A CUCKOO IN THE PHEASANT'S NEST
  A Review by Stan Waight

SOUTHWICK HOUSE

Was it the fact that Madeleine Selby was the speaker, or was it the quirky title she had chosen that drew an audience of more than fifty to our April meeting?   Whatever, it was the highest number we have had for some time and included seven non-members (who knows, they may decide to come again).   It was a fine Spring evening and there was an air of expectancy as we assembled.   We were not disappointed, for here was Madeleine at her witty best.
We first heard a brief history of Southwick House up to the time of World War II.   Augustinian monks had established a priory within the castle at Portchester in 1150, but soon decided to move to their benefaction at Southwick, possibly to get away from the bustle of an army barracks and the visitations of  the Royal Family.   They built a new priory, which, sadly, has almost disappeared, and stayed there until Henry VIII rudely shattered their peace almost 400 years later.
Following the Dissolution, Southwick came into the hands of the Wriothesleys, but Thomas, first Earl of Southampton, later sold it to his steward John White.   The Whites and their descendants the Thistlethwaytes built and extended their grand house, and were to hold the estate for almost another 400 uneventful years.
It was during World War II that John Thistlethwayte invited Admiral Sir William James to Southwick for a bit of pheasant shooting, as a relaxation from the stress of the attacks on Portsmouth and its Dockyard.   James  -  known as 'Bubbles' because he had sat for the famous Pears soap portrait as a child  -  got to know Southwick well.
Wartime Portsmouth had become too hot for its School of Navigation, and in 1941 it was moved to Southwick, which became known as H.M.S. Dryad.   Admiral James was largely responsible for the move, and thus became the 'cuckoo' in the Thistlethwayte nest.
But Southwick's principal claim to fame was yet to come.   Amid great secrecy, the house and estate were chosen as the headquarters of the team which masterminded operation 'Overlord'.   It was here that the great military leaders Bedell-Smith, Bradley, Eisenhower, Leigh-Mallory, Montgomery, Ramsey and Tedder plotted their strategy for the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe that was to take place on 6^th June 1944.   In her inimitable and dramatic way, Madeleine gave us a great deal of detail of the build up of the operation  -  the planning, the subterfuges to deceive the Germans, the assembly of two million men and half a million vehicles and the anxiety about the weather.   
I have done my best to convey our Speaker's enthusiasm and depth of knowledge, but if you weren't at the talk  -  you should have been!