Once again, ARCH (Association of Residents of Canford Heath) put up Lamp Post Poppies across Canford Heath to remember our heroes and to raise money for the Royal British Legion. Residents, local groups and businesses have been very generous in sponsoring a Poppy for £5.00, every penny will go to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

This year we are delighted to tell you all that we raised an amazing £803 for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal and is the most we have ever made.

Thank you all for all your help and support in this event. This year we put poppies up on lamp posts across the main roads of Canford Heath including Adastral Road, Culliford Crescent, Sherborne Crescent and Canford Heath Road and for the first time and by popular demand we also put hem up along Tollerford Road and Stinsford Road.

In addition, there is also a display of crocheted and knitted Poppies in the Canford Heath Library which will be available to buy for a small donation. Knitted Poppies can also be bought from Nicholas O’Hara Funeral Care in Culliford Crescent.

Friday 3^rd November, the Mayor of Poole, Cllr Jo Clements visited Canford Heath at the invitation of ARCH to view all aspects of Canford Heath Remembers.   

The Mayor began her visit at the Canford Heath Library where she was introduced to members of ARCH, Library staff, members of the Broadstone British Legion and Nicholas O’Hara Funeral care. First, she was shown the display of knitted poppies that local residents have made, and commented on the amount of time and effort that must have gone into producing such a wonderful display. The Mayor also showed particular interest in the display of the pictures showing all the Pilots that roads on Canford Heath are named after, together with the roles they played.

She was then given a guided tour of the lamp post poppies – but not all 253 because that would have taken too long!  At the end of the visit, she was given a jar of Canford Heath honey and some personalised artwork of the heath.  She again said how impressed she was by all the hardwork and skill that has gone into the event and enjoyed finding out more about the history of Canford Heath.

The Pilots behind the road names

Many of the roads on Canford Heath were named after WW2 Pilots. This tradition was carried on when Cornelia Gardens was built in 2014 but this time WW1 Pilots honoured keeping with this theme.  ARCH has recently installed some art boards around the heath including one on the History of Canford Heath as a housing development with a focus on the Pilots.   The Pilots behind the road names had never been researched in this way before and therefore took a great deal of time to ensure that as many as possible were included. ARCH is very grateful for the additional help with this from the RAF museum and to Maria Burns who was the artist and historian commissioned by ARCH to produce the boards.

However, recently a further 4 names have been identified these are Air Commodore Peter Cribb (Pathfinder Master Bomber), Lieutenant Commander R. M. Samples (Mac) (took part in the World War Two Chanel Dash), Lieutenant Commander Eugene Kingsmill Esmonde (awarded the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Order) and Group Captain Colin Falkland Gray (Awarded the Distinguished Flying cross & Two Bars). Our thanks to Canford Heath Past and Present Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/854342578415278  for this additional information.

Dr Ken Coombe (1925 – 2020)

This obituary was written by Professor Adrian G Parker of Oxford Brookes University and shows an insight into the life of this amazing man who flew Lancaster bombers in World War Two and finally retired to Canford Heath.

Dr Edward Durell Kenneth Coombe (Ken) was born in Jersey on 01 February 1925 moving shortly thereafter to the Isle of Portland, where his family were quarry owners. He was educated at Shebbear College, Devon, and during WW2 applied to join the Royal Air Force as a pilot. 

In 1943, Ken was awarded a place on a six month RAF University Short Course at the University of Oxford as a means of receiving his initial training through Oxford University Air Squadron, which was undertaken in parallel to reading History at Worcester College. In June 1944 Ken undertook his pilot training on Course 22, Number 4 British Flying School located at Falcon Field, Mesa, Arizona where he flew PT-17A (Stearman) and AT-6A (Harvard) aircraft. He graduated as a Pilot Officer in January 1945 and was presented his wings by Air Commodore EDH Davies with Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, VC, DSO in attendance. In the RAF, Ken went on to serve with 37, 40 and 104 Squadrons flying Vickers Wellington and Avro Lancaster Bombers. In the latter months of the war, having been posted to Italy, Ken was shot down during an operational mission over northern Italy, ditched into the sea, and sadly lost one of his crew to wounds resulting from anti-aircraft fire. After several days at sea, the crew were fortunately picked up by an allied ship. After the war in Europe ended Ken was posted to Egypt for eighteen months until demobilisation.

