Offshore Forts and Pirate Radio Stations

Thames Estuary Forts and Towers Mersey Forts Solent Forts Humber Forts X-Pilot, Project Redsand, Shivering Sands, Red Sands and Knock John 2021 Roughs Tower and Sealand

This is a very brief introduction to some of the many forts and towers around Britain. There are very many websites dealing in greater depth with the history and stories surrounding these - some links to which have been provided. A variety of sea forts were constructed around the UK during WWII but not all of them figured significantly in pirate radio activities either due to location (broadcast range) or subsequent removal - many were destroyed immediately after the war as they interfered with shipping lanes. Had they survived, it would have been interesting to see whether they would have been of interest to would-be radio stations. The attraction of the Thames forts was, of course, that they still existed and were perceived to be outside British territorial limits. Also, the transmission distance to the capital was considerably smaller, requiring less powerful transmitters. Broadcasting From the Thames Forts

Thames Estuary Forts and Towers

A few words about the construction, placement and use of some of the offshore forts and towers, and some others, around the British coast, many of which still exist. The offshore Maunsell forts, or towers, which were of greatest interest to the pirate radio operators of the Sixties, were originally World War II military facilities built to protect the coastal sea lanes and were essentially of two designs

Guy Maunsell was a civil engineer with a great interest in the use of reinforced concrete. Maunsell was 55 when WW II began on 1st September 1939. By October 1940, Britain had suffered at Dunkirk and was experiencing the German Blitz on major cities. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Commander E.C. Shankland, Port of London Harbour Master, were worried about increasing shipping losses in the Thames Estuary. They needed protection from aerial attack and from the laying of magnetic mines so they requested Maunsell's advice on measures to defend the area from enemy aircraft.

His response was 'A Proposal To Establish Martello Towers for the Defence of The Thames Estuary'. Martello Towers had been built as land-based coastal fortifications in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars and Maunsell’s idea was to build similar structures in the Thames estuary. He proposed to build the forts on land, at a site up river, then tow the finished structures to their desired locations at sea where they were then sunk on to the sea bed. Maunsell developed the ideas for both the Army and Navy sea forts, known collectively as the Maunsell Forts.

Red Sands, Shivering Sands and Great Nore were Army constructed, originally consisting of seven separate towers, each set on four concrete legs supporting a steel structure 100ft above sea level and connected by narrow catwalks. The Shivering Sands fort, built in 1943 at the Red Lion wharf in Gravesend, consisted of just six towers by the mid Sixties, one having been knocked over by the ship 'Ribersborg' in fog on June 7th 1963.

Guy Anson Maunsell

The forts were just under 120’ high to the roof. The sites selected meant that there would always be around 30ft of 'legs’ above the high water mark, so there was no danger of the citadel being swamped. The forts, weighing 4,500 tons each, were towed out on specially constructed barges, two at a time, and set into the sea bed. Red Sands was put in place between July 23rd and September 23rd 1943 at 51.28.62 North 0.59.60 East and Shivering Sands between September 18th and December 13th 1943 at 51.29.95 North 1.04.48 East. The Army towers looked like several square boxes on tripods, the catwalks connecting to form a partial circle with a 'hub' tower in the middle. Each box was about the size of a two-floor house with the lower floor used for operations and the upper floor for accommodation. Army Tower Layout Inside the Redsand Fort

They were all designed by Guy A. Maunsell, who submitted many designs to the military for consideration, and were constructed by Holloway Brothers at Gravesend in Kent. The Army Forts were constructed in 1942 subsequent to the successful construction and deployment of the Navy forts. Each Army construction followed the same basic design, comprising of a Bofors gun tower, a control tower, four AA gun towers and a searchlight tower which were arranged with the control tower at the centre, the Bofors and AA towers arranged in a semi-circular fashion around it with the searchlight tower being positioned further away but still linked directly to the control tower via a high level walkway.

The Navy forts were more solid-looking single structures having the appearance of a 'ship on stilts'. The 30ft diameter stilts supported a large platform on which were constructed a number of cabins (with a high 'lookout' in the centre) and the spaces at each end were occupied by anti-aircraft guns. The 'stilts' were large round concrete legs sunk firmly into position on the sea bed and formed the accommodation of the facility as they were hollow and eight floors high, with all but the top couple of floors being below sea level at high tide. The floor areas were quite large, enabling them to accommodate about a dozen two-tier bunk beds around the wall. The space was originally designed for a complement of about 120 men.

