"The place was heaving and me and my mate
filled our boots like everyone else. At closing time the long
trek back to camp was not the best thing to do after a skinfull
"Anyway, after struggling along for a couple of hours
we decided to stop and have a Woodbine. We were leaning on
this farm gate chatting in the pitch dark when something touched
my shoulder.
"On turning around I saw a horse with what appeared
to be a very friendly nature. We smoothed him and made a fuss
of him, and he had a piece of rope around his neck so I imagined
he had become un-tethered from somewhere."
Jim soon hit on the idea of using it
to hitch a lift back to camp. He said: I put the idea
to my mate and his first reaction was that I must be
bonkers. But I had been on a seaside donkey and after
much persuasion Jock agreed to give it a go providing
I was the driver, so to speak. "After much jumping
and going around in circles we eventually managed to
get abroad"
They got the horse moving and took the short cut to
Lyneham up the back Bradenstoke road. |
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Jim Semple, pictured right, with
some of his friends at RAF Lyneham in the 1950s.
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Jim said: "At the end of the journey we tied Neddy to
the fence outside the MT Section hangar on some lush green,
and walked the last bit of the way. We were on the horse for
about an hour and I have often thought how mean we both were
not to have gone and seen our taxi in daylight and perhaps
taken him an apple for services rendered."
After RAF service Jim and Jock went their separate ways but
recently, after a 14 year search by Jim, the men were back
in touch. Jock became a member of the RAF
Lyneham Old Boys Association and spent hours chatting
on the telephone about the old days. "Soon after we found
each other again I had a phone call from his daughter saying
he had been taken ill and had died. It takes a lot to upset
me, but I don't mind admitting I had wet eyes after I put
the phone down," said Jim. |
