Petersham at War

During the Second World War Petersham was home to the Ant-Aircraft Command School. The Vicarage (now the Old Vicarage), All Saints Church, the Village Institute, and Elm Lodge were all requisitioned. Huts were erected in the Vicarage garden. This secret institution concentrated on operational research. The scientists recruited to make the calculations sought to analyse the data collected on past enemy action in order to estimate where future attacks were likely. At the centre of their work was the radar set which was linked to anti-aircraft guns. The School was also known as ‘the wireless school’ or ‘the radio location school’. Shells with time fuses could be aimed to the height at which enemy aircraft had been detected by radio. All Saints Church, which had not been consecrated, could be used as a cover for testing the elevation finding attachments of the guns.
 

"To god alone be the praise. In glorious memory of those who fell in the Great War 1914-1919, 1939-1945. Their name liveth for evermore"
 

This church and village institute were part of the development on the grounds of Bute House which was demolished in 1895. The garden of the vicarage had been acquired as the site for a new parish church. The latter was never built, because All Saints was erected (1899-1909) at the expense of Mrs. H.L.Warde (d.1906) of Petersham House in anticipation of an expansion of the village. Anti-Aircraft Command benefited from this group of buildings as a secret location precisely because such a development had not taken place.

The is a summary of an article in Richmond History 28 by Michael Lee copyright owner. Copies of the Journal are available from Houbens and Open Book at Richmond, price £4.95, or from Len Chave.