THE AUTHOR of this new, revealing China Mail Satur day series. Inspector Thompson, à former Scotland Yard man, went with Mr Churchill everywhere, even to the most secret meetings. +
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1961.
BEGINNING TODAY
T
on
I Was Churchill's Shadow
But for the last fifteen years of my service as a detective I had been Mr Churchill's personal body
if guard, and
the
"Old Man" wanted me that was good enough.
So I was at Croydon Aerodrome the next after-
Kent.
-
137
By Ex-Inspector WALTER HENRY THOMPSON
A
of
50.
all
remain-
And as we entered the ganten
said In a kindly volce, "They have to do something to get a little copy, you know,"
His voice was not always no In the first two months of the
in pleasant those war he did manage to take an weeks of the war.
strenuous be
first forw We made
HE telegram arrived noon, full of excitement Then, on Saturday, August 26, sudden movement, the gun slip- As he was leaving for dinner from the Admiralty to Downing
August 22nd, and curiosity. The Paris 1930, a. state of emergency was ped from its moorings and shot that evening he turned to me Street when a photographer ap
declared. In accordance with me in both legs).
with one of his beaming smiles peared near the back-garden 1939. It was terse. plane came In, and out the agreement I made when I But Mr Churchill had to a smile, which, lights up his gate of No. 10. like all his urgent bounced Mr Churchill. He retired, reported in London for walk about in the open among whole face with pleasure and This was a forbidden spot for cornmands: "Meet
me was looking fit and full of duty as a police officer..
crowds, I would usually keep warms
who ace it. He pictures, and I was just worn- Croydon aerodrome 4-30 energy as usual, but his
When I got back to the shop my revolver in my overcont said:
ing the cameraman off when p.m. Wednesday- CHUR-, expression was grim.
at Norwood the telephone was pocket, with a ready hand on
"Thompson, you are
Winston tumed and saw him. CHILL." It was a strange
ringing. I pleited up the re- the butt, He smiled when he saw ceiver. It was the Old Man In the week before the war, have arranged
ing with me permanently. I "Do you want to take a photo- order for a grocer. For I me, and I waited for some himself.
Mr Churchill, although only a Commissioner,
this with your graph?" he asked.
Sir Philip was no longer
"What are you going to do back-bencher, Detective, explanation of the
"Yes, please, sir," answered sum- now, Thompson?" he asked.
was continually Game." Inspector Thompson,
the cameraman. of mona. But all he said was:
in conference with politicians I answered that I was due at and experts of all kinds, and wo
Mr Churchill turried and Scotland Yard.. I had re- "Hallo, Thompson. Nice to Marlborough-street for uniform moved
I was as pleased on Mr Chur- posed.. I said continually between chill obviously
to him: tired from the Force in ace. you. Get the baggage duty the next day.
Chartwell and his London flat
was, and said thought photographers were 1936, and the following together and bring it on about that," said Mr Churchill. Westminster Cathedral.
"You don't want to bother In Morpeth
Mansions, near It was back to work with n
forbidden here, sir.”
"Ah, well," came the answer, year opened a grocery to Chartwell."
vengeance. The Old Man, as with He business
"I have already been through to Beulah-hill,
that irresistible boyish ut
in the flat with Mrs we of his personal staff aftec- rin, "after all he is one of Was And with that he was gone. the Commissioner. You will Churchill on the morning Norwood. I was in the shop
tionately call him (although I God's children, Thompson," I got the baggage and followed now come to me officially." September 3 when war was de myself frequently referred to when I opened the tele- In the second car down to Chart-
And 50,
a week before the clared. As soon as the first alr him AS "Father"), well Manor, gram.
Mr Churchill's war broke out, I was back at raid warning
spared sounded, im- os Winston Char- mediately after Mr Chomber-
neither himself, his colleagues of No. 10 he turned to me and. nor his subordinates. country home near Sevenoaks in my old job
chill's shadow. It was a return lain's broadcast speech, Mr On the way I remembered the to a familiar, if hectic and un- Churchill stalked to the en- last time I had been at Chart- orthodox routine. And it was a trance of the fixts and stared well. That was in April, 1939, return to duty for a friend. up into the sky, like a war horse when I had gone to see Mr Chur-
scenting battle. chill on a private business mal-
It took some time to persunde odd week-end's relaxation at 1er. At the end of our conver-
When I had first become Mr him to go to the air raid shelter. Chartwell. But soon the week- rapid visits of inspection to Chatham, Portsmouth, Ply- sation he talked briefly of world Churchill's personal detective in He would not have moved, only ends became as affairs.
1021 I had found his manner he realised that he ought to set the weeks, and from 1940 to the mouth and Scapa Flow. A de
end of the war Winston Chur- stroyer took us from Thurso to He told me
then that it was brusque, off-handed, even, as I an example.
