News
Return from Oz
- Monday, 08 April 2013
A man who was shipped to Australia by social services at the age of eight has finally returned to Britain 63 years later - to be reunited with the family he never met.
Bill Stokes lived with his mother in Cornwall but was taken from home by social services when she was deemed unfit to look after him.
He was then shipped off to Fairbridge Farm school in Pinjarra, Western Australia, where he was regularly beaten and whipped.
Bill was one of thousands of youngsters deported to Oz by councils in the UK who deemed them to expensive to look after.
Heart Wren-ching tale
- Thursday, 04 April 2013
The first ever woman to win the British Empire Medal for bravery has broken 70 years of silence to describe for the first time how she rescued a pilot from a crashed plane during World War Two.
Beth Hutchinson, 92, was just 24 when she picked up the gong for dragging the man from the burning wreckage with "complete disregard for her own safety".
She was on driving patrol at a remote Scottish outpost in 1943 when the Swordfish plane came down and she rushed to the scene alone.
The pilot was already dead but brave Beth pulled the co-pilot, a Fleet Air Arm observer, from the burning wreckage as explosions scattered burning debris all around them.
Costa packet
- Wednesday, 03 April 2013
Local traders have launched a campaign against Costa Coffee - after plans to open a NINTH outlet in one city were unveiled.
Residents have been asked to shun the chain in Gloucester by a protest group called 'Glosta Coffee'.
The campaign follows nationwide backlash against Costa - with similar protests in Bristol, Totnes, Devon, Southwold, Suffolk and Bakewell in Derbyshire.
Divine intervention
- Wednesday, 03 April 2013
A pensioner taking part in an open-air telling of the Easter story was attacked by an angry audience member - because she was helping crucify Jesus.
Stunned Jeanie Civil was appearing in "The Passion Of The Christ" as Joseph Caiaphasas - the high priest said to have organised the plot to kill the Son of God.
But during the performance outside a church a 59-year-old man suddenly leapt out of the 1,000-strong audience and jumped on her - then punched her in the face.
Armed chair forces
- Tuesday, 02 April 2013
A group of RAF pilots have become the first to be awarded wings for flying UNMANNED aircraft.
The four hot-shots are part of a new RAF squadron formed to fly drones and have just completed their training at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, USA.
They will now remotely fly the Reaper MQ-9 aircraft, an 11-metre long drone which can be used in bombing or intelligence missions.
They have the ability to bomb sites more than 3,500 miles away in Afghanistan while based in Nevada and RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
The wings are a recognition of the growing importance of Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS) which now play a vital role in modern warfare.
Life is harder for the younger generation- and baby boomers agree
- Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Life is harder now than it was for the previous generation, research has revealed. A detailed study found the majority of the under 30s believe life is tougher now than it was for their parents – and their parents actually agree.
Longer hours, a lack of job security, a flat housing market and the rising cost of living all emerged as factors which the previous generation didn’t have to cope with.
Modern technology, which acts as an umbilical cord to the office, was also revealed as a downside of life today, which was not present 30 years ago.
Brothers in arms
- Thursday, 21 March 2013
A Royal Navy officer yesterday became the second member of his family to qualify as a pilot - after his identical twin.
Lieutenant Alex Tuckwood, 27, was given his wings just eight months after brother Neil.
He was selected after 32 weeks basic air navigation training at Culdrose to join 702 NAS for Front Line aircraft training on the Lynx Helicopter.
Purrfect bookends
- Wednesday, 20 March 2013
These two life-sized cats look distinctly sinister, just like the man believed to have been their owner - Hitler's Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering.
The Gestapo-founding Nazi leader reputedly used the pair of carved oak cats as book-ends for leather-bound volumes including the Fuhrer's Mein Kampf.
But the malevolent moggies were "liberated" by RAF Squadron Leader Geoffrey "Butch" Butcher after the British Army seized the Luftwaffe air base at Jever in Germany in 1945.
Bowled over
- Wednesday, 20 March 2013
A traditional chinese ‘Phoenix’ marriage bowl has sold for a whopping £260,000 at auction.
The jade bowl, thought to be around 270 years old, is a type which was popular at the Imperial Qing court, the last imperial dynasty of China.
It has ring handles, suspended from auspicious phoenix masks and the jade if of a pale celadon colour prized by carvers of that era.
