This grave in Southborough’s cemetery is decorated for Christmas each year to recognise local civil engineer Guy Maunsell.
Guy was the mastermind who created the other-worldly forts you can see from the Kent and Essex coasts.
They were built to shoot down German aircraft, which had been using the Thames to guide them on their way to bomb the capital.
They also protected coastal shipping from attacks by fast e-boats and downed 'Doodlebug' V1 flying bombs.
The historian Margaret Flo MacEwan (pictured) is passionate about spreading awareness of the role Guy - an unassuming Southborough resident - played during the war.
This also included helping to create the famous Mulberry Harbours the allies took with them to Normandy after the D-Day landings.
It’s a story that involves structures that look like the Marian invaders from the H.G. Wells novel The War Of The Worlds, the Luftwaffe, the Royal Navy and Army, London's Hammersmith Flyover, 1960s pirate radio stations, the Principality of Sealand and tons of concrete.
Full interview (15 minutes):
Pics: courtesy Margaret Flo MacEwan (13 Dec 2025)
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