Miss Bobby Carter while she was serving as a WREN during World War 2
- Credit: Clarke & Simpson
For years the identity of the woman behind the creation of a woodland oasis in north Essex remained a mystery.
Estate agent Chris Clarke — who acted as her agent — was sworn to secrecy during her lifetime.
But after an anonymous benefactor purchased 500 acres of farmland at Fordham Hall Farm, near Colchester, for £1.4m in 2002 so that it could be turned into woodland for the benefit of the community there was much excitement and speculation about her possible identity.
A cutting from the East Anglian Daily Times from 2002 after the farmland was purchased by a mystery benefactor