Ken left the RAF in 1947 in the rank of Flight Lieutenant and returned to his home at Wakeham on Portland to take over the family-owned stone quarry business at Grangecroft. In 1948, Ken married Margot Guy, the sister of an Old Shebbearan College friend. Whilst on Portland, he served as Town Mayor, Magistrate and Reeve to the Court Leet. After selling the family-owned quarrying business in the early 1970s, Ken trained as a geography teacher at Weymouth College, receiving his BEd from Southampton University (1970-1974) and taught locally in Weymouth. In the 1970s Ken served as secretary of the Dorset Branch of the Geographical Association.

Ken returned to Oxford in the late 1979, aged 54, to complete the degree he started during the war. Having already studied for a year in the 1940s, Ken was required to complete his degree in only two years. He transferred his studies from history to geography, however, as Worcester College at the time did not accept geography students, and he found tutorial support and guidance through Dr Tony Lemon and Dr Pam Berry at Mansfield College. In 1981 he received his first Oxford degree 31 years after matriculation. Ken was awarded the School of Geography’s top prize for the best dissertation and in the following year, 1982, received the Royal Geographical Society’s best first-class dissertation prize based on his work entitled Some aspects of coastal landslips and cliff falls in Portland and elected as a Fellow. Afterwards, Ken returned to teaching geography at several independent schools, including Head of Geography at both Denstone College, Derbyshire, and Channing School in Highgate, London. 

On retiring from teaching in 1990, at the age of 65 Ken returned to Oxford University as a postgraduate research student at Mansfield College to read for his DPhil at the School of Geography under the supervision of Professor Andrew Goudie. Ken examined the Holocene evolution of the Fleet Lagoon, Dorset, close to his former home of Portland and the Dorset coast he knew so well. He undertook a comprehensive coring survey of the Fleet sediments by raft, which provided the first detailed study of the Holocene palaeoenvironments of the Fleet, sea-level changes and further insight into the formation of Chesil Beach. During his coring and survey work Ken, as an aside, managed to locate and retrieve, with the help of the Royal Navy and Royal Engineers, several unknown prototypes of Barnes Wallace’s bouncing bombs as the Fleet had been used as one of the early testing sites.

Ken sadly lost his wife Margot during the latter stages of writing his thesis but went on to complete his doctorate in 1996 at the age of 71. During his time in the quarry industry Ken gained a detailed understanding of the geology and structural geomorphology of the Isle of Portland, which he went on to publish in 1996 with Denys Brunsden and Andrew Goudie in the Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association. Ken was for many years an active member of the Fleet Study Group and worked closely with Dr John Whittaker from the Natural History Museum and Dr Alan Carr. Ken provided expert review input for the successful submission to UNESCO to include the Dorset and East Devon Coast on the World Heritage List.

Ken finally retired to Canford Heath, Poole in Dorset where he spent his latter years continuing to pursue his interests along the Jurassic Coast. Ken was an outstanding organist, and in 1968 rescued and installed a Father Willis organ into the church of St John’s in Fortuneswell, Portland. Ken also had a deep passion for steam engines. In 1959, he rescued from the scrapyard and restored the iconic Burrell Showman’s Road Locomotive Quo Vardis as well as owning another Burrell Showman’s engine, Perseverance. Ken lived an exceptionally full, long and productive life. He was generous in spirit, always willing to share his knowledge and had a passion for the importance of education. He passed away peacefully at the age of 95 and is survived by his daughter Elizabeth and three grandchildren.