I went to the prep school which was Hydneye house in the mid fifties. The then headmaster Gerald Brodribb had recently taken it over from David Maltby’s father, Ettrick.

The entrance hall had a huge (well it seemed huge at 7 years old!) marble memorial to the Dambusters and particularly the crew of AJ-J. The school also had a small museum with all the usual fossils etc and the Dambusters items. The school was bought with a compulsory purchase order in the 1960s because the cretinous local council (Aren’t they all) decided that the only place they could possibly build a ghastly secondary modern school was on that site so they demolished the beautiful building that was there. It was in the early throws of being demolished when I revisited it for the last time in the late sixties and Gerald gave me the items because I had been fascinated by them when a pupil. I also picked up a lump of the Dambusters memorial which the “people” (for want of a better word) who were demolishing it had smashed to pieces. It has been one of my fondest possessions ever since.

I noticed that Charles Foster had written a book on his uncle David Maltby and contacted him as I thought he would be interested.

Anyone in the Taunton area at any time is more than welcome to see it all

David