大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the site by the 大象传媒's Peoples War Team in the East Midlands with John Stuarts permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

Whilst serving my national service in the mid forties with the RAF, I met a dispatch rider on two camps I served at, who I recall hailed from Matlock or Derby by the name of Darrell (or Darren) Edge. He was a leading aircraftsman and a character one would never forget. Most RAF camps were nearly always miles from the nearest town and very often lads would miss the last truck or bus back to camp, and then would have to walk back instead. But often Darrell would come along on his way back from delivering a despatch to some other camp with the RAF motorbike and sidecar and he would stop and pick up every one of the lads strutting back to camp along the winding country lanes. Often they would be piled on top of one another, anywhere for the lift back to camp. We counted seven on the back of him one night - it must have been a record for a motorbike and sidecar and you wouldn鈥檛 get away with it today, even in country lanes! The last time I saw Darrell was in 1947 when we both got demobbed. I believe he took up a job on the fairs riding a motorbike on the wall of death. Motorbikes and speed were his life. It would be interesting to know if anyone in the Derby area remembers him or knew him."

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