The premises of WDU were on both sides of Malmesbury High Street, where the east-side model shop backed onto the Malmesbury Social Club premises in Ingram Street, which while managed and run by the EKCO Sports and Social Club was funded by the Ministry of Labour. Of interest to note is that for security reasons there was no mention of the name EKCO on any membership cards or posters.
In May/June 1940, under conditions of great secrecy, the windows of the premises acquired were painted a dark green to half way up, with fine nets covering the rest of the glass and after suitable structural modifications (overseen by Fred Ellis and Jack Leggett from the model shop at Southend) such as strengthening floors and upgrading the electricity supply etc, the machinery and equipment was moved in from Southend topped up with extra equipment from the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP).
The moving of the equipment was shrouded in secrecy since the EKCO drivers who transferred equipment made the trips in convoy and only the driver of the lead lorry was issued with directions and a map.
It must have seemed strange to the locals that not only were there lorries coming and going at all hours (in one case the lorries did not arrive until 2am), there were official looking VIP black Humber's being parked outside at various times as well.
It was so secret that even the local police were not informed and a close watch was kept on the local newspapers for any leak of information.
Shortly after Dunkirk, the staff at Southend were told to pack a suitcase and told that they would be away from home for quite a while. They were not told where they were going.
Staff were either sent to Malmesbury or Aston Clinton. In the case of the staff who were destined for Malmesbury, they were only told of their destination once they had passed Swindon.
On arrival the staff were given temporary accommodation in the George Inn (opposite the Kings Arms) while the accommodation at Rodbourne House was made ready.
At that time, Rodbourne House was the home of Mr Lipman, who was the overall MD of both Cowbridge House and WDU and was the man who had organised the move from Southend. When the WDU staff arrived in 1940 there was already a small number of apprentices and management trainee's in residence. The WDU staff were told that their stay at Rodbourne House would only be a matter of weeks and that their ultimate destination would be Priory House. Because there were other residents, they were sworn to secrecy never to discuss what they were doing or what their occupation was.
The move to Priory House, was speeded up considerably when a German Bomber dropped a Stick of Bombs close to Rodbourne House on its way back from a raid on Bristol and it was found that one did not explode. This was exploded on Malmesbury Common two days later.
With the increase in the number of people working at WDU, Priory House became too small to house them all so other premises were acquired for conversion to hostels, one of these was Halcombe House and another was Sherston Manor. Additionally No.44 High Street was also converted into flats. Later in the war some of the senior engineers lived in rented accommodation in and around the town.
With this increase in the number of people about, many locals tried to put two and two together but they could only guess this was related to the activity at Cowbridge House.
As far as can be ascertained, there was never an official cover story issued to explain the activities of WDU in the high street, but when asked, people who worked in WDU were encouraged to say that 'we are working for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries' however early on a rumour went around the town that WDU stood for War Dodgers Union and was linked to Cowbridge House, which had been supposingly bought by a wealthy businessman to hide away his sons and their friends from being conscripted.
The normal working hours of WDU was 8.30am to 5.30pm with compulsory overtime until 7pm but in was not unusual to find people still working at 9pm and occasionally even later - or all night when there was a rush on.
To assist secrecy, there was a deliberate policy that each section only ever made a small part of the equipment, which was then passed to a higher level.
On the west-side of the high street (left-hand side looking towards the Market Cross) No.43 was where Tony Martin (who became the chief engineer of the whole E. K. Cole organisation) lived. Later, No.43 became the home of Phil Stride who became Managing Director of Cowbridge in the late 50's.
At No.43a next door, the front of the house had the Administration offices as well as west-side Model & Machine Shop behind.
On the first floor there was the drawing office and on the top floor was 'Top Lab'.
At the rear of the house in the roof of the big warehouse was the 'Green-House', which was constructed to test radar and other equipment since from this location there was a clear 'line of sight' for some considerable distance.
