War stories
The celtic cross on Gibbet Hill is possibly the final monument in stone directly related to the murder of the unknown sailor in 1786. It was put up by Sir William Erle in 1851. As he rode through Hindhead on his way home to Bramshott, Erle was reportedly terrorised by restless spirits believed to linger around Gibbet Hill in the wake of the grisly execution. The cross carries a Latin inscription on its base that translates to: “Light after darkness. Peace is passing away. Hope in light. Salvation after death.”
As George Mayes recalls in the app trail, more recently, in the First World War, the army used Gibbet Hill for training. The image below shows four soldiers at the Celtic cross on 22 March, 1917. George also talks about the demonstration of a new armoured vehicle at Hindhead to the army brass in 1924. Click the link to watch the British Pathé newsreel of this event, featuring “M. Liocourt, driver of the car that made famous desert dash across the Sahara”.
Later, in the Second World War, the altitude of Gibbet Hill made it ideal for radar. Four masts were erected at Hindhead, one on Gibbet Hill, as part of the RAF’s ‘Gee’ signalling system, and they remained here until 1958. Tragically, two days before the war ended, on 6 May, 1945, a US plane carrying wounded servicemen to a hospital in Winchester struck one of the towers and all 22 on board died, as well as one RAF operator on the ground.
