Photograph Request For the Record Never Forget Penknife Collection

Sir: I would be grateful if any reader having a photograph of the distinguished civil engineer Wilfred Cracroft Ash (1884-1968) could contact me via This England. Amongst other things, Wilfred Ash was engineer-in-chief on the construction of what became the largest ordnance factory in the world at Swynnerton, Staffordshire, during the Second World War, which I am currently researching. —

GRAHAM BEBBINGTON, TRENTHAM, STOKE-ON-TRENT, STAFFORDSHIRE. Spring 2015, page 59, the former Youth Hostel in Saffron Walden is now a private residence. Summer 2016, page 31, Lieutenant Charles Godfrey Haggas Cutcliffe Hyne was wounded in the Battle of the Somme. He died of his wounds on 21st November 1916 at a Military Hospital in Middlesex. Sir: I wish to respond to Pamella Laird’s letter “New Zealand Soldiers” (“Post Box”, Spring 2016). I have the pleasure to represent the Italy 43-45 Campaign Veterans and for the last five years I have been collating a book of veterans’ memoirs about the time they Sir: The “Children’s Cinema” letter from Terry Lawton (“Post Box”, Summer 2016) took me back to the same era.

One Saturday morning at the local Plaza cinema a notice pinned over the pay kiosk read: “All penknives must be handed in and collected on the way out.” Dozens of penknives were handed over without question. I wonder if today’s 10 and 11 year olds would be so complicit?