Is there a relative of Thomas Henry Lovett still in the area that could explain a mystery about a Second World War serviceman's grave in Barming?

Leading Aircraftman Lovett was killed on August 18, 1940, at RAF Bigin Hill. On that day the Luftwaffe raided a number of fighter stations across the South East in an attempt to disable the RAF. Mr Lovett is believed to have been ground crew at the airfield.

He was the son of William and Lucy Lovett, and married to Daisy Lovett (nee Long).

He is mentioned on a memorial in St Margaret's Church Barming, but also on a memorial in St Andrew's Church, which now houses two war memorials that once stood in Barming Heath Asylum.

The asylum, which opened in 1833 and didn't close until 1994, went by various names over the years: the Kent County Mental Hospital, Oakwood Hospital and Barming Mental Hospital among them.

It is the source of the disparaging term of someone being "barmy" if they are suffering from a mental illness.

Often expanded, the hospital once had beds for 2,055 patients.

Most of the very extensive buildings have gone - to be replaced by housing, though some original buildings now form the exclusive St Andrew's Park estate, but the asylum's cemetery remains off Oakapple Road - for the time being at least, it too is being squeezed by housing developments on either side of it.

The cemetery is said to contain the bodies of some 7,000 inmates, but they lay in unmarked graves.

There are gravestones only for staff who worked at the hospital. Among them is the grave of Thomas Lovett. His is the only Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone in the cemetery.

Why is he buried there? Had he worked at the asylum in civilian life?

To add further to the mystery, Mr Lovett, who was born in Upton Park in Essex, is also recorded on the village war memorial at Hadlow. Why?

Answers please to ajsmith@thekmgroup.co.uk

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