Crime Writer's Link with Mersea by Sylvia Gower.

Last year saw the centenary of the birth of Margery Allingham well known crime writer who created the sleuth Albert Campion. Stories of his detection are set around London, Suffolk and Essex; very much Margery's own background.

She was born in Ealing May 20th 1904, the first child of two cousins Herbert and Emily Allingham who were both writers. In her writing, she carried on the strong tradition that had flourished in the family for four generations.

She was five when her parents moved to the Old Rectory at Layer Breton (now renamed Shalom Hall). The school she attended in Colchester became Endsleigh House School. Even at seven years old, her parents allotted her a room as a small office and encouraged her to write. When, in 1917, the family moved back to London, she became a boarder at Perse School for Girls in Cambridge.

For the three years 1921-1924 she attended Regent Street Polytechnic to study drama and elocution. It was there that she met her future husband Philip Youngman Carter who was later to become a prolific graphic artist and writer.

When the children were young, the family spent holidays in Clacton, but following their move to Layer Breton became very frequent visitors to Mersea renting one of the newly furnished houses in Seaview Avenue. We are told that she grew to love it and wrote juvenile poems such 'Sunset over Mersea', and 'Moonlight over the Island'.

Evenings on Mersea could seem rather slow for those used to London theatres and restaurants. On August 3rd 1921 after the company had left, Margery suggested they amuse themselves by 'trying a glass' a pastime she had learned at 'The Perse'. This was a rudimentary form of seance involving an upturned tumbler and a set of alphabet cards. (The slaughter of the Great War, and the awful 'flu epidemic had precipitated an interest in spiritualism.) The four who took it up included Margery's father who made notes as the evening progressed and later wrote up a formal account. In it he claimed that they found themselves in communication with Joseph Pullen, a smuggler who had lived in Mersea two hundred years earlier. They asked him about the old "Ship Inn" at East Mersea and the murder that was said to have been committed there. During that and subsequent sessions, they were convinced they had been given an account of real incidents happening to real people two centuries before. It led them to visit the site of the old Ship Inn, and for Philip to visit the Museum curator in Colchester to find if there was record of the C17th crime.

She used the story for her first novel "Black Handkerchief Dick" [ Blackerchief Dick or Blackkerchief Dick ]. This book was published in 1923, with the book-jacket designed by Philip Youngman-Carter. It was published by Sir Ernest Hodder Williams. Later, Margery seems to have become embarrassed by her 'teenage novel' and allowed people to think she had made it all up. The family continued to holiday in Mersea and in 1923 she wrote "The Sexton's Wife, a ghost story set in Tollesbury and "Hill of the Ancestors" thought to have been inspired by Mersea Burial Mound, although never published.

Her marriage to Philip Youngman Carter took place at St Giles in the Fields on September 29th 1927.

After a short stay in Holborn, they moved to rent Viaduct Farm at Chappel. In 1934 they bought a handsome Georgian house named D'Arcy House, in Tolleshunt D'Arcy. They lived here for the rest of their lives, taking an active part in village life, especially in the village Cricket Team. Once a year, their local team played a team from Chappel. On these occasions the Youngman Carters invited the villagers to lunch and tea in their garden. A documentary film, called ' The Way we Were' was recently produced by I.T.V. This shows cine-camera film of that event and others in the village, taken by Margery's sister Joyce. Margery can be seen preparing and serving food for the occasion and thoroughly enjoying it.

During the War, she was appointed Billeting Officer for Tolleshunt D'Arcy and in 1941 her book 'The Oaken Heart' was published. This gave an account of village life in wartime, and today provides a fascinating social study of the time.

Her husband was commissioned into the R.A.S.C. and served in N.Africa and the Middle East. In 1946 he was demobilised and served with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and worked as Features Editor of the Daily Express. Later he joined the 'Tatler' as Assistant Editor, to become Editor.

In London, he became a member of the Thursday Club, which was how, in 1949, that Club's Cricket Team which included the Duke of Edinburgh, and other well-known personalities, were invited to play the local D'Arcy Cricket team! This was also filmed by Joyce Allingham and shown on 'The Way We were'.

After the war, Margery's books became even more popular and in 1951 she was voted one of the best ten mystery writers. Her book, 'Tiger in the Smoke', published in 1952 was made into a film in 1956, starring Bernard Miles and Donald Sinden. In 1959, Margery won the Crime Writers' Award for her novel 'Hide my Eyes'.

More local history.