Each leg contained a lift shaft for moving ammunition up to the guns on top, and a stairway for the occupants. The top floor in each leg contained power generators and the bottom floors were for storage, holding ammunition in one leg and food in the other. Great Nore tower had been completely uninhabitable since March 1953 when the Norwegian vessel 'Baalbeck' collided with it, destroying two towers (the Bofors and G4 gun towers) with the loss of four lives. In 1954 another vessel, the 'Mairoula', also collided with it, damaging the separated searchlight tower. It was eventually dismantled for scrap during 1959 - 60 as it was blocking the main approach to the Thames ports. Both types were designed to house various gun installations (quite visible on many pictures) to combat the twin threats of enemy aircraft and E-boats. The original navy forts weighed 4500 tonnes and their armament consisted of two 4.5" guns mounted on the main decks, four Lewis machine guns and two Bofors 40mm guns on the upper deck with the central wood and steel tower supporting a radar scanner dish. Navy Tower Layout

There were other marine structures in the Thames area at various times, including one thought by many to be one of the 60s 'pirate' towers and was actually partly refurbished in the 1970s to perform this function for Radio Atlantis. This was Gunfleet, situated about 6 miles off the coast of Frinton and, at 74 feet, was a kind of lighthouse looking like a water tank on stilts - not dissimilar to one of the single sections of the Army forts. It was constructed in 1850 as a screw pile lighthouse designed by Mr. Walker of Trinity House but based on the invention of an Irish man called Alexander Mitchell. Nick Catford advises:

Gunfleet lighthouse had not been considered for use by any broadcaster during the 1960s but, in 1974, with the introduction of the Dutch Marine Offences Act, a group of people started work to refurbish the lighthouse for use as a base to re-launch Radio Atlantis as a new English language station, Radio Dolphin. Refurbishment work started in September 1974, just after the new Dutch law came into effect, while on land a 5kw transmitter was being built by former Radio Atlantis engineer Andy Anderson. Studio accommodation, living quarters and a steel framework for guying the planned 120ft aerial mast were all installed during October and November 1974 with a planned opening date for the station of Christmas 1974.

Unbeknown to those involved with the new station, the British authorities had been keeping a close watch on all the activity at Gunfleet and, on 19th December 1974, they decided it was time to act. Three boats carrying police, Home Office and Trinity House officials arrived at the lighthouse and requested permission to board, which was initially refused by those in occupation. However, after being informed, correctly or not, that those involved with the station on land had already been arrested they relented and allowed the officials on board.

Home Office officials spent several days dismantling all the radio equipment that had been installed on the lighthouse. Four people involved with the planned station were later summonsed to appear at Southend Magistrates Court on 11th December 1975 on a charge of 'conspiring to install apparatus contrary to Section 4 (3) (d) of the Marine etc. Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967'. They were committed for trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

The trial took place on 5th April 1976 when thyree defendants appeared (the fourth was by then working on the Voice of Peace off Israel). Two of the defendants were given a two year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £50 cvosts. The case against the third defendant who appeared in court was dismissed.

There was a similar construction at Chapman Sands off Canvey Island until the sea finally got to it in the 1950s. They are both somewhat similar in appearance to the shore-based constructions visible at Dovercourt on the East coast.

The forts were not a popular posting and were abandoned wholesale by the military at the end of the war after which ownership became a matter of opinion as they were generally considered to be situated in international waters and not subject to any particular mainland jurisdiction. In fact, the War Office seemed to be rather keen to pass responsibility for them onto other government departments having tried, unsuccessfully, to sell them off in 1963. This didn't really matter, of course, as they were doing no harm and were of no real practical use to anyone - until pirate radio came along! By an extremely questionable interpretation of an obscure passage in the Geneva International Convention of the Sea, 1958, which was ratified in September 1964 by the British government in an Order in Council:

'The (Thames) estuary may be considered as a bay if the area of water within the bay exceeds that in a semi-circle drawn, with a 24 mile baseline, across the indentation in the coast'

