Hull yesterday morning before we went to sort out Alberts car. As you can see cold but bright but much colder this morning, still minus 5 when I went for the newspaper.
From Buses worldwide friends more hassle with police picking on bus photographers, I'll raise with George osborne my MP.
Dear all,
On Wednesday 13th February, my good friend of some years standing F. (Fred) W. York visited my house in order for us to work on the manuscript of Part Two of his History of Singapore Trams, Trolleybuses... Etc.
He left at about 1645 to catch a train to Havant and Fareham which he thought departed at around 1700, only to find that there was nothing until 1740.
Being a lifelong photographer of trams and buses and not often having the opportunity of snapping modern trams unless he is in Croydon, he decided to spend his time taking a few photographs for his collection.
Now, you will probably recall that Fred was taking photographs in Singapore and Malaya from 1954 whilst in the RAF in those places and must be in his late 70s.
Having taken a couple of pictures of trams negotiating the tight turn from Wellesley Road into George Street, he was approached by two constables of the Metropolitan Police who asked him what he was doing and upon receiving his reply and ignoring his plea to be made to miss his train, did a full check on his identity. When asked on what grounds he had been stopped, he was told that it was the terrorist threat.
This was an ordeal for a stalwart and immensely patriotic man who travelled through Malaya during "The Emergency" to photograph trains and buses, despite the daily ambushes and killings by communist terrorists. Fred has suffered for some years now with laryngeal cancer and is partially deaf so communication with anyone, let alone police officers, can be a challenge, especially with a busy backdrop of traffic noise.
Were it not for people like Fred, we would not have the benefit of thousands of books and photograph albums in which is recorded the the history of our towns and cities which line the shelves of public libraries and private collectors from here to Australasia and the Americas.
I therefore send you this message to make of what you will.
Best regards
Mike
Well my friends will know I'm no admirer of the British police, I was last assualted in Paisley 2006 whilst filming, over the years I've had some right ding dongs not always connected with transport, they are often better suited to relate to the kind of people they should deal with, criminals!
No comments:
Post a Comment