"Sixty Years On" - 1945

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In May came Victory in Europe with bonfires and jollifications.  On V.E. evening Bill Inder could have been observed bumping into Wren Winnie Cable emerging from the station and being unable to refrain from a warm embrace!  Winnie never came out again and is probably still suffering from the shock.  May Garrett also disappeared as did Jack Taylor and several more who had been regular riders.  One particularly tragic happening was to the husband of Kingston member, Mrs. Compton.  After years in a Japanese P.O.W. camp, he was released at the end of hostilities with that country, only to meet his death in an air crash on the way home.  Christmas morning run that year was again to Ripley attended by several recently de-mobbed members;  the two Loughnane brothers, the two Pearces, Les Norman and several more made up the party.

Chronicles

The News Letter of May 1945 read:-
"... altho' the day of final victory in Europe has at last dawned, many of our members will not be released from the Forces for months, while some will, no doubt, be taking part in the campaign against the Japs.  So the N-L will continue until most if not all our old members are back in civvy street.  In the middle of the rejoicings, however, we had bad news.  We learned that Trooper G. McGregor of Guildford was killed in action in Italy on l8th April, a few days before the general surrender there."

Clary Loughnane had two months leave from India in February.  In April he gave a most interesting and humorous lantern talk at Grove Court, Horsell, describing tours in Iceland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain and the Balearic Islands, a visit to New York and life in India and Ceylon.  He gave a carved ivory cigarette holder which was raffled and raised money for the Comforts Fund.  On the following Saturday he gave another illustrated talk on his treks in the Himalayas and a leather cigarette case from Egypt was raffled for the fund.  On runs, Clary was responsible for attracting members who had not been seen for some time including N. Pearce, B. Howell, Ted Pritchard (home from East Africa), Bill Inder and his wife Gladys.  Clary threw a free tea at Thorpe on l5th April and the attendance was 17!  What a blow to his pocket!  Clary's leave junketings included an 'At Home' at his parent's house, a ciné show for the old-timers at Norman Pearce's flat over the Chobham Road shop and another informal evening at Bill Inder's place.  So the gentleman from India certainly stirred up some of the war-time sloth.

One of the most hair-raising accounts received by the editor from serving members came from Flt/Sgt W. R. Brownjohn, R.A.F., Waddington, Lincs., dated 12 February 1945;
"... our crew had an interesting experience in December and it's one I shan't forget in a hurry.  We were on Munich at night when we collided with another Lancaster over the target which, as you can imagine, was rather disconcerting.  Anyway, the kite went out of control and down we went.  After a hell of a fight we managed to get her back on a more or less even keel and found that this other clot had taken our starboard fin and rudder and about 12 feet of starboard mainplane with him.  So we were in the mire if you understand what I mean.  We tried to jettison the bombs but no luck;  the electrics had failed so we tried the manual release.  That broke off in my hand then, - this is the spicy bit - I'm proud of this, young Joe takes an axe and goes to town in a big way, trying to chop the cookie off.  Well, I missed the damn thing more than I hit it and, at the finish, when it eventually fell off, the kite looked as though a bull had been let loose in it.  I can certainly make a mess when I want.  Anyway, the old girl was very unstable and was stalling at over 150 mph and we lost a lot of height keeping the speed up.  After a couple of hours holding the stick with very little rudder and practically no aileron you get a bit tired so the bombardier gave me a relief.  Just as he did so the starboard outer engine caught fire and she again went out of control so there was nowt else for it - we just had to hit the silk.  Coming down was the most wonderful experience I've ever had once the blessed thing had opened and I finished up in the top of a tree.  All the boys got out OK and we are all flying again so the only regret we had was losing the 'old lady'.  In France we drank 84 bottles of 1760 Champagne in six days also numerous cognacs etc., and, oh boy!, when I returned to England on Christmas Eve, I couldn't face English beer - I nearly cried."

Well, there were many more interesting letters received during the six years of the war but it's impractical to quote any more - altogether there are 67 foolscap pages of them - some getting difficult to decipher.

Nearly all those in the Forces expressed a desire to be back home and out with their old pals on the road again but, with the end of the war, very few did, in fact, come back into the fold.  Several had lost their lives during the six years of conflict but others just seemed to drop out of the cycling game.  Kingston section also had their losses, notably such prominent figures as Bert Dutfield, D. Pentney, B. McGrath and George Flack.  In the latter part of the war things were at a low ebb but both sections managed to keep ticking over.  The runs and club rooms continued and, mainly with slide shows, funds went on coming in for the comforts fund.  Things like lamp batteries were in very short supply and riders fell back on oil and gas lamps.  Even so, they had to be kept very dim owing to air raid lighting restrictions.

Bill Inder's evacuated office at Oxshott was badly damaged by a flying bomb (a doodle-bug) and the staff had to move to other premises nearby.  Throughout the six years of war Bill cycled the 22 mile round trip every week-day, including Saturdays.

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Web page by Chris Jeggo.  Last revised:  26 December 2004.