From The Illustrated Warminster And District Miscellany, Volume One, published by Bedeguar Books, May 1996:
In December 1943, the entire population of Imber, the village on Salisbury Plain, was evacuated, when the War Office intensified military training in the area. The move spelled the end of Imber as a rural community, and the villagers were never to return. Today, just about all of Imber’s buildings are gone, except for the Church of St. Giles and a few derelict reminders, and the area remains in the hands of the Army, who have built something resembling a Northern Ireland street scene between the Church and the road. The following notes are based upon correspondence and an interview with Mr. A.C. Lewis, made in 1984, by researchers for the Imber Community Play.
A.C. Lewis was Chief Billeting Officer for the Warminster Urban District at the time of the Imber evacuation. He was invalided out of the Army, at the age of 27, during the latter part of 1942, and found employment as Billeting Officer for the rural areas to the south and north of Salisbury Plain. He took over as Chief Billeting Officer for the urban area of Warminster following the resignation of Colonel Crofton.
Crofton had resigned because of his reluctance to accept responsibility for the billeting of war workers. He felt that the residents of Warminster were already doing their bit by taking evacuees into their homes and that they should not be required to take war workers as well. His attitude could have been summed up by the phrase ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle.’ Because a degree of compulsion already existed under the Emergency Powers Act he felt that other arrangements should have been made for the housing of war workers.
The local billeting officer delegated a greater part of his work. Teachers and unemployed married women often took responsibility for a village, not only ensuring that evacuees from London and other cities and towns had settled but often distributing bedding where necessary. The Women’s Voluntary Service and Civil Defence Volunteers also helped in a welfare capacity.
Mr. Lewis organised evacuees from London and Surrey. They travelled by train to West Wiltshire and were billeted with local families.
Mr. Lewis kept records of each and every house in the area, including the number of occupants and details of household facilities. It was compulsory for householders with adequate space to take an evacuee. This was in no way optional and in some cases court proceedings resulted for those who refused.
Many of the evacuee children were homesick at first but soon settled and the host families became very fond of them. Unfortunately, many children were not suitable for billeting because of bedwetting and other reasons, and these were hostelled in large houses that were requisitioned. One of these was Heytesbury House, the home of the Sassoon family, east of Warminster.
Not only did Warminster have the problem of housing evacuees from London, the town also had the added hassle of housing war workers from across the Irish Sea. Eire was not involved in the Second World War and Southern Irish men were a valuable source of young labour. They had been encouraged to come to the Warminster area for construction work on roads and buildings at the local camps.
War workers were billeted but many were rough and hostels had to be provided to house them. Some of the Irish workers who could get billets, lived in hostels built by themselves, and each hostel housed between 40 and 50 men.
It appears that pressure to billet the Irish workers led to the resignation of Colonel Crofton who thought it unfair to ask people to house the Irish as well as the city evacuees.
Mr. Lewis recalls that one young Irishman, aged about 20, was billeted at a house at Boreham Road, Warminster. The maid there, while making beds, discovered a pistol hidden under the Irishman’s pillow. Needless to say the Police were called and an investigation carried out.
As Chief Billeting Officer of the area, Mr. Lewis was closely involved on behalf of the Warminster & Westbury Rural District Council and the local office of the Ministry Of Health’s Regional Office at Bristol, with arranging the evacuation of Imber in conjunction with the War Department’s area administration and in ascertaining and providing alternative accommodation for the residents of the village.
When the order was given on 1st November 1943 to evacuate Imber by December it appears that all the families found their own alternative accommodation. Wealthy landowners in the vicinity came to the rescue by offering unoccupied cottages on their land. Other villagers went to stay with relatives elsewhere. Major Whistler, the manager of Imber Court Farm, also found homes for some families.
Mr. Lewis’ first recollection of the impending closure of Imber first became apparent, it would seem, through memos issued to his office during the early part of 1943 and although he probably had extensive knowledge of the evacuation of Imber Mr. Lewis is forbidden and unwilling to reveal certain facts because of the Official Secrets Act.
Mr. Lewis and his colleagues were given strict instructions not to discuss the evacuation or to raise the hopes of any of the residents about their return to Imber. After the Second World War, when villagers started their campaign for the return of Imber, saying that they had been promised its return by the War Office, Mr. Lewis was summoned to Whitehall to give his account of activities and conversations regarding the villagers’ belief that they had been deceived. Mr. Lewis maintains to this day that in no way did the War Office make any promise that Imber would be returned one day.
