Handsome Brute: The True Story of a Ladykiller (54 page)

2
. Nicholson,
Millions Like Us
, p. 144. Years later Christian Lamb called her memoirs
I Only Joined for the Hat
(Bene Factum Publishing, 2007).

3
. Drummond,
Blue for a Girl
, p. 57.

4
. Though ‘jewellery, handbags, umbrellas and coloured fingernails are not uniform. Make-up, if worn, must not be obvious.’ Drummond, op. cit., p. 57.

5
. Drummond, op. cit., p. 151.

6
. Bigland,
The Story of the WRNS
, p. 183.

7
. Yvonne Symonds’ evidence at the trial is available in Critchley (ed.),
The Trial of Neville George Clevely Heath
. A handwritten document taken from her statement at Worthing Police Station on 24 June 1946 and her testimony at the Police Court on 20 July 1946 are held in TNA CRIM 1/1806.

8
. Wyndham,
Love Is Blue
, p. 10.

9
. Crisp,
The Naked Civil Servant
, p. 96. Crisp remembered discussing the attractions of men in uniform with Margery Gardner in the window seat of a cafe in the Kings Road and commented waspishly, ‘I should have guessed that she was a born murderee. She used to wear a leopardette coat.’

10
. See Francis,
The Flyer,
p. 21.

11
. Simpson,
I Burned My Fingers
, pp. 115–116.

12
. ‘Character of Witnesses’, 24 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

13
. Re. Panama Club, including club rules and layout, see Solomon Joseph, 28 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522. Heath had become a member under the name of Armstrong on 20 February 1946 and claimed to be living at the RAF Club in Piccadilly.

14
. Edward Louis Barton, 1 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

15
.
News of the World
, 29 September 1946.

16
. Nicholson, op. cit., p. 104.

17
. Wyndham, op. cit., p. 103.

18
. Elizabeth Wyatt, 29 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

19
. Barbara Osborne, 21 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

20
. Ward Lock Red Guide,
Worthing
, p. 22.

21
. Ibid., p. 4.

22
.
Worthing Herald
, 5 July 1946.

23
. Heath himself had little time for the pictures. ‘The cinema is mainly a place to go when you want to sit down.’ Dr Young’s handwritten report, 6 December 1946, TNA P COM 9/700.

24
.
Daily Telegraph
, 21 June 1946.

25
. George Girdwood, 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

26
. The building – complete with nautical frontage – remains and is now a Cornish pasty shop.

27
. Angus Bruce, undated, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

28
. John Charters Symonds, 24 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

29
. There is no further trace of Yvonne Symonds in UK archives after 1947. When Major Symonds died in 1977, Yvonne’s two children were living in Belgium, so she may have moved abroad to join her mother’s family after Heath’s trial.

30
. The site of the Blue Peter Club still exists on the beach at Angmering, now occupied by an Italian restaurant.

31
. This dialogue is taken from Yvonne Symonds’ statement at Worthing Police Station, the evidence she gave at West London Police Court and her testimony at the Old Bailey, TNA CRIM 1/1806.

32
. Barratt was actually a superintendent.

33
.
People
, 23 June 1946.

34
. George Girdwood, 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

35
. Yvonne Symonds, 24 June 1946, TNA CRIM 1/1806.

36
. Percy Alexander Eagle, Worthing, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

Chapter 3

1
. Margery’s boyfriend at the time was Peter Tilley Bailey.

2
. Typescript of both letters, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

3
. Quoted in Adamson,
The Great Detective
, p. 162.

4
. Reginald Spooner’s report, 18 July 1946, TNA HO 144/ 22871.

5
. ‘Character of Witnesses’, 24 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

6
. ‘“Borrowed” Car Chased Round Hyde Park’,
Evening Standard
, 27 September 1945.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Ibid.

9
. Elizabeth Helen Wheat, 22 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

10
. Wheat,
The Wheats of Sheffield
, p. 249.

11
. Ibid.

12
. Ibid., p. 250.

13
. Letter from Margery Wheat to her parents, 15 March 1936, collection of Melody Gardner.

14
. Elizabeth Helen Wheat, 22 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

15
. Letter from Margery Gardner to Mrs Wheat, undated (probably 1940), collection of Melody Gardner.

16
. Lofthouse,
Then and Now
,
passim
.

17
. Mathews,
Chelsea Old Church 1941–1950
, pp. 7–9.

18
. ‘Grantham Hotel Theft’,
Grantham Journal
, 16 January 1942.

19
. Ibid.

20
. Elizabeth Helen Wheat, 22 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

21
. Author interview with Melody Gardner, 4 October 2011.