... and another debatable decision which considered sandbanks visible only during unusually low tides at certain parts of the year to be part of the British mainland, all of the towers, except Roughs and Sunk Head, were declared to be inside territorial waters and therefore subject to prosecution under the Wireless and Telegraphy Act. The area of water in the bay, 683 square miles as calculated by a Ministry of Defence naval surveyor, was only 5 square miles more than that inside the theoretical semi-circle! (For more information on marine towers/forts, including Grain Tower, Spitbank and Bull Sand, see Bob LeRoi's excellent pages)

The last military maintenance teams were withdrawn from the towers in the winter of 1958/59 and by the Sixties all the offshore towers were already in a state of considerable neglect and disrepair, offering at best only a bare minimum of facilities and were to prove impossible to supply for long periods during bad weather. This is part of a description of Shivering Sands, which was the home of RADIO CITY - the fort had lost one of its towers when a ship ran into it, killing four people: ". . . one section had collapsed and another was standing all alone where the walkways had collapsed."
Also, being in open sea areas and constructed largely of metal, they were natural lightning conductors. On Red Sands, D.J. Paul Beresford of RADIO 390 was actually struck by lightning, not only surviving but managing to broadcast his usual programme only hours later!

Even on good days huge build-ups of static electricity were apparently a problem and there are many recounted tales of station staff being thrown some distance after carelessly grabbing metal door handles. Minor things like that, however, didn't seem to be any deterrent to the more determined pirate radio station operators. The planned final destruction of the towers commenced on 21st August 1967 when a team of 20 Royal Engineers demolished the upper sections of Sunk Head using 2200lbs of explosives, in front of a specially invited audience of television and press reporters, with a blast that could be seen both from the Radio Caroline ship and by Roy Bates on Roughs tower six miles away. Tongue Sands, already damaged, collapsed in a storm during 1996.

Shivering Sands, Red Sands and Knock John 2021

Some images taken by me on a 2021 trip out to the towers on board the X-Pilot who offer excellent sightseeing trips to the World War II Maunsell Forts – the Redsand Towers, the Shivering Sands Towers and the Knock John Fort,
all also 60s Pirate Radio Bases, off the Southeast coast of England. Project Redsand CIO was set up with the aims of conserving, preserving and interpreting the proud history of the structures known as the Redsand’s Army Sea Forts .

Mersey Forts

Although plans to construct Army Sea Forts in the Humber, Portsmouth, Rosyth, Belfast and Londonderry estuaries never materialised, three Army Sea Forts were deployed in the Mersey Estuary as part of the WW2 defences for Liverpool, although these were never used for offshore radio broadcasts.

After the successful deployment of his Navy Sea Forts in the Thames Estuary, Guy Maunsell, together with Sir Alexander Gibb, was commissioned to build sea forts for Army use in defending the Mersey Estuary in a plan to intercept enemy aircraft trying to bomb the vital docks and industry of Liverpool.

The threat and urgent need for these resulted in a significantly different modular design that could be built and placed more rapidly. The Mersey Estuary contains a number of sandbanks and Maunsell believed that its sea bed would be too soft to support the style of pontoon-supported forts that had been used for the Navy in the Thames Estuary.

The design for the Mersey forts used a self-burying concrete lattice base, integral to the structure but not impeding the natural movement of sand and shingle in the estuary which would have affected the shipping lanes.

Each fort consisted of seven individual towers, linked by tubular steel walkways, placed in relative positions that had been proved successful for land-based installations. The towers comprised one Bofors (anti-aircraft gun) tower, four gun towers, a searchlight tower and a central control tower.

The individual towers consisted of four reinforced concrete legs set in a self-burying concrete grid. The legs supported a two storey octagonal steel structure with military equipment on the roof. Built before the Thames Estuary forts, these were in deeper water but the design was followed for those built later in the Thames.

The original intention was to place 38 towers in the Mersey Estuary, but only 21 (three forts) were actually constructed and deployed. 49 towers were planned for the Thames Estuary but, again, only 21 (three forts) were built and deployed. A plan for 13 towers in the Humber Estuary never materialised.

Commencing in October 1941, the Mersey Forts were built at Bromborough Docks on the Wirral by Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Co Ltd, with each tower taking about eight weeks to construct. Completed forts were deployed between 7th October 1942 and 25th July 1943. Queens Fort was located near the Bar Lightship, Burbo Fort was placed south of the Bar and Formby Fort was positioned north of the Bar. The Mersey Estuary sea forts were never actually engaged in action against the enemy.

