Charles Bernard Kent

Mrs. Vivienne Reynolds from Suffolk has contacted us through BROM and claims her father was also a Patrol member. His name does not appear on any official list but he has been identified by an Auxilier as a member of the Patrol and so we have no reason to doubt the account. She writes;

'Charles Bernard Kent, who is my late father, and died in 1977 also worked at Richard Garrett's too, and was initially in the Home Guard. However he told me that he had a 'bit extra' too do if the German's had invaded. Saying very little, he said he had the job of making things difficult, when 'Jerry' arrived and he was to blow up the railway lines just beyond the cemetery gates.

I asked if that was the Home Guards job and he said we were separate to them. Whilst a child I occasionally played with his tool box, and found some odd things including 'C' shaped magnets etc. When I asked what they were he just said magnets. Play with them if you wish. It was only when I visited the BROM I found, these magnets (shaped so they could hold explosives and placed up under a vehicle) in the display cases along with other items I had seen in the tool box as a child!

I met Ailwyn Churchman at Parham and he said, "Of course you knew your father was with our lot don't you." and when I said no, he went onto explain how my father Charles Bernard Kent was a member of the Leiston Auxiliary Unit Patrol. I told Ailwyn about the magnets etc. in the show cases and was surprised I did not know until then what their actual use was. My father was an exceptionally brave and quiet man, and never disclosed information about the Auxiliary Units, and it is only since his death that it has now come out about what they did and the reason for their formation."