大象传媒

I was born in Hull in 1935 so when war broke out, I along with many other children was evacuated away from the Blitz. I was one of the furtunate ones inasmuch as I already had an Aunt and Uncle living in Thorne which is in South Yorks. I loved being with them along with rabbitts, dogs and Racing Pigeons. Thorne is quite near to Lindholme aerodrome from where we could hear the low hum of the Lancaster bombers.The Royal Air Force comandeered lots of pigeons and so some of our birds went to war.
We would know when "something was on" as we would be visited by some of the Air- Force boys and they would put some of our birds into a basket to be taken away. The boys, some of whom did not seem much older than me, loved our garden and would stay and have a chat and a cup of tea before they went on their way, some we never saw again. We then just had to wait, sometimes the birds did not return and we would know what the "something on" had been. When a pigeon came home as was his instinct we would go into the loft and catch it to see if it was damaged in anyway and whether it had been released with a tiny cartridge attatched to a special ring on its leg. If this was the case my uncle would unclip the cartridge which was about as big as a pen top, then I would get on my bike and take it to the head of the pigeon group, he was the only person with a telephone as only "posh" people and Doctors had telephones in those days. He would ring Lindholme and get permission to unscrew the cap. Inside the container there were two prongs around which was coiled a thin strip of paper on which were written strange letters and numbers which had to be read out, also the colour of the markings on the outside of the cartridge. I found out later that my little effort on my bike enabled the appropriate people to know exactly where and how the aeroplane had come down and where our bird had been released to fly home sometimes quite badly burned by bullets.
After the war we had letters of thanks from the Dutch Royal family and Government and the British Government thanking us for the use of our beautiful birds. Unfortunately I no longer have these letters as they were stolen by vandals who broke into the cottage many years later. Ironic really that the war was fought for their freedom, what a way to repay a debt.

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