22
. Marley (ed.),
The Daily Telegraph Story of the War
, p. 84.

23
. The name V1 is an abbreviation of
Vergeltungswaffe Eins
or ‘Revenge Weapon Number One’.

24
. Gardiner,
Wartime
, p. 549.

25
. Calder,
The People’s War
, pp. 559–60.

26
. Faviell,
A Chelsea Concerto
, p. 135.

27
. ‘Robot Plane Hits Nurse’s Home: Children are Trapped’,
Evening Standard
, 17 June 1946.

28
. Letter from Margery Gardner to Mrs Wheat, 27 July 1945, collection of Melody Gardner.

29
. Kynaston,
Austerity Britain
, p. 197.

30
. Ralph Macro Wilson, 24 June 1946, MEPO 3/2728.

31
. Letter from Margery Gardner to Mrs Wheat, 27 July 1945.

32
. Daniel Hamilton Shields, undated, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

33
. Ruth Wright and Mrs Hambrook, 25 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

34
. Wheat,
The Wheats of Sheffield
, p. 251.

35
. Elizabeth Helen Wheat, TNA MEPO 3/2728.

36
. Peter Tilley Bailey, 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

37
. Further statement of Iris Humphrey, TNA DPP 2/1522.

38
. Joyce Frost, 22 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

39
.
A Streetcar Named Desi
re premiered in New York in December 1947.

Chapter 4

1
. Peter Alan Gardner, 22 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

2
. Further statement of Joyce Frost, 30 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

3
. Ibid.

4
. Ibid.

5
. Ibid.

6
. Peter Tilley Bailey, 22 June 1946 and 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522. Tilley Bailey said he couldn’t remember if this was Tuesday or Wednesday.

7
. List of Exhibits Sheet 5, taken from 24 Bramham Gardens SW5 21 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

8
. Joyce Frost’s two statements, TNA DPP 2/1522.

9
. List of Exhibits Appendix 2, found on armchair in Room 4, Pembridge Court Hotel, 21 June 1946. Property of Margery Gardner. TNA DPP 2/1522.

10
. Gynomin advertisement – ‘an approved method of family planning’,
British Medical Journal
, 27 October 1951.

11
. Eva Eileen Cole, 1 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

12
. Mary Catherine Hardie, 26 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522. Catherine also stated that she had never met or heard of Margery before, so may not have been aware of the status of her relationship with Peter Tilley Bailey. As Margery perhaps suspected, Tilley Bailey would spend the night with Catherine Hardie at his flat in Coliseum Terrace.

13
. Ronald Anthony Edward Birch, 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

14
. Iris Humphrey, 22 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

15
. Further statement of Iris Humphrey, TNA DPP 2/1522.

16
. Phyllis Mary Brown, 28 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

17
. Harold Harter, 22 June 1946 and further statement of Harold Harter, 27 June 1946, DPP 2/1522.

18
. Some newspapers in the UK and abroad (e.g.
Cape Times
, 1 July 1946) reported that Margery left in Harter’s taxi singing, ‘I’ve got a date with my sweetie.’ There is no evidence of this from any of the many witnesses who were present at the entrance to the club.

19
.
Daily Express
, 25 June 1946.

Chapter 5

1
. Adamson,
The Great Detective
, p. 161.

2
. Ibid., p. 45.

3
. Ibid., p. 57.

4
. One of Spooner’s superior officers, quoted in Adamson, op. cit., p. 274, claimed that Spooner ‘was ridiculous with money . . . it flowed through his fingers when he was in a public house. His one fault was that he drank too much.’

5
. Adamson, op. cit., p. 116.

6
. Ibid., p. 120.

7
. ‘[Spooner] did not appreciate wildness and profusion even in his garden (his flowers were planted in rows, each tied to a stick whether it was necessary or not), and one day, after examining the luxuriant but straggly growth of a peony that Myra’s sister Kathleen had given them, and which he had cut and trimmed without effect, he came into the kitchen and told Myra, ‘You know, that kind of bush is an embarrassment in my garden.’ Adamson, op. cit., p. 275.

8
. Ibid, p. 124.

9
. See Farndale,
Haw-Haw
.

10
. Adamson, op. cit., p. 129.

11
. Ibid., p. 159.

12
. Quoted in Adamson, op. cit., p. 282.

Chapter 6

1
. Rhoda Spooner, 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

2
. Further statement of Barbara Osborne, 24 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

3
. Further statement of Elizabeth Wyatt, 16 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.

4
. Alice Wyatt, 24 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.