Associations

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Safe Driving Awards

Certificates awarded by the Society for Prevention of Accidents for the year 1946 were recently presented to local Post Office drivers by the Head Postmaster (Mr. S. A. Talboys).

Mr. Talboys pointed out that the awards were not presented lightly by the Society but had to be hardly earned. Full enquiries were made in connection with every accident and if the driver was in any way blameworthy he was not eligible for an award. During the year in question the distance covered by the official vans was over 91,800 miles and although there were five accidents in no case was the Post Officer driver considered to be blameworthy.

The Head Postmaster congratulated the drivers on their records and wished them many years of “accident free” driving.

Mr. W. R. Harris (Assistant Postmaster), Mr. R.D. Whitefield (Overseer) and Mr. J. Bale (Assistant Inspector) also congratulated the drivers.

The wards were as follows: Gold Medal, F. Butler, E.A. Colwill, R. A. Whittaker; Oak Leaf Bar to Gold Medal, W. H. Buse; Bar to Silver Medal, E.R. Hill; Silver Medal, S. R. Davies; Diplomas, W.F. Shortridge, W. H. Beer. The following drivers, who were serving in H.M. Forces, received a Certificate: J. Hearn, G. Nicholls, G. Vanstone, C. Wakeley, E. R. Butler.

Gazette article dated 11 November 1947

Schoolboys Rescued

Hightspeed return home!

Two schoolboys who went fishing on Sunday ended up having an unexpected – and extremely enjoyable – highspeed trip in an inshore rescue boat.

Jonathan Gardner, of Woodstock, Sandymere Road, Northam, and Trevor Sparrey, of 60 Morwenna Park Road, Northam, were so engrossed in trying to recover the butt of Trevor’s rod when fishing of a rock near Rocks Nose, Westward Ho! that they did not realise until too late that they had been cut off by the tide.

But their plight was quickly spotted and Appledore IRB reached them as they were beginning to get splashed with spray by waves hitting the rock. Then came a trip back to Appledore to provide them with plenty to talk about to their school friends on Monday.

Gazette article dated 3 June 1977

Silver Jubilee of WI

Little Torrington WI celebrated their 25th anniversary with a party at Beaford House

Six founder-members were among those present.

In the picture Mrs H R Daniel, the president, cuts the cake, assisted by the immediate past president Mrs J Goaman, and the youngest member Miss Elizabeth Hocking.