Latimer House

It is now branded as De Vere Latimer Estate[1] and functions as a countryside hotel used for country house weddings and conferences.

Latimer House, a mansion on the hill on the edge of the village, was once a home of members of the Cavendish family who became the barons Chesham.

They rented the estate from their son-in-law Lord James Cavendish, son of the 1st Duke of Devonshire, and husband of Anne Yale.

He was the son of Lord George Augustus Henry Cavendish and Lady Elizabeth Compton who was the daughter of the 7th Earl of Northampton.

The couple had five children the eldest of whom was Major General Charles Compton William Cavendish (1850-1907) who became the 3rd Baron Chesham when his father died in 1882.

The Australian paper gave the following description of the event: The magazine called “The Gentlewoman” carried a large picture of the bridal party returning from the Church after the wedding to Latimer House.

[13][14][15][16] It was also one of three stately homes where captured German U-boat submarine crews and Luftwaffe pilots were initially held before being transferred to conventional prisoner of war camps.

The information was sent to Winston Churchill, who was also a frequent visitor of Latimer House, and London was saved from bombarding as they destroyed the German's missile base from afar.

[18] The operation of converting the estate for secret purpose was ordered by Churchill himself, with an unlimited budget, which in the end cost over 21 million pounds.

[18] The head of Latimer was Colonel Thomas Kendrick, a senior officer of MI6, who had about a thousand employees under his command, including listener Fritz Lustig.

[18] John Compton Cavendish, 4th Baron Chesham died in 1952 and a year later the house became the home of the British military's National Defence College.

[20] On 12 February 1974, a bomb containing about 20 lbs of explosive, was placed close to one of the main buildings at the National Defence College by the Irish Republican Army.