Above photo, kindly sent by Wendy Baker, showing the pub in 1997 and her husband, John, on the left.

Above photo taken from Google maps 2010.

From an email received 16 March 2015.

To whom it may concern,

Mr W. Soole (William) and his wife Florence Isobel Soole were licensees of the "Duke of Wellington" during WW2, in 1944 as I note in your website.

Bill Soole was my husband's step-grandfather, Florence having remarried after her first husband Harry Samuel Baker died in WWI.

When my husband was only a few weeks old (he was born in 1944) his mother (Mabel Baker) took him from London to Deal where she and the baby lived in the basement of the "Duke." My husband said that a small portion of the window was above ground level and old mattresses etc. were fastened up to protect from any shell splinters as cross-channel shelling occurred from time to time. My husband's father (Harry James Baker) stayed in London at the family home, living at times under the stairs when the roof had been bombed. He was an essential war worker (engineer) for a major engineering company and at night was an ARP warden – he had tried to enlist a couple of times but had been refused on the grounds of his engineering skills being needed.

Florence (Doll) Soole and William (Bill) Soole I had always heard from the family as being the owners of the "Duke" but perhaps it was meant that they were the owners of the licence. They had a pig (it may have been on an allotment possibly) and at the right time it was slaughtered and the hotel patrons enjoyed meat. Doll Soole became quite famous locally for her little pies and I can vouch for their quality – long after they emigrated to Australia in the 1950's and after I met my husband John in 1969 Doll always came for the evening meal with Harry & Mabel and the four children, armed with her specialty home-made pies. These days of course people buy “party pies” in cardboard packs and the contents also taste a little like cardboard.

If you have any information whatsoever on their time as licensees of the "Duke of Wellington," Deal, I would be absolutely delighted, as my husband at the time was only a few weeks old and everyone else involved has passed on, so I only have family story to go by.

I have photographs of the exterior of the "Duke" which I took in 1997 during our visit to UK and I regret now not having enquired of the then private owner if it would be possible to look inside. I wonder what it looked like in 1944-45?

Thank you,

Yours in history,

Wendy Baker, Victor Harbor, South Australia.

Above photo, kindly sent by Wendy Baker, showing William J Soole, licensee in 1947.