What the 'Maintenance Man' saw (or didn't see) ....

Dick Morecraft says that he went to work for Churchills, a club "two doors away from Caroline House", which we know was located at 6 Chesterfield Gardens. Technically, but not practically the location is correct for the building, but not for the Club. Churchills was located at 160 New Bond Street, but the owner of that Club also owned the 21 Club which was at 8 Chesterfield Gardens.

Dick is speaking from memory, years after the event. But he says that he responded to an advertisement for Churchills Club, and while we could not find that advertisement, we did find one for a 'Maintenance Man' at the 21 Club! It is dated Friday, January 11, 1963 and it appeared in the Classified Advertising section of the London Evening Standard.

Of course we don't know how long this advertisement had been running in the paper, or whether someone else had previously been hired and fired, but, both the job description and the location match the account given by Dick Morecraft!

Unfortunately of the people who had been inside 6 Chesterfield Gardens in 1964, only a few have been interviewed. Like Dick Morecraft, whose interview was published in a 1994 addition of OEM, his account about events in 1964 was recalled long after the event. Therefore, if his recall was not totally accurate, that is understandable.

But there is another problem, and that is with the leasing of the property at 6 Chesterfield Gardens between 1964 and 1967. We do know for a fact that there were many tenants in that building between 1964 and 1967, and according to Dick Morecraft, his responsibilities were to the person who hired him, and her name is Marina Martin.

That poses another problem, because there was no such company as Radio Caroline Ltd in 1964, and so we do not know (at the moment) who was paying the wages of Marina Martin. But clearly Dick Morecraft owed his working duties to Marina and the person or organization that was paying her. The question then becomes one of whether Dick Morecraft maintained the entire building, or just parts of the building.

Now we do know for a documented fact that 6 Chesterfield Gardens had been the headquarters of the Indestructible Paint Company Limited, which supplied industrial paint coatings to various trades. It was not a retail operation per se. But in 1959, this company with a long history behind it, was bought out and it became part of an ever-expanding group of companies which had no need for 6 Chesterfield Gardens.

We also know that the group which bought the company at 6 Chesterfield Gardens, eventually bought not just industrial paint companies, but industrial printing ink concerns as well, and that is where a commonality of connections begins to link with Stevens Press Ltd owned by Jocelyn Stevens.

Stevens Press Ltd owned more than just 'Queen' magazine, and it is with a trade newspaper owned by Jocelyn Stevens that connections are made. Something else that we know is that after 1959, and the acquisition of the Indestructible Paint Company Ltd. headquarters, the building at 6 Chesterfield Gardens became at least partially vacant.

Looking directly at the front door of 6 Chesterfield Gardens from the street, the door immediately to its left as part of an attached row of buildings, is the entrance to number 8 Chesterfield Gardens.

Why is all this so important?

Because Dick Morecraft was asked who was at 6 Chesterfield Gardens, and his response from memory does not jive with the known occupants of that building who had nothing to do with the entity known as 'Radio Caroline'. Some people like George Saunders who worked on board the mv Mi Amigo as a radio engineer, and for a time on the mv Fredericia (Caroline), told us that he never went above the floor where John Gilman had his office when he was standing in for him. Gilman, whose secretary was Kitty Black, was responsible for the broadcasting equipment on board both ships, and he reported directly to Allan James Crawford!

So as you can see, the "Devil" really is in the details, and in this instance the factual details are what you will discover for the very first time on this Blog. No one else has ever meticulously researched the story of 'Radio Caroline' before, although several people have fraudulently published books that claim to tell the "real" or "true" story.

Of course, those authors did not tell their book-buying customers the truth!

​We will.