April, 2024 | Prior to Now on Combe Down

By Kate Werran, April 2024

In June 2024 the nation will look back 80 years to D-Day. Movies like Saving Private Ryan.

TV documentaries and newspapers featuring interviews from a rapidly diminishing pool of veterans will proliferate to mark the historical watershed.

Commissioning editors will be anxious to ward against D-Day-fatigue and demand revisionist spins on familiar archive material.

But perhaps the most modern and pertinent tale from the British home front in the summer of 1944 has been hiding in plain sight all along — and is rooted in Combe Down’s own history.

The extraordinary case of Leroy Henry will be familiar to those following Prior to Now Trust. The African American G I, whose unit was based at Brantwood House in Southstoke.

See Daily Express story about Leroy Henry

See PtNT article about Leroy Henry

Related Images:

Yesterday, Margaret told me that Andy Russell had been trying to reach me but couldn’t. We did, happily, make contact shortly after and Andy, on behalf Gérard, on behalf of Rob, made an awesome local gift – a small shedload of photos of the Combe Down area.

The message said:

“Hi Margaret, sorry to contact you like this but I am unable to send a message to Richard. Gérard Coles, son of the late Robert Coles has given me about 30 pictures of Combe Down and some of its characters. We both agreed that it would be good to get these to someone who can document them and possibly store them in the archive. They are mostly identified on the back. I would like to copy a few and then pass them on to you if that’s ok. Any thoughts?”

Response to the awesome welcome gift:

All I can say is that Andy well underestimated the number of photos (there are actually 83) and, in my opinion, the importance of some of the images. However I’m really glad he persevered, it was worth it.

I’m not going to try describing all, or indeed any, of them – they need to be catalogued, described and listed by someone much more expert than me.

Having said that I shall show a few and look to finding out more about them and all the others.

I’d love to know what you think – even from the few examples.