On the trail of Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier in Kent

Yesterday, we did a road trip that joined various sites which linked Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier's time here on the Kent coast.
We started by driving down to Sandgate where Hattie was born and brought up. Her house is marked by a blue plaque and is on the High Street and looks oddly squeezed between the other houses. Around the back, you realise it opens out into a quite big house, now modernised. It goes without saying it has fantastic views of the English Channel.

Back of the sea facing house

Hattie, born in Sandgate

Dipping into Graham McCann's bio of her husband John Le Mesurier, she sounds like a very complex character. She trained as a hairdresser, and was a nurse and was also a welder in the war.  Hattie began her acting career at The Players Club, under the arches at Charing Cross Station. Always known as Jo, as here real name was Josephine, she first met John Le Mesurier when he went to see a performance at the Players theatre; she was 25 years old and he was 10 years older.

They married on 10 November 1949 and lived in her house at Eardley Cresent, Earl's Court which was known for being full of people, and always attracting 'poppers in'. Although most of their married life was spent in London, they did also live in Margate in the 60s, but interestingly, the excellent Graham McCann book on John Le Mesurier makes no mention of this nor anything about their life in Margate.

John Le Mesurier and Hattie Jacques lived in the 60s in Margate

Their house in Margate was the next stop on our road trip. ?It is just off Trinity Square. Another blue  plaque bears witness to the time that they spent there. The house is quite unusual but a bit sad looking now and is only 5 mins away from the new Turner Gallery, so worth popping up and having a look if in the area.
The marriage fell apart in a famous menage a trois, but they remained friends and had respect for each other right until the end. John Le Mesurier's coastal connections continued as his third wife, Joan Malin was from Ramsgate. He sold his house in Baron's Court, London and they relocated to Ramsgate in the late 60s. At this time, John was filming Dad's Army and playing the role of Seargant Wilson, which he is known and loved for today.

There isn't a plaque on any of his two houses in Ramsgate but something much sadder. He died on 15 November 1983 in Ramsgate hospital (now gentrified into flats) and in the local church's graveyard - which has a huge distinctive tower that can be seen from all parts of the town -  there is a stone marker with the inscription - Beloved Actor Resting. The obituary in the Times, simply says "he conked out". The stone marker in the cemetary is hard to find, and it is rather fitting for such a modest man, that it is so simple and unadorned.