LYDD

Lydd was originally a port and fishing centre, with sea-going vessels navigating the estuary of the River Rother. In 1287 a huge storm blocked the river mouth and changed the course of the Rother. The harbour became farmland, and the once-prosperous port turned into a quiet town on the marsh. The fishing vessels moved to Lydd-on-Sea, 3 miles away.

The area around Lydd was famous as a centre for smuggling in the 18th century, then in the 19th century, the military training ground of Lydd Ranges was established west of the town. The explosive 'Lyddite' was developed here. 

The impressive parish church of All Saints stands at one end of the High Street, and is called locally 'the Cathedral of the Marshes'. It is the longest parish church in Kent at 199 feet and has one of the tallest towers at 132 feet. It once had (Cardinal) Thomas Wolsey as rector. 

All Saints served as a trigonometry point for the 18th century Anglo-French Survey linking the Paris Observatory and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

To the right of the door, stands this tribute stone to a 17 year old local lad who was drowned at sea, after falling from the rigging. The history of the ship, correctly H.MS. Barrosa, can be found here: HMS Barrosa log

The Effigy below is reputed to be that of Sir Walter De Menyl, Lord of the manor of Jacques Court, Lydd. The Farmhouse still stands on the outskirts of town between the railway station and Lydd Airport

At the other end of the town, the now deserted Roman Catholic church of St. Martin Of Tours. 

There are plans to build several houses at the rear of the church, but to leave the church itself intact. It would be a great shame if this attractive building were allowed to deteriorate and fall into disrepair.

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Since I took these pictures, it has been tidied up, and is currently known as the 'Living Hope Bible Church', a Reformed Baptist church. Heopfully, it will now have many more safe years ahead of it

Lydd has a small churchyard attached to the church, and a larger town cemetery lies nearby. Sadly, a large portion of it is very neglected and overgrown. In one corner, the broken down stone wall reveals a grave with a strange history.

It is the final resting place of a a soldier’s wife – there’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary in that, as Lydd is home to a military base, but her unusual name has attracted attention over the years and rumours spread that this mysterious woman may in fact have been a member of the Russian imperial family.

Lydd feels like a long way from anywhere; its position on Romney Marsh, not far from the spectacular bleak landscape of Dungeness, makes it an unlikely setting for rumours of a lost Romanov Grand Duchess. 

There have been several people who claimed to be Romanov Grand Duchesses in the years after the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, the most famous of whom was Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated in 1917, bringing Imperial rule in Russia to an end and ushering in the short period of rule by a provisional government, which was overthrown later in 1917 by Lenin’s Bolsheviks.  Nicholas and his family were exiled to Siberia, first to a house in the town of Tobolsk and later to Ekaterinburg.  It was there, in July 1918, that they were murdered by Bolshevik soldiers.  As the Romanovs were murdered during the confusion of a bloody civil war, and their bodies not discovered for 70 years, many rumours persisted that some members of the family had escaped. 

In The Romanov Conspiracies, by Michael Occleshaw, which was published in 1993,  Occleshaw investigates the theory that one of the Romanov daughters, Tatiana, was rescued from the family’s captivity in Siberia and may have later married an English officer before dying tragically young.

Larissa Tudor was the wife of an officer of the 3rd Hussars, Owen Tudor.  They were married in London in 1923, after Owen had met her whilst serving with his regiment in Constantinople.  Larissa had reportedly been working as a dancing girl in Constantinople, and Owen married her against the wishes of his superiors in the 3rd Hussars, which led to him leaving the regiment and instead taking up a post with a battalion based in Lydd.

By all accounts Owen and Larissa had a happy marriage, but their time together was limited by Larissa’s increasingly poor health.  She died on 18th July 1926, and was buried in the local cemetery. Local people were intrigued by the grave of “My very beloved Larissa Feodorovna” and rumours began to spread that this mysterious, beautiful woman who had died so young had in fact been a lost Russian princess.

Tatiana’s mother Alix was known as Alexandra Feodorovna after her marriage to Nicholas, and the use of the name “Feodorovna” on Larissa’s grave is one thing that fuelled the rumours about her.  In Russia, people use a patronymic name as well as their given name – a patronym being based on their father’s name.  Alix’s patronym of Feodorovna translates as “daughter of Feodor”, and her daughters used the patronym “Nikolaevna” (daughter of Nikolai, or Nicholas).  The use of the patronymic name “Feodorovna” is of course incorrect for Tatiana, but its link to her mother’s name was seen as significant.  It was also mysterious: Larissa’s maiden name was Haouk on her marriage certificate, not Feodorovna, and her father’s name was listed as Adolph Haouk.  The age given on Larissa’s gravestone does not correlate with the age given on her marriage certificate, either: in 1923, the year she was married, her age was given as 27, yet on her grave – she died three years later – her age is set in stone as being 28.  In addition, neither of those ages correspond with Tatiana Romanov’s date of birth – she was born in June 1897, which would have made her 29 on 18th July 1926.

The 1991 discovery and exhumation of members of the Romanov family in woodland near Ekaterinburg, the place where the family was murdered in July 1918, did not stop the rumours of one or more family members surviving – analysis of the remains found that two of the Romanov children – the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters – were not present.  If anything, rumours of possible rescues or escapes intensified. 

The discovery of the remains of the two missing Romanovs in 2006, close to where the rest of the family had been exhumed 15 years earlier, threw cold water over the long-running conspiracies, including Occleshaw’s.  DNA testing indicated that the bones, which were found close to where the other bodies were discovered, were indeed from members of the Romanov family – thought to be Grand Duke Alexei and his sister Grand Duchess Marie.

As for Larissa -  even if she wasn’t a Romanov princess – and she never claimed to be one – many details about her life are conflicting and it’s really not clear at all exactly who she was.

When the Bolsheviks took power in the former Russian Empire late in 1917, the new regime began a brutal campaign against the former social and political elites of the Tsarist era.  Members of Russia’s aristocracy and nobility were stripped of their titles, estates and possessions, and were referred to as ‘former people’.  Many were forced to do public labour in order to earn food rations, and some were murdered.   Some were able to flee Russia – Perhaps Larissa was another Russian refugee who had attempted to escape the violence in her homeland, taking a similar route to Constantinople before meeting and falling in love with Owen Tudor there.

Poor Larissa died tragically young, of tubercolosis; although Owen Tudor later remarried, he continued to visit the grave of his first wife for the rest of his life.  The plastic flowers on her gravestone were laid by him some time before his death in 1987. 

Even though it’s now been proved that the occupant of this grave is not the Grand Duchess Tatiana, an air of mystery remains.  Too many things about Larissa simply don’t add up, but whoever she really was, she seems to have found some happiness with an English officer before her early death.