The eventual demolition of the Mersey Forts began in the early 1950s, their removal being given a higher priority than the Thames Estuary forts because they constituted a potential hazard to navigation in and around the River Mersey and Liverpool Docks. Demolition was delayed in 1954 when the salvage ship working at Queens Fort had to be diverted to assist with the more urgent repair to The Nore Fort in the Thames that had become a hazard to shipping after storms caused considerable damage that was, shortly afterwards, exacerbated by a collision with the Norwegian ship 'Baalbek'.
Demolition of the three Mersey Forts was finally completed in 1955.

Solent Forts

The four Solent Napoleonic forts of various sizes, Spit Sand (Spitbank), Horse Sand, No Man's Land and St. Helen's, were also used in the second world war but had originally been constructed between 1861 and 1880 as part of a defence system against the threat of Napoleon. The 1860 Royal Commission originally recommended five forts, the other being Breakwater Fort which was recommended for Plymouth harbour. They became known as 'Palmerston's Folly' due to the fact that they had their main armament facing inland to protect Portsmouth from a land-based attack, appearing to be facing the wrong way to defend from a French attack. Spitbank was smaller than the two main Solent fortresses of No Mans Land and Horse Sand which were very similar in construction and about 200 feet (61 m) across. Its purpose was to defend against ships that made it past the two main forts. Each fort has its own artesian well. During the Second World War the RAF constructed anti-aircraft platforms on them and anti submarine defences were strung between them to protect Portsmouth Harbour. They were decommissioned in 1956 and put up for sale in the 1960s, although they were not sold until the 1980s.

The chain of forts (Martello towers on land) runs all round inland Portsmouth and out into the Solent. Building the Spithead forts

Another curiosity is the 27-metre Nab Tower, also designed by Maunsell, situated on the Nab Rocks in the entrance to The Solent shipping channel to the east of Bembridge, Isle of Wight. Two towers were originally planned, to be constructed at Shoreham in 1918 for placement in the Straits of Dover to protect shipping from U-boats. However, by the end of the war in 1918, only one such tower had been completed at the then-cost of one million pounds, and was located in Shoreham Harbour, awaiting deployment. The 90ft (27m) tall, 40ft (12m) wide cylindrical structure was the first of eight planned outposts, which the admiralty had intended to arm with two 4-inch guns and link with steel nets to hamper enemy vessels. A new purpose had to be found and it was, instead, used to replace the Nab lightship which had provided navigation warnings since 1812.

It was put into place on 12th September 1920, in a similar manner to the later Maunsell forts and was manned until 1983. The completed tower was towed by two paddle-wheel tugs to the Nab rock, a rock in the deep-water approach to the East Solent and previously marked by a lightship. Buoyancy was provided by the honeycomb construction of the concrete base, creating 18 watertight compartments. When these were flooded, the structure sank but settled to rest at an angle of 3 degrees from vertical towards the northeast – a characteristic tilt which is obvious to this day. The remaining tower (No.2) remained incomplete and redundant, a 92-foot-tall metal cylinder sitting on a raft of concrete. In June 1922 there was a short period when the public could access it for tours. Demolition followed in 1924.

Humber Forts

The Humber Forts are two large fortifications in the mouth of the Humber Estuary - Bull Sand Fort and Haile Sand Fort. The two forts were planned in 1914, at the start of the First World War, to protect the sea entrance to the Humber Estuary. They stand 59 feet (18 m) above the water and have a diameter of 82 feet (25 m). There was accommodation for 200 soldiers. Construction started in May 1915, but they took more than four years to build and were not finished until December 1919, a year after the war ended. During the Second World War the forts were reactivated and modernised, and were regularly attacked by enemy aircraft. Submerged netting was installed to prevent enemy submarines from travelling up the estuary to Hull or Grimsby. The forts were finally abandoned by the military in 1956.

Bull Sand Fort is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from shore off Spurn Head. It is a 4-storey concrete building with 12-inch (300 mm) of armour on the seaward side, and originally armed with four 6-inch guns. It was built with great difficulty as its sandbank was 120 feet deep and 11 feet (3.4 m) below low water. Fresh water was pumped in from a natural stream below the seabed. Haile Sand Fort is the smaller of the two and is situated around the low-water mark between Cleethorpes and Humberston.