Scapa and D6 We regular 120-hour
passed almost certain we would be at. thought then, piggish.
So he grabbed a bottle of chill worked wor within six months, and But I soon began to sec brandy and set off, leading the week. And, of course, I never through the boom defences i asited Mr Churchill whether it that when war started he would through the rough facade, to little
was not possible for a U-boat Now that he had become a basement which had been
to follow us in before the boom probably be asked to take some Walt for the grimness to break the party down the street to used to go to bed until he did.
the shelter he
Cabinet Minister my task as position in the Cabinet. Now it up in that boyish smile. It did prepared. In
closed. ged bodyguard was made a
little like him prowled around like a was almost the end of August not take me long to
easier. Mr Churchill's hearse near the zero hour he
came to love animal, yet I could see he was had In a little while I named.
him.
relishing this
The like Daimler was laid up and moment. Yet his Impulsiveness and weeks of anxiety and uncer- we used a police Humber.
"I hope they are not able to Breless energy always made it fainty were over; now was the It was filed with a gong for do so,” answered Mr Churchill
"According getting priority through frame gravely.
10 the When at last
dificult for me to do my job of time for action. he called me protecting him. I could not As
as the All Clear and with double mirrors in the powers-that-be who give ma front, so that I, as well as the information on this subject, the Churchill was jn his most
the driver could see what vehicles possibility of U-boats entering is Inta
earth lice danger-no
shot the trip a
brick down sombre mood. He told me could but I did have to fight to street and straight up to the were following.
very remote." briefly, that he had been
roof of the flats, where he Later, when Mr Churchill be- But he was certainly not im- keep up with him. Radar is also playing aspecting French defences, and
came Prime Minister, we had me to scanned the sky for aircraft, .
pressed with the defences of Once when he asked then went on to say vital part ju
another police car as a follow- Scapa Flow. There were prac improving
that war pack up his papers as he was might break out at any moment. leaving his private train during
ing escort, and I used a pre- tically no anti-aircraft guns for weather
by forecasting
"The Germans believe I am the war, I had to put my foot
off to the arranged code of signals through the protection of this most t locating heavy rain-storms one of their most formidable down.
House of Commons. I took my the mirror to instruct the fol- portant naval base, and Win- thunder. Radios in enemies," ho and
sald
with pleasure, abruptly. I will do it
self bitterly and forcibly on the Churchill's Daimler next to the hold off overtaking traffic. has been made in shipping,"
me a chance to do my job. 1
subject. says Watson-Watt. Set have some time to send back re-assassination,"
The lack of defences for the And he went on to tell me cannot guard you if you rush of chauffeur, and my usual posi- tion Just outside the Chamber of temperature and how a leading French statesman and leave me here to clear up." while he was in the House. ports
Mr Church hated any fuss Navy made him sick and angry had warned him that his life humidity,
Mr Churchill glared at me
about his protection, and it is and his koen eye never missed was in danger. He had Imme- furiously and stalked out of the When he came out he said: the Scotland Yard method to a delect. With the addition of radar, diately cancelled a visit to the compartment. But be was "10, Downing Street, Thomp- be as discreet as possible. (The Then a few weeks after this meteorologists can now get a Duke of Windsor in the South walling for me on the platform son." There was a gleam in his Old Man raised a quizzical eye- visit came the news of the loss complete miniature weather of France and flown back to Bri- when I came out with the bag eye, but even he did not anti- brow at me more than once of the battleship Royal Oak,
tain. He estimates that be observatory up to 100,000 feet.
when on our cipate his exact appointment..
wartime travels gage. "I can look after myself in
the more ostentatious methods sunk by a U-boat which had But perhaps the most specta-
from
penetrated the Scapa defences. For when he emerged tween five and ten ships a
the daytime," he said, setting his
of some of our Allies in afford- day of all nations are being cular use of radar is
It was like a body blow for In
"Will you protect me at
ing
his got on Now that I was once more Mr No. 10 to join Mrs Churchill in
protection
Winston. Not for the first time By using a radio-jaw. fitted with radar. More astronomy. than 1,000. British
nerves). telescope shaped like a huge night?"
Churchill's official bodyguard I the back of the car he said: "It's
in those grim days I heard him I agreed gladly. Mr Churchill relinquished his Colt automatic the Admiralty" and added with
So I always asked the mer- inverted umbrella, scientists have
Press
*31 only chant ships, ranging from mapped a
they had universe of stars offered to pay me £5 a week as and armed myself with a Web- a pleased chuckle: "That's a lot photographers to cut me out of mutter:
their
pictures They his bodyguard in a purely pri- ley 38. I wore this in a patent beller than I thought!"
when they taken notice of me a few years have hap- liners to trawlers, have it 750,000 light years away.
are invisible to the most power- vate capacity. He gave me his chamois leather contraption of That day Mr Churchill had snapped Mr Churchill in public. ago this would not already;
Colt automatic to use and I my own, on the inside and be- one of the quickest lunches I It was also one of my duiles to pened.". ful telescope.
may say with pride that I am tween the two buttons of the have ever known him take. prevent pictures being taken NEXT SATURDAY! the only man that Mr Churchill left breast of my jacket.
