Page 178 - Bulletin 19 2015

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Life in Kalk Bay was wonderful, only disturbed then, as now, by minor spats with
neighbours. In 1941 Justice Stratford had just had his house Robin Rise completed (see

below). Prenton Street, recently named was still ‘unmade’ - that is untarred. Stratford’s

architect wrote to Council asking them to make and tar the pavement outside his client’s
house. This peeved Frost who wrote from Woodlea asking why his pavement was not being

done – and Council agreed. He also objected to living in a ‘street’ and requested ‘place’ or at
worst ‘road’ be used instead. This was of course rejected.

The family idyll was shattered when news reached them that Esdon’s brother Robert (Robin)

had died on active service in Italy in April 1945, a month before the end of the war. Like
many others the family never really recovered from this blow. Ernest Frost died in 1960 and

his wife Annie Moir Frost died the following year. The house was inherited by the two
remaining children, Esdon and Joan. It seems that it stood vacant for some of this time

because in 1955 a Miss Vera McIndoe applied for a boarding house trading licence at

Woodlea. It was rejected on the basis that the area was zoned single residential. Nothing
daunted, Miss McIndoe applied for a licence on a property in Behr Road the following year.

st
In 1963 Woodlea was bought by Leonard Percy Lord or, to give him his full title, the 1
Baron Lambury KBE. (Fig. 3.68.) Among several titled people who lived in this area over the
years this is the only Lord of the Realm who has been found. In brief, Leonard Percy Lord

had a long and distinguished career in the British motor industry, becoming president of the

British Motor Corporation.

The house Woodlea could only have been a holiday home and its purchase by Lord may have
been influenced by Frank Connock (see below) then living at Arlington on Quarterdeck Road.

Lord died in 1967 aged 70 during discussions which led to the formation of British Leyland.
There are differing views on his legacy in the British motor industry which are well worth

reading.

Woodlea seen today is externally unchanged from the Fagg design of 1935. (Fig. 3.69.)