14 January 2025
Mr Hermiston wrote:
Hello,
My inquiry is about the famous French resistance leader Jean Moulin, and the time he spent in (or near) Newmarket in the closing months of 1941. Moulin was over in the UK to meet with General De Gaulle, head of the French Government-in-exile, and plan resistance activities against the Germans in his occupied homeland. For a few weeks in Nov/Dec 1941 he appears to have made Newmarket his base – his radio operator Joseph Montjaret, who would accompany him on his flight back to France on Jan 1, 1942 (from RAF Stradishall) wrote in later years…
”If the will to fight, which animated us as young boys, had brought us together in London, then in Camberley to form the core of what would become the Free French Forces, my desire to fight in France itself had led me in November 1941 to a base near Newmarket to await my departure on a mission. It was a superb castle surrounded by an immense park where there were already Polish, Czech and Norwegian officers who were there for the same reason.”
And on the Jean Moulin website, there is this reference to his stay in Newmarket: ‘Jean Moulin stayed in London for about ten days before going to Newmarket in Suffolk, a vast estate belonging to Lord Beaverbrook, where he killed time between horseback riding, board games, cards and billiards’.
All the indications would appear to suggest that ‘a superb castle surrounded by an immense park’ and ‘a vast estate belonging to Lord Beaverbrook’ refer to Bedford Lodge. Actually, Lord Beaverbrook had sold it long before 1941 and by then Bedford Lodge was in the possession of the famous jockey and owner Henry Wragge. But the French visitors will have been aware of the Beaverbrook legacy.
So, as a writer and historian, I’m very keen to find out more about Jean Moulin’s short stay at Bedford Lodge (now of course a hotel and spa) in World War 2. Is there any documentary evidence (I’ve written to the hotel and asked them if they have any papers from that period)? Is there anyone still alive (highly unlikely of course), or any residents of the area whose relations talked about what went on at Bedford Lodge in WW2? Was the country house, as it then was, given over to distinguished visiting guests, agents and resistance leaders from occupied European countries?
If you can help me in my quest and shed any light on Jean Moulin’s time in Suffolk – or point me in the right direction – I would be most grateful.
Regards,
Roger Hermiston
Roger Hermiston