Immediately after it we went to with recognisable landmarks in has allowed to handle his guns.
the background. and there, the Admiralty He is a Arst-class shot and
cept for a short dinner break, But it takes a jealous pride in the care of his personal armoury.
discover new by radar
Now we
stars by
IR Robert Watson-Watt.
S"
whose claim as the in- radur comos
of
ventor before the Royal Commis- sion of Awards to Inventors this week, tapped a thick sheaf of papers with à pen- cil
#nit and
to me: "February 27, 1935, is a vital date."
On that day Sir Robert had sent a report to the Air Ministry on how aircraft could be located by radio.
He had that year been asked for his views
031 11
death ray, but he thought "mighty little" of the idea Radiolocation, he believed, was "more promising." A ready he had located lightning flash 3,000 miles away.
-BIGGEST JOB
Watson- Watt started work with a small team. "From there," he says, "The field-spread-out:"-
Now rudar is being put to many and far-reaching peacetime uses.
bry
PETER DACRE
and can make rough one.
into conference at Chartwell, Mr keep him from heading straight sounded Mr Churchill was off
soon
One on
A
In-
Next we
were
"Relatively most progress balloons have been used for "They will not stop short of sir." I said, "but you must give usual sent in the front of Mr lowing car when to cut out or ston Churchill expressed him-
been made simpler and more them powerful, many of having a range of more than 40 miles.
Each month 40 more, lifeboats and including weather ships, are equipped.
+
METEORS SEEN
Radar beams have detected “Our coastguards are now radio waves which probably using radar's "magic-eye" started their journey from these to spot smugglers in the stars when life was beginning on fog, Trinity House buoys and beacons are so equipped that they are "visible" to radar-fitted ships.
carth.
I
So for the next few evenings was on duty at Chartwell Waves from the sun, 02,000,000 after the grocery business had miles away, have been picked up been closed. I would go down by radar, enabling scientists to
to the Manor, inspect the gun estimate the sun's heat at 1,000 and make sure that it was load- million degrees.
ed and in working order.
own patent lining "holster in
Then I would slip it into my side my double-breasted Jacket, grounds
In civil flying Sir Robert
Once meteors could be obser says that "some progress" ved only at night. With radar has been made with ground they can be tracked during the
I says radar aids. They help to day and through thick clouds, would make one tour of the
marshal planes in a large
"These represent,' Sir Robert, "the lower and wider wenches of a river of which I was somewhere near the source."
Freund
and round the house Although the Americans have and then settle down for an all- area around an airfield and sent radar inpulses to the moon night patrol inside the house bring them safely to land and book, Sir Robert says:— while Mr Churchill was
was work- Later sleeping, in "extremely bad weather."
"Hopes of getting more in-
a few nights I lived this Because radar "abolishes Radar sets can also be formallon about the moon have
cial bodyguard prowling round night and fog" its biggest carried abourd planes to not been effectively realised. The strange role of an armed unoff- Americans have not found by the quiet of the Kentish coun- peacetime job is obviously prevent collisions and detect radar anything more than was tryside in peacetime, ready to to make travel safer and storm-laden clouds, which already known."
pounce upon a would-be Nuzi more comlurtnois,
sometimes cause disaster
murderer.
SLIM NOW!
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF DE GAITSKELL
-(London Express Serviert
I found it faster to draw and fire from this position than from a shoulder holster. (Once found it too fast, when, in
I
was not 50 easy he remained until the small make Mr Churchill obey the. hours of the following morning.
were walking rules. Once we
The
papers
missing
Winston bacomes Prime Minister.
official
Fills so easily... and a touch sets it gliding!
New Parker 51
...the only pen with remarkable
Acrometric Ink System.
3-YEAR
FINANCIAL
DIET
SHEETS
POST OFFIC
HEALTH
TRADE
SLIMMING DANGEROUS ?
EDUCATI
INSIDE...THIS
SILVERY SHEATH
with Pill-glass Reservoir
You'll gladly put aside all other pens for this! New **51" with Acro-metric Ink System gives truly superb writing. The now Foto-fill filler is the simplest yet. Ink › is specially metered through the point for instant start- ing... for smooth, skip-free writing. Try it. See for yourself why Now "S1" is your best investment in lasting writing pleasure.
World's most wanted pen!
SOLE AGENTS:
SHRIRO (CHINA) LIMITED
Rutton Buildiä”. Døddell Stran
PIN REPAIR BRAVICK
Telephone 31198 QUORSTER BUILDING