know would be able to take this on.
The next KDLHG Committee Meeting is on Monday the 12th November 2018. As the library is being used as a Green Room by KADS that evening Catherine Petrie has kindly agreed to host the meeting at her home.
DF 10.11. 2018