The Green-House was also the place where at one time the engineers obtained a RAF radio set from Alyesbury (R1155) and an antenna was made (similar to an old fashioned H aerial), which was stuck through the roof. The tuner was tuned to the RAF night fighter frequency and the engineers were able to ascertain if there was any likelihood of activity over Malmesbury. This resulted in a local reporting this to the police on the basis that he suspected an enemy agent was operating there since he could hear this going on. To his surprise, he was the one taken away for questioning and told in no uncertain terms to never speak of this.
Opposite was No.46 This the location of the Life Test Laboratory.
Behind this was No.46a and No.47a This the east-side engineering model shop, where Cyril Lingwood was on the first floor. He had Joe McColl and Johnny Hankins with him. On the ground floor was Cliff Jagger's tool room where he worked with one local young apprentice and the top floor of the building above this workshop was Sid Parr's winding shop with Mrs Taylor (and possibly a Mrs Frost) and two local girls on loan from the winding department at the Cowbridge factory.
Halfway along Ingram Street was the building, which became the Social Club.
NOTE: When working late, it was not unknown for the odd pint or two to have been passed over the wall between the Model Shop and the Social club since these backed onto each other.
The east-side engineering model shop concentrated on special products, sometimes sketches from the 'Top Lab' since K R Knipe the mechanical engineer for the Top Lab was allowed to discus the top secret work and make rough sketches to hand over for manufacture.
They also sometimes worked on sketches from the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) for urgent experimental equipment. Sometimes parts were also made for Jack Gard or 'Egg'y' Jarvis.
The only real top secret project Cyril Lingwood recalls being allowed into was the Jammer built for the El Alamein offensive where there were gold and silver contacts on the rotator that switched (to) the frequencies of all the communication frequencies of Rommel's command and these were all on VHF, which was still very high tech in those days.
Recent research has revealed that this equipment was code named 'Jostle' and the story can be read here.
In addition to radar research, there is some anecdotal evidence that 'Top Lab' were involved in research and development work on covert radio projects (such as Jedburgh) to assist the French resistance such as developing homing beacons so that aircraft could be guided accurately to drop zones, however it has not been possible to confirm this! It is also known that pioneering work on UHF frequency communication equipment was started.
The following list is the known wartime Personnel of WDU although this list is not complete, so if other names are known please let us know.
At the top level the following people were in overall charge: -
- Chief Engineer: A W Martin (overall in charge of EKCO Malmesbury).
- Assistant Chief Engineer: R K Spencer (main domain Life Test and Chemical Lab).
- Chief Draughtsman: R Kemp (main domain drawing office, tracing & printing).
- Chief Mechanical Engineer: Fred Ellis (Domain: - all machine, model shops).
Electronics Lab Personnel
Mr Jarvis (know as Egg'y worked on Pressurised High altitude radar), Jack Gard (senior engineer long range radar equipment's), Kenny Steward (Junior engineer), Alec (Red) Robson (senior engineer on loan from GEC Coventry specialised in Klystron studies), Max Callender (Senior Engineer, on loan from TRE Worth Mountravers), K R Knipe (Electromechanical senior engineer), Les Pugh (senior engineer various very small miniature equipment No. (WS) 46 TX/RX, ground to air VHF TX/RX and studies of UHF equipment, Bill Meakin (communications equipment specialist).
NOTE: It was rumoured that Les Pugh took part in one or more commando raids in order to understand what was required of the 'man pack' short-range radios such as the WS 46 and it is known that he certainly visited Scotland, which is where the Commando's did much of their training.
Drawing Office Personnel
R. Kemp - Chief Draughtsman, Jack O'Connor - Senior Draughtsman, Tubby Belsham - Draughtsman, Jeffrey Binstead - Draughtsman, Johnny Moore - Draughtsman, Bryn Evens - Draughtsman, Jeffrey Buckingham - Draughtsman / Photographer (took the band Town Hall pictures), Barbara Trail - Tracer, Doreen Acres - Tracer
It is known that there were other draughtsmen not listed above and that Joe McColl moved to the drawing office when WDU Southend staff moved back to Southend.
