Leicester Chronicler - Lady Cecilia Johnstone

Leicester Chronicler

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Lady Cecilia's Night Flight to Brussels

In December 1944, as newspapers reported that people in Berchtesgaden did not believe that Hitler was dead, General Patton had crossed the Saar and the Home Guard in Britain had been told formally to stand down, The Daily Express ran a curious story about a Leicestershire heiress who, allegedly, had hitched a ride on American-crewed Dakota bomber. This is the story as we know it.

Lady Cecilia Johnstone was born in 1913. She was the daughter of Countess Cowley and half-sister of Earl Cowley. In 1944 she was living at Gaddesby Hall, her family home, located about five miles from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. During the Second World War, the Hall had been seconded to the war effort and was occupied by American troops.

It had been claimed that Lady Cecilia and an unnamed female relative had flown in a Dakota Bomber, piloted by an American colonel, to Brussels, where they had stayed at the Hotel Metropole, flying back to England on the following day.

Police from London and Leicestershire questioned Lady Cecilia in London, and a report was forwarded to the Home Office. At the time, reporters seeking Miss Johnstone's story were informed that she was unable to comment, her solicitors having advised her not to talk about the allegations. After the initial investigation, Lady Cecilia had returned to her Leicestershire home.

Possibly due to the censor, the facts behind the case were, in the main, unavailable to the readers of the newspaper. Indeed, the reporter devoted more column inches to comparatively irrelevant comments: "When I saw Lady Cecilia today", wrote the Daily Express staff reporter, "she was wearing a green dungaree type of working trouser-suit. She said: "I cannot say anything about the trip yet.""

The Gaddesby Hall of the 1940s was built on the site of an earlier house originally known as Paske Hall. This was a fortified building surrounded by a moat. Parts of the building dated back to the 14th Century. This hall was demolished in 1744 when the second hall was built.

Gaddesby is located about seven miles south-west of Melton Mowbray on the Rearsby to Tilton road. Originally given by Henry II to the Knights Templar, the manor passed to the Knights Hospitallers in 1312. The church and the Hall, which is now a private house, can be seen across the vista of Gaddesby Park which has unusual red brick herringbone walling. Over the centuries, the Hall had a number of owners. The families included the Nedham, Ayre and Cheney families. As with so many large country houses, after suffering neglect and considerable damage through its use by the American Armed Forces during the Second World War, it was reduced in size and renovated during the 1950s.

At the time of the alleged incident, Germany was losing the war on all fronts. In September 1944, as the Russians halted their advance on Warsaw and the Allies stalled in Holland in Operation Market-Garden. Hitler had amazed his command with a bold plan. Panzer divisions would smash through the weakly defended Ardennes and head for Antwerp, cutting off the Allied supply lines. Special English-speaking units in modified German armour and captured American equipment would range out ahead of the Panzers, causing confusion and creating fear among the ranks. The Allies ignored the warnings of the German buildup.

The Americans had only a few divisions, including the 106^th division, in the Ardennes guarding a fifty-mile front. The area was used to rest and refit divisions coming off the line or to organise new units. The Germans poured fourteen infantry divisions and five Panzer divisions into this front, smashing the new 106^th division out of existence. 7,500 men surrendered in the largest mass surrender in United States history.

This then was the military background that made the alleged flight by Cecilia Johnstone (in an American aircraft) of such interest to allied intelligence.