Article written by Jackie Rickenberg for the Thursley Parish Magazine, September 2023, about Joan Pearl Wolfe, 19, known as the 'Wigwam Girl' which inspired the name of the case
Joan Pearl Wolfe at 19
This month there is a very long overdue memorial service taking place in the churchyard. At the same time a memorial stone will be erected, identifying the currently unmarked grave of Joan Pearl Wolfe, murdered on Hankley Common on 7th October 1942 at the age of 19 years old. Joan’s relatives will be attending as well as members of Thursley History Society and other interested villagers are invited to attend.
Joan’s story is a complex and complicated one but it is summarised below:
Joan was not local to Surrey. She grew up in Tunbridge Wells and attended Mark Cross Convent School, paid for by a wealthy aunt. She had a troubled upbringing, her father committed suicide when she was 7, her mother soon remarried and then Joan found her stepfather dead on the kitchen floor, again her mother remarried shortly afterwards. She ran away from home when she was 16 and lived a nomadic life, occasionally staying with a Thursley resident, Kate Hayter, whom she had befriended.
At this point in the war, Canadian troops were based nearby and Joan met a French-Canadian soldier named August Sangret, a year older than Joan. He also, had had a troubled past.
Throughout the 1930’s, August accrued an extensive criminal record, which included violent assault, threatening to shoot a woman and numerous convictions for vagrancy and theft. He was regularly unemployed before he enlisted to serve in the Battleford Light Infantry in 1935.
Joan and August first met in a pub in Godalming on 17th July 1942. The pair had a dysfunctional relationship over the next two months. Joan had nowhere to live, so after their second meeting, they returned to Houndown Woods near Thursley and near August’s barracks, where he built her a wigwam shelter for Joan. This hideout led to the naming of the eventual crime. After the destruction of a second shelter by the army, August broke into the Thursley cricket pavilion, where Joan lived for a few nights before disappearing on 14th September. August had a partial alibi for that night and made half-hearted attempts to investigate her disappearance. He had, after all, promised to marry her and gone as far as applying for permission to wed from his commanding officer.
Joan’s writing on the wall of the cricket pavilion – “Somewhere in Canada with you”
On 7th October, two marines patrolling the wood noticed what appeared to be a hand protruding from a mound. They informed the authorities who excavated Joan’s body. Primarily based on evidence from the known relationship between Joan and August, he was eventually arrested and tried for her murder. Fifty-three witnesses were called for the prosecution (including many well-known Thursley characters including Kate Hayter aka “The Witch of Thursley”, who lived in The Bungalow at Pitch Place and William Featherby, who lived in The Bungalow, Thursley and was known as Mr Thursley), whereas August was the sole witness for his defence. Hardly surprisingly, the jury found him guilty under the circumstances, but they urged the judge to show leniency in sentencing. Mr Justice Macnaghten ignored this request, put on the black cap and condemned August to hang.
Joan Wolfe was buried on 8th January 1943 in the churchyard in an unmarked grave by the Rev. H. Gordon French, vicar. August was hanged on 24th April 1943, despite an appeal and the jury’s refused request for leniency being reported to the Home Secretary, who choose to uphold the judge’s sentence. He was buried in a mass grave at Wandsworth prison. Brookwood Military Cemetery records his name on their wall of honour, as having died in service- the Canadian Army had not discharged him before his execution, so officially, he was one of their war dead. The memorial makes no mention of the circumstances in which he died.
These passages were taken from “Tales from a Country Churchyard” by Guy J. Singer, available directly from him on www.GuyJ.Singer.com or from Amazon. Guy published his book in 2022 and it’s a fascinating record and insight into the graves and memorials in the churchyard and the sometimes-lost stories of the people at rest there. I would thoroughly recommend it and in it you can read the story of Joan and August in much more detail than I am able to reproduce here.
So, there you have it. A sad tale of two vulnerable people and the strange twists of fate that led them both to spend the last few months of their lives together in Thursley. As mentioned above, until now, Joan’s remains have lain in an unmarked grave. Her family and the church wanted to put that right and as a result, generous donations have paid for a headstone for her, which will be erected and celebrated at a service in the churchyard on 28th September 2023.
From Surrey Live, 27th December 2022:
There is also an extensive entry on August Sangret in Wikipedia:
And a book by M J Trow:
