大象传媒

It was early in 1940 when my mother, Eileen Timbrell, decided to take my brother Geoff, my sisters, Diana and Sheila, myself and a friend Jean Moses out for a walk in the countryside. It was a lovely sunny Saturday morning and the reason that she decided to take us out was that my father, Sidney Timbrell, worked nights at the Swindon Bus Depot and wanted his sleep.
We lived in Temple Street and Mum walked us out of town towards Wootton Bassett and at the bottom of Toothill, we turned towards Shaw. As we appproached Shaw Farm, we saw a man by a parked car and he was taking photographs towards Swindon.When he saw us, he quickly jumped into his car and drove off. As children, our minds ran away and we imagined it was a German spy and Mum said we were to take the registration number of the car, make and colour. Taking photographs was forbidden during the war.
When we reached the spot where this man was stood, we had a wonderful view of the Great Western Railway works as well as the Moredon Power Station and of course, Swindon. At that time the GWR was producing tanks, shells, and other vital equipment to help the war effort. Short brothers were even producing parts for the Short Sunderland Flying boats. (Wings for one item)
When we got home, I boasted to my neighbor, Geoff Lott, that we had seen a "German Spy" and explained what we had seen. He told his father, Bert Lott (RNVR) and he felt that it was important enough to report it to the Police.
One evening in the blackout, we had a knock at our front door and Police Inspector Albert Mitchell was stood there and asked for my mother. He came in and after telling us that Mr Lott had reported the incident of the photographer, he took all the details that we could give him. Mum gave him the type, colour and most important,the registration number.
Inspector Mitchell said that he would keep us informed of all developments within his capability. Within two weeks, he called to tell us that a man had been arrested in Kent and he had a camera on him with panoramic photographs of the GWR and Swindon.
Inpector Mitchell thanked us and once again, he said that he would keep us informed on the outcome of this case. Unfortunately he was knocked down soon afterwards by a car in Marlborough Road in the blackout and killed. This was reported by the Swindon Evening Advertiser on the 8th May 1940
We never heard anything more of this incident and more recently I have contacted both the Swindon Police and the Kent Police to find out more. The Swindon Police said as he was arrested in Kent, the records would be with them. The Kent Police did say that their records for that period would have been transferred to the Records Office at Kew. To date I have not managed to get there.
Finally, we the Timbrell family,would like to think that, with some help from Mr Lott, may have made a small contribution to helping the war effort in catching this man. Who knows,we might have saved the GWR and Swindon from a bombing?

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