Summer 2023

The story of Jaeger’s Field
Researched by Brigid Longley & Derek Smith
LOCAL HISTORY
Known to all as “Bill”,
Bernard Lytton Jaeger
was a teacher at
Cranbrook school,
founder member of
Cranbrook Rugby Club and a
horse whisperer. He lived in a
stable at Angley Park with his
horse called Horace.
Jaeger’s Field was originally
called the Walnut Field.
Bill Jaeger purchased it and
used it for rugby, which he
introduced to the school,
as well as growing feed for
Horace. Kent County Council
ended up owning the field,
and transferred it to the
school in 1993.
Brigid Longley remembered
Bill well, “His home was
different, the stall and fittings
of the stable remained. The
mangers were heavy red
earthenware, with wooden
divisions topped with metal
grills.
“Horace’s domain was a
loosebox at one end, with the
harness room and sheaves of hay.
At the other end was a table and
chairs, a ‘Tortoise’ stove with a
chimney disappearing through
the ceiling and a small brown
sink with a cold tap, where Bill
cooked and washed. He slept
upstairs in the hayloft.
“He was a regular visitor to
our house. As a horse minded
teenager I admired his way of
life and the way he dealt with
Horace. I had a difficult pony.
One day he said, ‘I’m joining up,
Horace is going I’m afraid. Try
this, and he gave me a ‘3-in-1’
bit. I’m only lending it to you
mind, but if I don’t come back,
it’s yours.’ This was 1942 when
he went to join the RAF.
“I saw Bill once more, when
after a cheery supper we were
sitting around the fire. Perhaps
BAE SYSTEMS
he forgot I was there, or thought
that at 14 I was old enough to
hear of the horrors of war. He
spoke of our enormous losses
in the air, the small chance of
his personal survival and the
appalling destruction of the
German cities he had known and
loved.
“I listened confounded. All my
childish beliefs in heroes going
off to war were shattered. I grew
up more in that half-hour than
ever again.”
Graham Holmes takes up the
tragic denouement, “In 1944, Bill
Jaeger was a Sergeant Navigator
based at RAF Ford with No. 96
Squadron, flying Mark XIII De
Havilland Mosquitos, against the
V1 Flying Bombs.
“When Bill had joined the RAF,
he was considered overage for air
crew and was offered a position
as an intelligence officer. This
was not what he wanted and his
persistent complaints paid off
when he was eventually accepted
and subsequently qualified as
a navigator. Over the coming
months he and his regular pilot
were credited with a number
of V1s destroyed. Sadly, on the
night of the 26–27 July 1944,
their Mosquito was reported
missing on operations over the
English Channel. His body was
never found.”
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The Cake • Summer 2023 21