Legal

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.

A link of a quarter of a century

is severed by the loss to Bideford of its Quarter Session and Commission of the Peace for, during the whole of that time, the Recordership of Bideford and Barnstaple has been held by Mr Wilfred Barnard Faraday, who now lives at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

Born in 1874, Mr Faraday is the son of the late Mr F J Faraday, Commercial editor of the Manchester Guardian. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and at the College of Technology and at Manchester University where he gained his LLB in 1897. In the following year he gained the Lee Prize and two years later was called to the Bar.

In 1902 he was appointed hon. Secretary to the Tarriff Reform League for Lancashire and was Economic Tutor of the Anti-Socialist Union from 1909-12. From 1914-16 he served as a Leiutenant in the 5th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment and from 1917-19 was secretary of the Royal Aeronautical Society. During the same period he was editor of the Aeronautical Journal. He was appointed a member of the Civil Aerial Transport Commission in 1917.

In 1922 he stood as Conservative for the combined English Universities and twice contested the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield in 1924 and 1929.

Mr Faraday is standing Counsel to the National Union of Manufacturers. He has had a number of works on economic and aeronautical subjects published.

As recreation from his legal work, Mr Faraday enjoys sketching, walking, fishing and gardening.

Gazette article dated 16 February 1951

Awaiting Any Outcome Of Lundy Shots

Mr A Harman will be on Bideford Quay tomorrow

Mr Albion Harman, joint owner of Lundy, who created something of a national sensation when he admitted having fired shots from the island after a Cornish trawler had moored in the bay, is expected on Bideford Quay tomorrow morning awaiting any outcome of his action.

He said he expected to be there to save the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee the trouble of outfitting a marine expedition.

After Mr D McBurnie, skipper of Quiet Waters, had complained to the committee that several shots had been fired and that one shot had hit the mast of his vessel, Mr Harman made a statement to the Press.

The rights to the fishing in the waters round Lundy belonged to the island, he declared, and had been exercised and successfully guarded until the coming this summer of the Quiet Waters. She had met with the traditional and natural reaction to a poacher and had been fired upon.

No action is being taken by Devon police over the Lundy incident, Police Supt D C Maynard, Barnstaple, made this clear at the weekend.

The full Gazette article is dated 22 September 1961

Bideford Boy For Approved School

For stealing a £1 note,

a fourteen year old Bideford boy was ordered by Bideford Borough magistrates at a Juvenile Court on Wednesday, to be sent to a remand home until a suitable approved school is found for him, and to stay there for three years.

Mrs H E Fulford presided, and other magistrates present were Alderman H A W Huxham and Mr Frederick Lee.

PC Warren read a statement made by the boy to the Police in which he stated that he went with Mr Bastin, who is a blacksmith, in a car to Woodtown. There Mr Bastin changed his coat and left it and the boy in the car and went about some work he was engaged on. The boy saw an envelope protruding from one of the coat prockets. He took it and found inside a £1 note and a bill. The latter he destroyed. He took the £1 note and gave it to his mother, telling her he had picked it up. PC Warrant added that when he went to the boy’s house, his mother was about to go to the Police Station with the £1 note.

Inspector Rendell said the boy was bound over for two years for stealing in March of this year.

Mrs H E Fulford said they were going to send the boy to an approved school and the Bench hoped he would keep quite straight. His father must pay the costs of the court.

Gazette article dated 31 August 1937