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