THE muffled bells of Wingrave Church will ring out tomorrow night as the village pays its respects to its close friend, the former president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, who died at the weekend aged 75.
The spotlight of the world fell on the Bucks backwater in October 1998 when Mr Havel and his glamorous wife, actress Dagmar Havlova, made a state visit to Wingrave as part of a wider tour to the UK.
Wingrave first forged close links with the country during the Second World War when Wingrave Manor, in the heart of the village, was chosen to be the headquarters of Czechoslovakia’s exiled government which had fled London during the Blitz. Nearby Aston Abbots Abbey became the home of president Edvard Beneš and his family while the village school (now closed) accepted the children of the diplomats and officials. A covert radio station was also established in Hockliffe which enabled the ousted government to send secret messages to its embassies and resistance.
Towards the end of the war the president, grateful at the warm welcome his government had received, donated a much needed bus shelter which still stands at the Wingrave Crossroads. In 1998 the Czech Republic announced that its president, a former playwright and poet who had a leading role in the Velvet Revolution to topple the country’s communist regime nine years earlier, would be coming to the UK and intended to visit Wingrave.
The visit was arranged by Wingrave resident Geoff Aldridge and followed on from an event three years earlier when the country’s ambassador joined in VE Day celebrations in the village.
Mr Aldridge, of Leighton Road, contacted the Czech embassy with an intention of maintaining links with the country. He then received a letter from the foreign office saying Mr Havel would be visiting the UK in 1997 and wanted to drop by. “Two to three days before the visit we were told Mr Havel was unwell. He’s had long-standing lung problems but still insisted on smoking,” said Mr Aldridge.
“He finally came over in October 1998 and he was a lovely, charming man. We all went to the Rose and Crown which he enjoyed immensely.
“It was quite an event for the village. Everyone had turned out when this cavalcade of stretch limosines, people carriers and outriders swept around the corner.”
The visit, sandwiched between lunch with The Queen and a tour of Belfast, gave the president a chance to meet the locals and war veterans before laying a wreath on the war memorial. He was interviewed on site by TV personality David Frost before going for a walkabout through the village, accompanied by VIPs, before ending up in the pub.
Mr Aldridge said that over the years the Czechs had donated money towards the church bells, paid for a new flag and, during Mr Havel’s visit, contributed a new bench to the village green. He said: “He was a wonderful man and much revered and we thought we would pay our respects by ringing a muffled quarter-peal, which is a funeral ring, on Wednesday evening.
“We think of some of the world’s statesmen and he was nothing at all like that. He was a poet and playwright who was jailed for his views.”
David Neave, chairman of Wingrave Parish Council, said: “Vaclav Havel was a wonderful man. He visited Wingrave on at least one occasion and he had an excellent session in the Rose and Crown. He was greatly liked by all who met him,”