The Archive of Unmarked History: Honor Blackman — Wartime Motorcycle Despatch Rider

We are starting 'The Archive of Unmarked History' to remember local people whose lives, achievements and sacrifices deserve to be remembered, but who may never have a physical plaque or memorial of their own. Real plaques are an important way of marking a place and remembering a person, but they are expensive, and funds cannot be found to put plaques everywhere they are deserved. There may also be other reasons why a physical plaque is not possible: a building may have disappeared, a location may have changed, permission may not be available, or there may simply be nowhere suitable for one. But the absence of a physical plaque should not mean that the person and their story are forgotten. A virtual plaque is better than no plaque at all. Through this growing archive, the Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum will create a permanent digital record of people whose stories might otherwise be overlooked. Each virtual plaque will tell their story and connect them with the places and communities where they lived and worked. The Archive of Unmarked History does not replace real plaques. Where a physical plaque is possible, that is wonderful. But where it isn't, we can still remember.

Before she became famous as Pussy Galore in 'Goldfinger' and Cathy Gale in 'The Avengers', Honor Blackman had already experienced a very different kind of life.

During the Second World War, Blackman worked in the Civil Service as a motorcycle despatch rider. According to the Lloyd's Register Foundation, aged just 15 she rode a British-made Triumph from the Home Office in London to a naval base in Grimsby, carrying messages.

Her wartime service brought her to Grimsby, where she carried important documents to and from the Royal Naval Base. The Grimsby Telegraph, recalling her connection with the town after her death in 2020, described her as a despatch rider who served in Grimsby and carried classified documents to and from the Naval Base.

There is also an intriguing local detail. The Grimsby Telegraph reported that Blackman was said to have stayed at the Royal Hotel, near the Dock Offices. The hotel had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the war, so we retain the newspaper's cautious wording rather than state the stay as an established fact.

The Royal Hotel has another connection with the world of acting. Patricia Hodge's parents later ran the hotel, after the war and before its closure in the 1960s. Thus, two actresses who would go on to become familiar faces on British screens have a connection with the same lost Grimsby landmark — though at very different times.

But the remarkable part of Blackman's Grimsby story is that, aged just 15, she rode a Triumph from London to Grimsby carrying messages for the Home Office, and subsequently carried documents to and from the Naval Base here. Long before 'Goldfinger' and 'The Avengers', this was the young Honor Blackman — a motorcycle despatch rider whose wartime service brought her to Grimsby.