Bull Sand was mothballed until 1939 when it was manned by the East Riding Heavy Artillery Regiment and the fort’s armament was modified to include two quick firing guns. Haile Sand Fort was built on a hexagonal concrete foundation on a sandbank and was operational by 1917. The four storey, circular concrete fort was covered in a light steel armour. It has a two-storey central battery observation tower and was originally armed with two quick firing guns. It was also garrisoned by the East Riding Heavy Artillery Regiment from 1939 onwards. Both forts were decommissioned in 1956

Sealand

On September 2nd 1967, his wife's birthday, Roy Bates declared the Roughs platform, supported by 75ft concrete pillars, to be an 'independent nation' named Sealand and proclaimed himself monarch. The following year, the Royal Maritime auxiliary vessel 'Golden Eye' had three warning shots fired across her bow as she approached the structure, forcing her to return to shore. Roy Bates subsequently faced a summons under the Firearms Act but when he appeared in the dock at Essex Assizes the judge decided that the courts had no jurisdiction outside of territorial waters. In summing up, the judge remarked on “this swashbuckling incident perhaps more akin to the time of Sir Francis Drake”. Prince Roy of Sealand proclaimed the Constitution of the Principality on 25th September 1975. Gradually, items of national identity were produced such as the flag of the Principality of Sealand (red and black with white diagonal stripe), a national anthem, stamps and even its own currency - gold and silver coins designated as Sealand Dollars. 'Official passports' for the Principality of Sealand were issued to people who had, in some way, helped the birth of Sealand but were never at any point for sale.

In August 1978, a number of Dutchmen employed by German businessman Alexander Achenbach arrived at Sealand, ostensibly to discuss potential business dealings. In Roy's absence they kidnapped his son Michael and took Sealand in a coup d'etat. Roy recaptured Sealand with his own 'troops', by helicopter, and imprisoned the usurpers as prisoners of war, during which time the governments of both Germany and The Netherlands petitioned for their release. They did ask England for diplomatic intervention but were turned down, with the British government explaining that they made no claim on the territory and citing the court decision as reason for their refusal. The others had no choice but to recognise Sealand's sovereignty and West Germany even went so far as to send a diplomat to negotiate for the release of the German 'prisoner'.

The Dutch prisoners were the first to be released under the Geneva Convention which requires the release of all prisoners when a state of war does not exist. The sole German continued to be held as, at some stage, he had apparently accepted a Sealand passport and was technically guilty of the crime of treason. Prince Roy, in the interests of Sealand's reputation, eventually released the man without charge. On 1st October 1987 Britain extended the limit of its territorial waters from 3 nautical miles to 12, but had been beaten to the punch by Roy who, the previous day, had declared his own extension of Sealand's territorial waters to a similar distance, including large areas of the Suffolk and Essex coast, to ensure that access to Sealand could not be blocked by British territorial waters.

To date, no official agreement has been signed between Sealand and Britain regarding the resulting overlap in claimed jurisdiction but a general policy of dividing the area between the two countries down the middle has been unofficially followed. International law does not allow the claim of 'new' land by the simple extension of sea rights and so Sealand's sovereignty was still guaranteed. Under this law, neither 'country' can claim rights to any part of the other that falls within its 'new' boundary and it is to its credit that Britain has made no further attempts to take Sealand but still treats it as an independent State.

Following a ruling by the DHSS, Prince Roy pays no British National Insurance during the time he spends on Sealand. There was another incident involving firearms in 1990 when warning shots were fired at a ship that had strayed too near Sealand. The crew of the ship subsequently made formal complaints to the British authorities but, despite Britain's severe prohibition of firearms, the government chose not to pursue the matter indicating that the Home Office still considers Sealand to be outside their umbrella of control.

During 1997, a number of forged Sealand passports started turning up across the world, some of which were apparently used to open bank accounts in various countries under false names. Less than 300 official genuine pasports were in existence therefore it was unlikely that the items would be detected as forgeries due to the fact that hardly anyone had ever seen one. The source was eventually traced back to the same German who had unsuccessfully attempted to take Sealand by force. He had created an unofficial 'Sealand Business Foundation' that allegedly sold over 150,000 fake passports before being found out, resulting in the curious fact that there are now probably 500 times as many forged Sealand Passports in circulation than official ones. Apparently, a large number of the passports were being sold to people leaving Hong Kong during the Chinese reoccupation for a dollar each. During early 2000 Spanish police brought action against criminals that had set up a website selling fake Sealand 'passports' which are suspected of having been used by illegal arms and drug-dealing rings. One of these fake 'passports' was also encountered by police investigating the murder of fashion mogul Gianni Versace.