Recollections
Mr. Lewis, who now lives at Ryde, Isle Of Wight, penned the following recollections in 1984:
“My office, the Government Billeting Office, was at East Street, Warminster, and it consisted of a shop fronted room with a store attached. The rest of the property, at that time, was occupied by a Mr. and Mrs. Baverstock.”
“With regard as to how long I knew of the proposed evacuation before it took place, I really have no idea but I do remember that there was some anxiety as to whether it would be accomplished on time.”
“The Warminster & Westbury Rural District Council required me as their Chief Billeting Officer to liaise with the Army to ensure that the residents of the village had made, or could make arrangements, for alternative accommodation either in the Council’s area, or elsewhere. In fact, many, if not most, made their own arrangements.”
“Where there were difficulties it became necessary to requisition property within the area. Edington and Sutton Veny were two villages where requisitioning was effected.”
“Compensation for farmers giving up their farms was taken care of and arranged by the War Department.”
“The Warminster & Westbury Rural District Council worked in close co-operation with the Army. Myself (as the Council’s representative in the field, so to speak) collated the various details respecting accommodation and removal of the villagers and their personal effects. Such information as I obtained was passed to the office of Mr. W. Ingram, the Deputy Clerk to the Warminster & Westbury Rural District Council, at Church Street, Westbury, with whom I closely worked during this time.”
“As the day approached for the village to be cleared there was some concern and anxiety about a gentleman who was extremely ill and confined to his bed. For a time it was feared that it would not be possible to move him by the crucial date. Special arrangements, however, were made, virtually within the last few hours and his doctor authorised the use of an ambulance to move him. I am not absolutely sure and my memory may well be at fault but I believe the gentleman may well have been the landlord of the village pub.”
“During this time a new road from Warminster to Imber was being made up and the day of the evacuation co-incided with the joining of the newly laid road to the entrance of the village itself.”
“By this time some people had already left the village and there was no ‘en masse’ evacuation although there were certainly some coaches and vans evident on the last day.”
“I remember a few names only, I regret to say, and of course my records have long since gone. A Mr. Dean, who lived in a large unpretentious house close by the road at the entrance to the village (on the left side entering from the Lavington end), a farmer and big burly man (never seen without his overcoat), was not particularly hospitable. It was said that his family could trace residence in the village over a period of 900 years. Strangely, one thing sticks in my mind, the fact that the roof of his house was made of corrugated iron.”
“Then there was Captain Williams (retired Army) and he was very pleasant and very hospitable. He lived in the centre of the village, well back from the road. He was a shortish fellow with a greying moustache, not unlike John Mills, the actor, although he perhaps had slightly more rounded features. Captain Williams was a very likeable man.”
“On the opposite side of the road was ‘the big house,’ more like a mansion, with a large stone hall. The gentleman there, who was also a farmer, was an ex major by the name of Whistler. I remember having lunch or perhaps it was dinner in the main hall. We sat at a long table and enjoyed large buttered baked potatoes in company with several of the farmworkers. The atmosphere and the setting was almost mediaeval.”
“Proceeding out of the village on the road towards Lavington and away from Warminster there was a lane to the left. At the end of this lane was a run-down residence. The occupants were an Indian lady and her children. The place was poorly kept and it was rumoured that the lady was the wife of a serving officer.”
“It was asked whether the villagers would return after the cessation of war. Some residents did indeed ask this question. However, my brief was that, though I was not in a position to say yea or nay, at no time was I to impart or give the impression that Imber would be released and no hint of a promise should be given for any reason.”
“Some years later (I cannot now remember the year) Lord Long of Steeple Ashton asked this question in the House Of Lords and as a consequence I was asked by the War Department as to whether there was any substance in Lord Long’s question. My answer was no. No promise had been made. This statement I made in the War Department’s offices at Whitehall.”
“From time to time, over the years, this question has been raised, particularly by a certain gentleman who was an Amesbury councillor I believe [Austin Underwood]. There is no doubt that this pressure coupled with those of others helped to focus the public’s attention on the so-called ‘Imber promise’ and I believe resulted in the special open days conceded by the War Department.”
“My feelings at the time were of concern about the villagers’ immediate problems and also the fact that it seemed a great pity that recently constructed agricultural cottages would no longer be inhabited.”
“On two weekends, including the last Sunday before the evacuation, a special combined ‘shoot’ was arranged; the result of which was a number of hares and rabbits being obtained for the cooking pot. At that time, the days before myxomatosis, the rabbit disease, the coney population was such that on approaching Imber village from the Lavington side, the slopes literally moved with rabbits, like long grass stroked by a gentle breeze. A sight and an experience never to be forgotten.”