EINSTEIN'S BIRTHDAY?

One of the constant joys of being a newspaper columnist was the unexpected phone call. In the 1970s, when I was Clement Court of the EDP, I received one such call from a gentleman who asked,  'Did you know that Albert Einstein once lived in a wooden hut near Cromer?' No, I didn't, and it was only after all my natural doubts about the caller and the story had been laid to rest that I began to take a serious interest.
Nowadays, many more people know about Einstein in north Norfolk - a 1930s escapee from Nazi persecution - because of plays and booklets and subsequent articles, and I'd like to take some of the credit for that because I do think I helped to re-excavate the yarn after it had been largely buried (or forgotten, anyway) for 40 years.
To an extent, the entire affair was something of a publicity stunt engineered by MP and Naval officer Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson, who owned property in the Cromer and Roughton areas and who, in 1933, offered Einstein sanctuary from mounting anti-Jewish campaigns in Germany.
Among other properties, Locker-Lampson owned a 'holiday retreat' on Roughton Heath which comprised three thatched wooden huts, the idea being that the professor might retreat from public view and reside awhile in one of the huts under the protection of Locker-Lampson, two lady secretaries, and a local gamekeeper. Except, the EDP picked up the story after Einstein was spotted in Cromer. The 1933 reporter was thus allowed to interview Einstein, and an item duly appeared in the EDP and other newspapers in September of that year. And despite the security aspect, photographs were also taken and distinguished visitors allowed to trickle in and out.
One of the 1933 photographs showed Einstein with two armed gamekeepers in the background. One of them was Herbert Eastoe, from Lord Suffield's Gunton Estate. The other I tracked down in the 1970s still living in Roughton. He was Eastoe's son-in-law, Albert Thurston, and he told me they were armed with two revolvers, a rifle, and three shotguns.
I asked what Einstein was like. 'He spent a lot of time writing and reading,' he said. 'We didn't have many conversations, but he would chat, usually about the countryside. He never mentioned Germany.' The secretaries, he said, would take the car and fetch provisions, and the milk came from a couple of goats. Sometimes Einstein would stroll over the heath to Roughton Post Office to post his letters. I would follow with a gun,' Mr Thurston recalled. 'Mother would wait with the pram on the road and escort him to the Post Office while I waited behind the hedge. Then I would escort him back again. He would buy sweets, simple things, like a child might but.'
Albert also added more spice to the speculation over exactly how long Einstein lived in the hut. Most accounts agree he was there throughout September, 1933, after which he went to America. Mr Thurston, however, said he thought their visitor might have been in residence even earlier in the year, two memories strengthening his conviction. The first was a recollection of carrying his new son, born in March, 1933, along the track to the huts to show Einstein. The other was Einstein's birthday, for which a cake was made. 'There was a surprise birthday party for him, and I remember that he cried,' said Mr Thurston.  
He showed me two snapshots from an album. One was of a relaxed Einstein, his long hair brushed back over his ears, casually dressed in light-coloured trousers and a shirt with short sleeves, seated outdoors with Locker-Lampson at a tea-table. The second, also outdoors, showed Einstein standing alone beside a table on which was a decorated cake. Trees in the background looked leafless, and Einstein was dressed in a long, thick overcoat and what looked like a woollen skullcap. His birthday, incidentally, was March 14.
The background did not look like summer, or even September, though of course it might have been a 'farewell' cake, the baby might have been several months' old before he was taken on his visit, or autumn might have come early that year. It is difficult to know that happened, but one thing weakens the story. Had Einstein actually been living on Roughton Heath as early as March there would surely have been a record of it. And there isn't, as far as I know.
On the other hand, Cromer Museum's brochure (guide number 15) about Locker-Lampson, which describes the Einstein incident, poo-poohs the birthday idea solely because, in the photo, the broom (or gorse) bushes in the background appeared to be in flower. Well, in the middle March this year the broom in our garden was already in flower.