In an increasingly cynical and often nasty world, a chance encounter with a total stranger can sometimes result in unexpected delight. Meeting Bill, a retired teacher who it must be said is not exactly in the first flush of youth, proved that you do actually learn something new every day.
After some polite small talk, we discovered that we both had links to a primary school in Walsall. Bill taught there and my children are proud to be alumni, although their education took place long after Bill had retired. With a memory as bright as a button, my new friend related the story of that school`s most illustrious graduate. I had never heard of Flight Lieutenant Sidney Norman Webster AFC and bar which, given a boyhood obsessed with all things aviation and saving up pocket money for Airfix model aircraft kits, came as something of a surprise. “Pebbler” Webster, who it seems was born in Borneo Street, was something of a national hero and after an education in Chuckery and the Butts, would not be out of place in the Biggles books of W E Johns. (more…)