Post by Spooky on Mar 16, 2005 14:44:43 GMT
Four members of a pop group were returning to London on the A3 after an evening engagement in Portsmouth and were passing through Cobham at 2.30 in the morning. All four were sitting in the front of the van, and although they had encountered mist patches on the journey from Portsmouth, the skies around Cobham were clear and the moon was shining brightly on the roadway.
They had just driven round a bend in the road when all four noticed the figure of a very tall man walking towards them on the pavement, on their side of the road. They very quickly realised that this was no ordinary man, and Michael Fleetwood, the drummer, who got the best view of the figure, was shocked to see that besides the man being nearly 7 feet tall, he was also wearing a long greatcoat that almost touched the ground, and was fluorescent, with a light glowing around him. The figure appeared to take no notice of the van, or the men inside it, and appeared to walk in a “Frankenstein” manner, very slowly and awkwardly.
Extensive researches into the claims made by the four young men were carried out and it was revealed that Field Marshal Lord Ligonier was buried at Cobham Church and had lived at Cobham after his retirement from the Army. Jean Louis Ligonier was a French Huguenot, who had settled in England at the end of the 17th century, to escape religious persecution. He had joined the British Army in 1702 and had risen to the rank of Field Marshal and had become Commander in Chief.
He was said to have been 7 feet tall and to have led a very vigorous life up until the time of his death, at the age of 90, in 1770, having in his younger life survived the Battle of Malplaquet in spite of being hit no less than 22 times by bullets. At a time when the British soldier was treated like little more that cattle, he had treated his men with great respect, and was long-remembered for this.
The four young men were sent a picture of Lord Ligonier, taken from his portrait. Two of them thought that there was a strong likeness to the figure that they had seen walking along the pavement at Cobham.