Brinsmead biographies
The English
- Alfred Ernest Brinsmead
- Alfred Charles Brinsmead
- Rev. Keith Brinsmead
- William Heath Robinson
- Ephraim and Emma Squire
- John (Jack) Brinsmead Squire
- Rosa May Billinghurst
The Canadians
The Americans
The Australians
Alfred Charles Brinsmead
Alfred
Charles Brinsmead was born in 1902. He is the father of the Chichester
Brinsmead clan. Alfred Charles led a full and varied life until his
death in 1964 when a lifetime of smoking
got the better of him. He appears to have
believed in marriage, subscribing to it three times, with
children from all three unions.
His father,
Alfred Ernest Brinsmead
was an airman in the WWI who died at sea. His mother was left to raise a
young family of six children single handedly. Alfred Charles, the third child, became a
clerk at Sir John Caustons Ltd stationers office, HM Stationers, Tower
Hill, London. In 1919, aged 17, he left to become a Ship's Steward on
the Cunard Passenger Ships to the United States, the P & 0 Line to
the Far East, and the Union Castle Line to Africa. In 1927, he
became a representative for S.E. Smith & Sons furniture manufacturers of
London and by 1939 was their sales manager.
When war broke out, he tried to enlist in the Royal Navy, but was
refused, perhaps because of his age. Instead, he joined the Auxillary
Fire Service experiencing many exciting moments as the Luftwaffe tried
to give London a beating.
After a while , the navy reconsidered his application, perhaps due to
his long-term experience as a keen yachtsman and his consequent ability
to navigate. He signed up and was sent to a training establishment
for officers at Hove, in Sussex
From there he was assigned to a unit called MD1 (Ministry of Defence 1)
This was a special department set up on the orders of Winston Churchill,
and controlled directly by the War Cabinet. Its purpose was to cut
through all the normal red tape associated with government departments
and develop special weapons urgently required for the war effort in as
short a space of time as possible. Sometimes the unit was dubbed
Winston Churchill's Toyshop, and there is a book on the unit,
of that same name, by Stuart Macrae.
The Admiralty had a similar unit (The Department of Miscellaneous
Weapons) which became known as the "Wheezers and Dodgers" and included
the novelist Neville Shute. The unit's adventures, including some that
involved Brinsmead, are recorded in the book
"The Secret War
1939-1945" by Graham Pawle and in Shute's own book,
"Slide Rule". They were given the use of the pier at
Weston-super-mare, which was renamed HMS Birnbeck, and facilities at
Appledore in Devon, only a few miles from Brinsmead's
great-grandfather's birthplace in Weare Giffard.
By the time Brinsmead had joined the department, it had been moved (or
rather bombed) out of its original location in London, and had
re-located to a vast Tudor mansion, formerly the property of a
millionaire stockbroker, in a tiny village called Whitchurch, in
Buckinghamshire. This mansion was called "The Firs", and had extensive
land, which was used to conduct various trials and experiments with some
of the (highly dangerous) weapons under development, with minimum danger
to those concerned, especially the local residents, although Brinsmead
did tell his son John that a cow belonging to a local farmer
unfortunately (and accidentally, of course) did give its life in the
cause of the war effort, having wandered undetected into the middle of a
field trial of some lethal weapon!
MD1 consisted of civilian "boffins", and officers and other ranks
from the services, all operating together as a team, and supported by
administrative staff from all walks of life. They were a favourite
of Churchill's who regarded the ordinary military brass with a certain
disdain, particularly where inventivness was concerned.
Alfred Charles Brinsmead as Winston
Churchill is shown an experiment at The Firs
"The Firs" carried on with this work, developing no fewer than
twenty-six new weapons right throughout the war and for all three services.
These ranged from tiny explosive devices such as booby traps, to heavy
artillery, naval mines, and tank-based bridges. They were given the
use of the pier at Weston-super-mare, which was renamed HMS Birnbeck and
facilities at Appledore in Devon, only a few miles from his great
grandfather's birthplace in Weare Giffard. Probably best known of
their devices were a special detenator for the "Limpet Mine", the
anti-tank "Sticky Bomb", and the anti-submarine multi-depth charge
device "The Hedgehog".
Alfred Charles was particularly sucessful with the
invention of a pistol that could be used to set off limpet mines
strategically placed at a distance in water. This saved wiring the
mines with the difficulties and uncertainty that entailed. Using
this device, the military could clear wrecks that blocked harbours or
other places where access was important.
Such inventions, after the war, entitled the inventor to a compensation
payment. Brinsmead applied and, after a long struggle with the
Admiralty, in 1952 received an inventors' award for this work from a
Royal Commission established for the purpose of considering such claims.
Returning to civilian life in 1947, once the war was over, he became
re-employed in the furniture industry for a while. He then entered
into business and owned several glass and china shops in the South of
England.
He also bought a 64ft. ex-RAF high speed rescue launch, which he
converted for private use in his spare time.
Brinsmead stood for election onto the Chichester City Council, and
became the Deputy Mayor shortly before he died in 1964.
[We are indebted to AC's son John Brinsmead,
Janet Capon-Brown (whose father was a Wheezer and Dodger) and Neville
Shute scholar Richard Michalak for much of the information in this short
biography.]