Titchfield Hotel & Navy Island Memories!

Laura Barre writes us via the Mail Bag!

I was at the Titchfield in the early 60’s when Rex Rand bought it, and it was called “Jamaica Reef hotel”. The natives were all still talking about Erroll and how he won that island across from the hotel in a card game. The hotel was run down, but beautiful, and the breezes felt like soft, wet silk against your skin. I must have been one of the first people there after he bought it, because the parties had not yet started, and it wasn’t organized at all. I do recall getting really dressed for dinner in a chiffon gown, and thinking the surroundings were those of the most lush, tropical paradise I could imagine. I so want to return for nostalgia purposes. How lovely that some of it is still there.

Laura
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Laura, thanks so much for writing! I love the Titchfield Hotel (Jamaica Reef) as it became known. And all of Error’s time there. My friend Dennis Mullen was able to get onto the restricted military base where the hotel stood and to see the remains of the 3 pools, part of the floor of the ballroom and the path through the lush greens that he was told everybody used. Do you have any photos of the hotel?

I’d like to put up your comments to me as a Mail Bag item on the blog if you don’t mind? It would be fascinating for the blog to read what you said …

Here are some of Dennis’s photos. Two are from the resort on Navy Island. That is Dennis in the photos.

Regards,

David
David DeWitt/Admin/The Errol Flynn Blog
Sent from Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
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Wish I had taken photos! I remember the paths well, as I was worried about tripping in heels. I remember going on a long path of steps to then where we dined, in a circle, surrounded by these tall trees, all seeming very overgrown. I was staying in a little cottage which only had a ceiling fan to cool off, and my hair continued to never really “dry”. There were night blooming bushes outside my door that were like perfume. Go ahead if you like and upload my comments. What’s going on with Navy Island now? I’m intending to go back up there. Rex had sent a car for me that picked me up in Kingston, and I’ll never forget those scary winding mountain roads, and going through Kingston with lots of people in the roads carrying on. A novel experience for a young woman. I ‘ll bet they are still telling stories about Erroll around there!

Laura

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Thanks, Laura!

 

  

 

Photos show the late Dennis Mullen, Flynn aficionado and Travel Adventurer in the footsteps of Errol Flynn. Dennis walked in Errol’s footsteps both in Jamaica and Cuba. His design work seen above for Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee was as lyrical as the winds of adventure itself. He visited Jamaica doing some promotional work for The Errol Flynn Marina and attended Pat Wymore’s 85th birthday party as a guest at her table. He was so charming he was able to enter the restricted military base not once but three times (to the amazement if Dale Weston, manager of the marina) to view and photograph the remains of The Titchfield Hotel pools and Navy Island. These are not his Navy Island photos. More will be forthcoming about Dennis Mullen.

— David DeWitt