Wartime death of Duke of Kent in Caithness plane crash subject of play reading

THE death of the Duke of Kent in a plane crash in Caithness during the Second World War is the subject of a play which is to be read at Lyth Arts Centre next week.

Call Me Mister Bullfinch is "a story of intrigue, betrayal and conspiracy by an elite against the people of Britain who were fighting a desperate war against a fascist dictatorship. It is the story of an attempted coup by a section of the British ruling class at a time of national crisis," according to writer, George Gunn.

He says the mystery of the death of the Duke – the younger brother of King George VI – and the crew in the crash at Eagle's Rock near Dunbeath on August 25, 1942 has never been adequately explained.

Gunn has undertaken extensive research on the subject and believes that the plane, a Short Sunderland Flying Boat, was on a flight to Sweden with the Duke of Kent on board as well as Rudolph Hess, the vice Fuhrer of the German Reich in a bid to broker a deal to get Britain out of the war. Hess had flown to Scotland the year before on a peace mission.

Gunn thinks Hess was secretly taken from the Tower of London to Loch More in Caithness while a double was left behind as the German prisoner. Hess was picked up and taken on the flight to neutral Sweden to help negotiate a peace settlement with the Reich.

When the plane crashed Swedish kroner notes were found on the Caithness hillside and all fifteen on board were killed but then a sixteenth crew member, the tail gunner, was found alive a day after. So who was the extra body, asks Gunn. He believes it was Rudolph Hess and claims there was an element of the British establishment who wanted rid of Churchill as they thought he was losing the war and they wanted a peace deal.

Call Me Mister Bullfinch poses questions about the involvement of the Duke of Kent, the role of Rudolph Hess and the man who ended up in Spandau Prison after the war and asks if Churchill "uncovered a plot no-one would believe or could know about."

Gunn said: The moved reading will be the culmination of a week's residency at Lyth where the director Liz Carruthers and I will work on the play with the five actors – two of whom are from Caithness, Helen Mackay and Adam Robertson with Matthew Zajac from Inverness who is well known to Caithness audiences from his days with Grey Coast and his various tours with Dogstar Theatre."

He added: "We are endeavouring to bring the play to the stage. The week's development and the reading are a vital part of this process. I think Caithness people will find the story fascinating as it puts the county centre stage in the great drama of World War Two."

Gunn hopes to get funding from Creative Scotland to tour the two-act play – originally commissioned by the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh – around the Highlands the central belt of Scotland.

The reading will be performed at Lyth on Friday, March 29 at 7.30. Admission is free but booking is recommended.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.