Lighthouse Stories 2

Last time, collage and modelmaking were popular (see Lighthouse Stories 1, 16 July). This time, there was more text and drawing was clearly ahead of collage until right at the end. Attendance at the Pavilion was different to July, many more of the very young and those with much longer memories. People in the gap between childhood and maturity were largely elsewhere unless they had kids to entertain which is where we came in handy. The Red Arrows flew a long loop from the Eastbourne Air Show. Bob only gave them a glance as he was stationed in Cyprus for three years and used to see them six times a day.

Thanks again to volunteer Penny Hobson (www.pennyhobson.co.uk) for a good collaboration and even transcribing.

Signing the OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT!

"In 1967, I worked as a ‘temp’ for Trinity House – in the beautiful Trinity Square near Waterloo. I was working on a database of lighthouse keepers’ addresses, which necessitated me signing the Act. I still have my faded copy…"

"In around 1991, I went to the Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London where Matts Gallery [then in Bethnal Green] were holding an event. Poet Brian Catling, unshaven and dishevelled, sat muttering in a corner. The light still had its mirrors then. It is London’s only lighthouse where they used to train lighthouse keepers. I was told that before that, the site was where those transported to Australia were embarked."

Loneliness
Quiet
Shout, but no one hears you
What a sad existence

Fire!
Noise!
Sirens!
Danger
Pain
RIOTS
Anger in the cities
Seemed a good idea at the time

Trendy living
consumerism
Fancy house
now I’m not so sure

stability…. not loneliness
calm …. cwll ok …. quiet
whisper or shout, I don’t mind
what an existence!

Let everyone live in the lighthouse
it may teach us how to live with each other ♥

Linda Gill [Guildford, Surrey]

"The old Sovereign Light Ship is now in St Katherine’s Dock in Wapping, London. It is surprisingly small. People remember its light, every 15 seconds, as a comfort."

"A bit like a fairground ride it gave me vertigo. I felt a bit ‘giddy’, had to steady myself on back wall."

Commonwealth War Graves Commission
"I think if Trinity House personnel died during WWII*, they are considered to be casualties and are therefore commemorated by them [WGC] see www.cwgc.org. If you go to that website you will be able to contact them and get further information.
* it might be that they had to had to have died “as a result of enemy action” e.g. on a ship which sank."

"I visited the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse in the early eighties with the local Eastbourne MP, Ian Gow (later murdered by the IRA). I worked for the Eastbourne Herald as a snapper and he was delivering Christmas cheer to the lighthouse keeper. We all got seasick [it was December!] and were hoisted onto the platform in a balloon basket with a Christmas Tree."