Ferguson's Gang

Ferguson's Gang was an anonymous and somewhat enigmatic group that raised funds for the National Trust in the United Kingdom during the period between the late 1920s and the outbreak of the second world war. The group is believed to have consisted entirely of young women, who hid their identities behind masks, unusual pseudonyms, and mock-Cockney communiques.cite news | first = Sue | last = Herdman | title = The Cloaked Crusaders | work = The National Trust Magazine | date = Spring 2008 | pages = 24-27 | publisher = The National Trust] [cite book |last=Waterson |first=Merlin |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The National Trust: The First Hundred Years |year=1994 |publisher=National Trust (Enterprises) Ltd, BCA and BBC Books |location=London |isbn=9780563370666]

The gang was influenced by Clough Williams-Ellis's publication "England and the Octopus", which denounced insensitive building and ugly development. They determined to save what they could. Their donations enabled the purchase of Shalford Mill, in Surrey, and Newtown Old Town Hall, on the Isle of Wight. They also funded the purchase of stretches of the coastline of Cornwall, priory cottages at Steventon in Oxfordshire, and supported appeals for money to purchase land in Derbyshire, the Lake District, Devon and Wiltshire. In total they raised the sum of £4,500, a considerable sum for the time.cite news | first = Sue | last = Herdman | title = The Cloaked Crusaders | work = The National Trust Magazine | date = Spring 2008 | pages = 24-27 | publisher = The National Trust]

As an example of their methods, in 1933 a fully masked "Red Biddy" deposited a large sack of Victorian coins to the value of £100 on the Trust secretary's desk. In 1935, one of the 'gang' was interviewed by the BBC, and turned up at Broadcasting House wearing a mask.

Members of Ferguson's Gang included "Bill Stickers", "Sister Agatha", "Red Biddy", "Erb the Smasher", "Kate O'Brien The Nark", "Silent O'Moyle", "See Mee Run", "Gerry Moham", "Black Maria", and the "Lord Beershop of the Gladstone Islands & Mercator's Projection". To date, only one member of Ferguson's Gang has been publicly identified. When the Oxbridge Sanskrit scholar and adopted Cornish bard Margaret Steuart Pollard died at the age of 93 in 1996, her obituaries revealed that she had been "Bill Stickers".cite news | first = Sue | last = Herdman | title = The Cloaked Crusaders | work = The National Trust Magazine | date = Spring 2008 | pages = 24-27 | publisher = The National Trust] cite news | first = Ann Trevenen | last = Jenkin | title = Obituary: Margaret Pollard | date = 1996-12-07 | work = The Independent (London) | accessdate = 2008-01-11 | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19961207/ai_n14076482]

ee also

* The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

References