Liverpool and Germany in the 60's

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Tonbridge to the Americas in 1946

Africa in 1951-2

Africa 1959

Liverpool and Germany in the 60's

LIVERPOOL 1960

For my sins I commuted morning and evening for fifteen years through the Mersey Tunnel and nine cars out of ten had only the driver in it. It got to be very boring and I was often grateful to anyone who wanted an early morning lift into Liverpool, as long as they were waiting for me and I did not have to wait for them. One lovely summer morning, it was definitely a Monday, I picked up two passengers, Ann and Anne. They were both post-graduate students at Liverpool University at the time, both very elegant and very pretty, the former was blonde with blue eyes and the latter was a brunette with brown eyes. I told them that I should not be dropping them at the University, but at the Adelphi Hotel, where I had an appointment to pick up my Chairman at nine a.m., for it was our monthly board meeting day.

At exactly nine a.m. I drew up at the bottom of the long steps down from the Hotel, which my Chairman, Mr. Cowley Thomas was then descending. Cowley was just my age and a character and we were very good friends. He can be described as a man-about-town. He looked the part in his Saville Row suit, Burlington Arcade bowler, rapier like umbrella and slim brief case. Cowley recognised my Zodiac and no doubt noticed that I had two morsels of outstanding pulchritude squeezed in with me on the front seat of the Zodiac, for he hurried down the remaining steps to render all the assistance that a gentleman of his calibre would do on such an occasion - and to have a good look.

Cowley held the door, his umbrella and brief case with one hand and raised his blasted Burlington Arcade bowler with the other and no doubt thoroughly enjoyed the view as the girls slid over the front seat to get out. There was no need for introductions and the girls were departing when Cowley said to me in a stage whisper, "Morning Thomas, had a nice week-end?" Ann and Anne smiled so sweetly at him, but I could have kicked him, chairman or no chairman.

GERMANY 1964

Before going off for an appointment I left my secretary a note telling her to book me flights to Hamburg and on to Dusseldorf to fit an afternoon appointment in Hamburg and a 10.30 a.m. appointment in Dusseldorf the next morning. She knew my preferred hotels, so I just added the words "Sleep Hamburg". The dear child, solicitous as always for my welfare, decided that I should have to get up at the crack of dawn to make the Dusseldorf appointment, so booked me in to sleep at Dusseldorf. What she did not know was that I was not going to miss an opportunity of going to the Hansa Theatre, which I consider one of the finest shows on earth.

So, I reported at 7.40 a.m. at Hamburg airport to find I was booked on the maiden flight of the Lufthansa's first Boeing 707 scheduled flight from Hamburg to Rio de Janeiro, calling at Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Paris and Barcelona, in between. They were going to pick up most of their passengers in Paris, but for this first leg I was the sole passenger. Greeted by a beautiful blonde at the top of the steps I was shown into the luxurious first class compartment, despite my display of a tourist class ticket. Breakfast - five courses ? was served immediately after takeoff and memorable it was. Those two stewardesses did everything but feed me. As soon as it was cleared away by the second stewardess, my blonde enquired if I had any sunglasses and on receiving my negative reply, proceeded to the captain's deck, bringing back a spare pair of his, which she helped me put on. Then she fetched a box of the company's best cigars and insisted that I had an after-breakfast cigar on Lufthansa. This was real service, but I was completely bowled over when she asked me if I minded if she sat down with me and watched it. I replied it was a pleasure, but what was "it"? Well, "it" turned out to be a total eclipse of the sun!!

It was as an impressive a sight as I had ever seen, not to say thrilling and it affected her just as much, for I found that she was lightly holding my hand. So here I was, the first passenger in a machine costing ?1,500,000 travelling at 600 m.p.h. at 25,000 feet, smoking a free cigar with one hand and clasping my nordic goddess with the other - surely no Astronomer Royal ever had it so good!!!