Lundy

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.

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

New Lundy Air Mail Stamps

Philatelists and ornithologists will share an interest in the forthcoming issue of a new series of air mail stamps for Lundy.

The stamps have been designed and drawn by Mr John C A Dyke of Sudbury Cottage, Fairy Cross, near Bideford.

In order of rising denomination the stamps carry drawings of the following birds: Puffin, Guillemot, Kittiwake, Razorbill, Fulmar Petrel, Oyster Catcher, Black-backed Gull.

The full Gazette article is dated 9 February 1951

Symbol Of Lundy Independence

Mr F W Gade, oldest inhabitant, and agent of Lundy, in defiant attitude.

2.3.1951 Lundy independence1

He leans against a tablet at the beach threshold. It reads: ‘This island is entirely private property. There are no public roads, footpaths or rights of ways whatever hereon.’

The tablet was placed there early last century when the ‘pirates’ of Trinity House had the ‘audacity’ to put a ‘landing place’ tablet of their own there.

Gazette article dated 2 March 1951