29-10-2019, 02:18 PM
Hi Nick,
I knew Bruce Lawless well, he was a lovely bloke and incredibly modest about his wartime exploits. He and his wife Maureen, were neighbours of my parents down at St.Osyth on the Essex coast. He saw my Austin 7 and as I also had an interest in aviation, we had much to talk about. The Seven which he and his mates had was a c. 1929 chummy, I have a photograph of it somewhere and I checked the reg. on the Chassis register, but it is not there. He told me about the tyres and I mentioned that on another thread on here entitled "Useless and free?".
Your book may mention that Bruce was quite good at shooting down flying bombs or, "Doodlebugs". It won't say that he was only credited with the ones which had damaged his aircraft as he had to make a report if this happened. If there was no personal damage, he was always keen to get to the pub, so didn't bother claiming them.
A year or two before his death, he was having some work done on the roof of his bungalow and the roofers went to the local for their lunch, where they learnt a bit about Bruce and the doodlebugs. When they had finished the job, chief roofer told Bruce that his old Mum and Dad had lived in London during the flying bomb period and that all the roofing work was free. I was told this by a third party, naturally.
I knew Bruce Lawless well, he was a lovely bloke and incredibly modest about his wartime exploits. He and his wife Maureen, were neighbours of my parents down at St.Osyth on the Essex coast. He saw my Austin 7 and as I also had an interest in aviation, we had much to talk about. The Seven which he and his mates had was a c. 1929 chummy, I have a photograph of it somewhere and I checked the reg. on the Chassis register, but it is not there. He told me about the tyres and I mentioned that on another thread on here entitled "Useless and free?".
Your book may mention that Bruce was quite good at shooting down flying bombs or, "Doodlebugs". It won't say that he was only credited with the ones which had damaged his aircraft as he had to make a report if this happened. If there was no personal damage, he was always keen to get to the pub, so didn't bother claiming them.
A year or two before his death, he was having some work done on the roof of his bungalow and the roofers went to the local for their lunch, where they learnt a bit about Bruce and the doodlebugs. When they had finished the job, chief roofer told Bruce that his old Mum and Dad had lived in London during the flying bomb period and that all the roofing work was free. I was told this by a third party, naturally.