COASTER RE-NAMED ‘TOR BAY’

A vessel put into Teignmouth docks last week, registered under the name of ‘Windhund’ - she had previously been ‘The Lauta’ -  and left a few days later with a brand new name - ‘Tor Bay’. Formalities for the mysterious change of name were completed while the coaster was tied up alongside the quay to take on a cargo of ball clay.

The new name was painted on the sides of the ship, and the Danish flag hauled down, to be replaced by Panamanian colours. No one would reveal  the reasons for the change of name, or why Tor Bay was chosen. Pike Ward, the shipping agent, declared it was a matter for the captain to discuss, but the agent knew all about it.  Mr Sidney Lovegrove, Torbay publicity officer, said: ‘If we had known beforehand, we would like to have presented the skipper with a souvenir plaque to hang in his wheelhouse.’

NATIONAL PIPE KNOWLEDGE

Mr A Sherbut, of 32, Higher Brimley Road, is one of 430 winners of a national competition, held by The Briar Pipe Trade Association, during the recent Pipe Smoking Fortnight.

Winners, who are receiving a leather pouch with a supply of tobacco, had to identify basic pipe shapes, such as Lovat, Zulu, Prince and Lumberman, and say why they preferred a certain type of pipe. Answers varied from Prince because one looks a right Charlie: Bulldog because it is a well known fact that I am dogmatic: to Prince because it”s designed to give one a right royal ‘Fillip’ to one’s smoking pleasure.

MEDALS

Mr Ernest Richard Amos, of Braeside, Pennyacre Road, recently donated the medals worn by his father and his own, to the headquarters of the Gloucestershire Regiment, where they will be on show in perpetuity in the museum. Those earned by his father, the late Corporal R Amos, are the Victoria Medal and three bars, and the King’s Medal 1901-1902. His own decorations are the 1939-1945 Star, the Italy Star, the Defence Medal and the General Service Medal 1939-1945.

Mr Amos Senior enlisted in 1895 in the 2nd Battallion from Plymouth, served in India, was promoted to corporal and sent to the Boer War, where he took part in the relief of Kimberly. Wounded, he was sent back to the UK. On recall, he served in France as a shoeing smith to the Somerset Light Infantry.

His son joined the Gloucestershire Regiment, and served in the Far East. In India, he knew the dangers of the Kyber Pass, and helped to clear the aftermath of the Quetta earthquake, one of the most savage the world has known.

In North Africa, he was promoted to QIMT. In Tunis, where Rommel’s famed Africa Korps surrendered, he was wounded by a land mine. A doctor from the Indian Division saved his left eye, and he was able to join in the victorious progression of the Allies and the collapse of the Italian army.

VENUS, THE EVENING STAR

The report on last spring’s elongation of Venus, directed by Mr Hedley Robinson of Teignmouth, was the work of a large team of observers from all over the world, and included Mr A W Wake of Teignmouth and Mrs J P Merrilees of Dawlish.

The report is technical, and deals with apparent dichotomy, terminator shading, cusp extension, two colour phase observations and the weather cycle in the upper levels of Venus’ atmosphere.

RIVIERA CINEMA

The Million Dollar Duck and The Living Desert.