The current government of the Principality of Sealand states that "The Principality of Sealand recognises 'jus gentium' and has undertaken to regulate any activity with a view to compliance with 'jus gentium' and international law or to have it regulated." The acceptance and recognition of the Principality as an independent state, or country, has been demonstrated frequently over the last thirty years by both European and other States, but particularly Britain, which has stated unequivocably on a number of occasions that it has no jurisdiction within Principality territorial limits or that it takes no interest in events occuring within the jurisdiction of the Principality. In addition, many legal experts have carefully examined the arguments for and against Sealand sovereignty and have agreed with unanimity that 'jus gentium' applies as the basic principle of law supporting Sealand's independence.

Due to failing health, Prince Roy reviewed the arrangements that had been in place for decades and, looking towards the future of the Principality, appointed his son, Prince Michael, the Prince Regent as 'Sovereign pro tempore' by Royal Decree in 1999. In June of 2000 an Anguillan-based company called HavenCo announced preliminary plans to locate its servers and satellite uplinks on the Sealand platform provided its independent status could be validated. The company planned exclusive leases of offices and operations centres in Sealand to users who wished to take advantage of its Internet colocation services. The purpose was to allow companies to use its servers to avoid the government scrutiny made possible by laws taken up by the UK and USA although HavenCo insisted that it would not allow any form of illegal trading. Sealand, of course, had no laws regarding the control of data traffic.

To the dismay of many investors, the venture failed to become a a success. Ryan Lackey had moved to the fort in 1999, hoping to establish a safe location for privacy services such as anonymous remailers, and experiments such as anonymous digital cash. In a presentation to the 2003 DefCon convention, a former employee explained how internal politics and lack of investment had thwarted the venture. Contracts were broken, the bandwidth never materialised, and the location was vulnerable to DOS attacks. At the time of his presentation, HavenCo had failed to acquire any new customers and had, in fact, seen several of its existing customers leave. "Sovereignty alone has little value without commercial support from banks, etc," concluded Ryan. On Friday 23rd June 2006 the Roughs Towers top platform caught alight due to a fire caused by an electrical generator.

An RAF rescue helicopter transferred a security guard to Ipswich hospital directly from the tower and a team of 15 off-shore firefighters from the National Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG) were assembled, but after a reconnaissance from the air it was decided it was too dangerous to land. There had been a number of explosions on board as the fire reached gas bottles and batteries. A firefighting tug sprayed the whole structure with water in the hope this would eventually cool the fire and starve it of oxygen. The fire was left to burn itself out and was under control by 3.10pm. Prince Michael of Sealand, who had been in Spain visiting parents Prince Roy & Princess Joan, flew back when he heard the news. He managed to get onto the platform the following day to assess the damage:
"There is an awful lot of damage. It is worse than we expected. It is sortable, but there is an awful lot of smoke damage - it's got everywhere".

He was only able to reach the platform at the top of Sealand after his son James, 20, scaled it using a hook ladder. "It was very hairy, he was very brave and I am proud of him. Fortunately the winching mechanism is powered separately to the rest of it with a diesel engine, so we were able to get that working and get the boat up. I think there's about half a million pounds worth of damage. It is such a mess".
Roy and Joan Bates had retired to Spain in 2006. Their son Michael, the “Prince Regent” and acting head of state since 1999, had opted for the terra firma of Essex, leaving the platform in the hands of a lone caretaker. With Michael having appointed his own son, James, as Prince Royal, Sealand remains one of the few micro-nations to have established a viable dynasty.

“Listen, old boy,” Bates told a journalist in 2000, “I like a bit of adventure. It’s the old British tradition. Maybe Britain’s changed, but there’s a lot of us still about.”
Roy Bates, born August 29th 1921, died on October 9th 2012, survived by his wife, Joan, and two children. Daily Telegraph Obituary
'Princess' Joan of Sealand (nee Joan Collins) died March 10th 2016 Daily Telegraph Obituary

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