Model & Machine Shop Personnel (West-Side Shop)
Don Breach - Foreman, Arthur (or Alec) Hutchings - Charge hand, Reggie Moring - Spray Shop, Jimmy Smith - Panel beater & Welder, Peter Lee-Mote - Instrument Maker, Bob Breach - Instrument Maker, Alan Moltino - Instrument Maker, Alf Taylor - Instrument Maker, Sidney Acre - Turner, Mr. Woodhall - Model shop stores and at various times up to three apprentices.
Model & Machine Shop Personnel (East-Side Shop)
Cyril Lingwood - Instrument Maker & Toolmaker, Cliff Jaggger - Toolmaker, Joe McColl - Instrument Maker, Johnny Hankins - Instrument Maker, Vida Ball - Light capstan operator (on loan from main works)? and an apprentice nicknamed 'Dusting Brush' who was killed in a motorcycle accident before joining the services.
Administration Front Office (South-Side Shop)
Les Gibbs - Head of Admin, Miss Ainsley - Head Typist and Tony Martin's secretary, Mrs Gibbs - Typist and secretary to Less Gibbs, Daphne Woodhall - Typist.
Life Test & Chemistry Laboratory
R K Spencer - Assistant Chief Engineer, Pauline Durrent - Chemist and Soak Test, Arthur Tyrer - Test and Instrument checker, Joe? - Instrument Checker & Soak Test, Clergyman the Rev? - Chemist working on production of Penicillin.
NOTE: Any company that had Chemistry facilities during the war were put to work to produce the new wonder drug. The chemist allocated to WDU was a Gentleman of the Cloth.
Winding & Engraving Department (East-Side Shop Top Floor)
Sid Parr - Department Head, Mrs G Taylor - Engraver & Winding machine operator, - Mrs Elsie Frost winding machine operator? plus two other winding machine operators.
Other staff on site
Mrs Ivy - Cleaner, Canteen Lady, Mrs? - Cleaner? Alf Bailey - Security, Dennis Poole - Fire Officer.
Postscript
At the end of the war, WDU was quickly run down and the staff relocated back to Southend since there was a great rush to recommence 'domestic product manufacture' and the key skills of the WDU engineers and workers were seen as being a key factor in the rush to get product designed for the post war market place, however while the 'east side' properties were sold off and returned to normal high street businesses, the 'west side' buildings were retained, which was fortuitous since in early 1946 TRE asked EKCO to reform WDU so that they could assist them in developing 'Weather Radar' as well as giving the company a contract to develop a ASV radar, which went onto become ASV Mark 19. One person who relocated back to WDU was Jack Gard who moved back into the Priory before moving yet again to the 'Pre-Fabs' in Cowbridge Crescent.
In 1947, WDU finally closed its doors and the work was transferred to Cowbridge House.
WDU and sites - February 2006
The activities of the WDU were so secret that even today, over 60 years later, some of the work which went on there is still unknown and at least one former member of WDU (who would have known of "TOP LAB" activity) still feels bound by secrecy not to talk about what went on.
Unfortunately, any records, which did exist, are 'no more' since effectively with the closure of EKCO in 1970/71, any such records were lost or destroyed with the various changes of ownership.
Luckily, elements of the Jostle files are in the Public Records Office at Kew under reference numbers AIR23/1195 and AIR20/1563.
As for the houses, for some considerable time after the war (up to 1960 at least), No.43 was the 'EKCO SHOP' and Phil Stride and his family lived over the shop.
No.46, No.46a, No.47, No.47a became the property of P.J. Hider (Builders) who probably took up some of the other buildings surrounding the yard (this was the site of the old cannon works from the days of the civil war).
No.46, No.46a, No.47, No.47a is now The Gable House Surgery.
In Ingram Street, the Social Club became the Cartmell Youth Club, and has now been developed into flats.
Priory House which was located at Burton Hill, burnt down in the early 1970's
Rodbourne House still exists and is now in private ownership.
WDU MAP
