Rayleigh is large market town between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea.
The Patrol were believed to have been recruited from members of the Home Guard. In the early days they met at the house of Gerald and Derek Barnes parents, because Len Downes kept his car, a Morris 12, in one of their garages and because Ray Cottis had his shop and house next door. After 1941, the boys lost contact with the Patrol as they met elsewhere, but Derek used some of the Cordtex left behind with homemade mercury fulminate detonators to create small explosions at the bottom of the garden!
| Name | Occupation | Posted from | Until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant Robert Baptie | Company secretary |
Unknown | Unknown |
| Sergeant Leonard Henry Downes | Commercial traveller |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Raymond William John Cottis | Baker |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Frank Hunt | Grocery assistant / transport worker |
1940 | 1941 |
| Private John Henry Murphy | Clerk at Naval Military outfitters |
22 May 1941 | 31 Dec 1944 |
| Private Edward John Southam | Nursery hand |
Unknown | Unknown |
| Private John Wyatt Tomlinson | Tester at Marconi |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
The Operational Base is believed to have been in Hockley Woods, presumably on the Rayleigh side. The Barnes boys knew the site as Coe's Wood, as the Coe family owned the land, though on OS maps Blounts Wood is also used. This was adjacent the railway line between Rayleigh and Hockley. Bert Cocks, Hockley Patrol described the location as Blounts wood, also known as Merryland Wood.
Ray Cottis described the OB as being like a Nissen Hut, with a hidden trapdoor. He thought it had been destroyed after the war. He reported that the first hide had been abandoned because it was damp and had caused their gelignite to start weeping. This may explain the different locations recalled.
John Murphy's daughter recalled he had said that one night, while in the OB, the men had started to inexplicably drift off to sleep. He realised they were slowly suffocating and managed to rouse them sufficiently to get them out, though some had to be virtually dragged out. She found it extraordinary that the Royal Engineers could build a base without working ventilation! Possibly as a result of this, Mr Barnes produced a ventilation fan using the mechanism of a wind up gramophone, in order that it would work silently.
Rayleigh Patrol
The Patrol’s munitions were stored in an outhouse at the Barnes’s house to keep them dry. The Barnes boys remembered there being considerable quantities of Bickford fuse, Cordtex fuse, pressure switches, detonators, thunder-flashes, Molotov cocktails, magnesium incendiary devices for sabotage but cannot recall which explosives, if any were kept there.
On Victory in Europe night on 8 May 1945, Gerald and Derek Barnes used some of the leftover thunder flashes as part of the celebrations in the High Street. A bonfire was also lit on the highest point in Rayleigh, Rayleigh Mount which was the site of a Norman Castle, and the lads carried a sack full of the magnesium devices there and fed the fire – apparently it was seen at Danbury more than ten miles away!
The group photo shows;
Back Row
Don Williams (Rochford), David Antill (Thundersley), Charlie Fance (Rochford), John Tomlinson (Rayleigh), Michael Ford (Hockley), Eddie Southern (Rayleigh)
Middle Row
Jack Murphy (Rayleigh), Bert Cocks (Hockley), Don Handscombe (Thundersley), Doug Cater (Rochford), George Clarke ( Hockley), George Sargeant ( Rochford)
Front Row
George Billardis (Canvey), Rupert Ives (Canvey), Jack Rodwell (Hockley), Bill Heath (AGC), Jack Ford (GC), Bob Baptie (AGC), Jack Burles (Rochford), Len Downes (Rayleigh), Fred Harris (Thundersley)
TNA ref WO199/3389
Hancock data held at B.R.A
1939 Register
Gerald and Derek Barnes
Nick Olley
Ray Cottis interview 1997