Hockley Outstation

The outstation was at Ken Maryan Green's home "Egremont", Number 39, on the main Southend Road at Hockley. The wireless was concealed within a chicken shed at the bottom of the large and rambling garden. It was under tall trees one of which held the aerial. The aerial tree has since been felled as it became diseased and the hen house is long demolished.

The operator retained a number of documents at the end of the war, which have provided invaluable in working out the operation of the Special Duties Network. These include one that contains the typed names of the Bowland, Cheviot, Ormskirk and Chiswell networks. These were not previously known, or were incorrectly recorded from handwritten or oral accounts. Also included are details of exercises which involved carrying messages and transmitting them.

The names of a number of people associated with the station were listed on a page of the Essex Patrols nominal roll. Nine were listed, including Ken Maryan-Green at the top and others with close family links to him. It is believed these may have been the observers providing the information to the outstation. Most likely there were additional runners to carry the information and two of these have been identified. As a result this is one of the best described outstations and observer teams in the whole Special Duties Network.

After the war, the house became the home of Daphne, the daughter of Rayleigh Auxilier Jack Murphy, who was married to the nephew of Charles Olley, Alan, brother to Laura Maryan Green. They had moved in with Grace Olley, Laura mother, while Ken and Laura moved into her old house, Aberdour, across the road, which needed considerable work after the Army had requisitioned it during the war. When Alan and Daphne moved in, they discovered radio equipment still present in the hen house. They moved out in 1956.