Lundy landing on Christmas morning

Thanks to the cooperation of the rescue helicopter section of RAF Chivenor, the handful of residents on the island of Lundy, plus the six light-housemen stationed there, had their Christmas turkeys and mail delivered on Christmas morning.

The turkeys and mail, with a varied selection of other supplies, including a Christmas tree, were to have gone out in the motor vessel the Lundy Gannet, but for a week she had been confined to Bideford quayside because continuing easterly winds up to gale force made it impossible for her to make a landing at Lundy.

When the Lundy Gannet went to the island on Monday of last week it was only possible to land a small portion of her cargo and mail, but happily this included some presents for young Peter and Jane Squire.

Over the weekend Skipper Trevor Davey received a message from the helicopter section offering to make the trip as a Christmas gesture, and he drove to the aerodrome with the turkeys and the sacks of mail.

Two helicopters took off, one to take the Christmas supplies and the other to act as escort. On the island an emergency landing ground and smoke signals had been prepared as a guide. Skipper Davey had offered to try a landing on Christmas day but the resident agent on the island, Mr F W Gade, would not let him.

For the first time for several years Lundy’s owner, Mr Albion Harman, did not spend Christmas on the island as he is working in Africa.

Full Gazette article dated 29 December 1961