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Harold Taylor continues his memoirs:-
By this time George had contacted Holyhead Coast Guard and acquainted them with the situation, and they had passed the messages on the depot. This in a way complicated the situation, as it left only one of us to keep an eye on Bert as the C.G. kept calling up which meant that George had to keep leaving me to answer the radio. We had tried having Bert in a darkened room where there was no light, but this resulted in him seeing the navigational light and he wanted to put that out.
Eventually reinforcements arrived. Robin, Eddie and Will were on hand, but by this time he had to be constantly restrained, and it was during one of these spells that he took a bite at my arm. This cause no harm as he had my clothing as well. I was due to be on watch at mid-night, and had had my sleep disturbed early in the morning so I was quite tired. At about 2230 I managed to get to bed, but I never slept as I could hear all the radio activity. This was a bit erratic, and I later learned that the C.G. were doubtful as to who had gone mad.
Soon after I was called on watch, the relief arrived with a couple of policemen and ships' officers, and Bert was carted away, literally. Using the stations hand truck, which I had never seen used before.
Of course all this time the Presses radio snoopers were monitoring the tragedy, so when the ship got down the coast to Fishguard, they were waiting for the patient and the keeper going ashore. There were garbled reports in the Manchester editions of papers but I only have one cutting which sheds little light on the subject.
About 5 years later the story was resurrected, but I do not know the author. I always said that there was no person who would have known all the details but myself. I presumed that perhaps they came from an acquaintance of Brenda, who would have known most. They could have gleaned others from Eddie and Robin and the Evans.
George is alleged to have hidden from the press, he also never came back to the island.
It transpired that Tom had delivered food to Bert that day, but he possibly had not found it when he called at the lighthouse, although it was gone from his tin delivery box when Will delivered mail. It was not he who brought food.
I had a reply from Mrs Armstrong, to the effect that Bert had been spending his allowance on worldly goods (the radio) instead of using it for food. Some months later her brother was on the island and I discussed the subject with him.
It appears that Bert had some secret guilt from his days in Poland and had tried to enter monasteries all over Europe especially Italy. He had been rejected as being an unsuitable character. He had ultimately arrived at Downside Abbey, where again he was tested and found unsuitable. Having found that it was his wish to live the life of a Hermit, the Brother, had suggested to his sister that it might be worth giving him a trial by engaging him as caretaker of this house on Bardsey with a modest allowance to cover food.
I call him Brother, as he was such in Holy Orders and was Second in Charge of the Abbey. He was also a qualified Electrical Engineer. Mrs. Armstrong came from the Cadbury Chocolate family, although I believe they are known to be Quakers.
When the family visited the island they always brought with them a Catholic priest on holiday, that is why the vestments were present in the house. I used to attend the services whenever the family was on the island.
When I returned to the island in 1983, I found one of the sons visits the island for a month, but he is an Ordained Anglican Priest. I think this is as far as I can go in sorting out some of the confusions of the issue. In other words there were more people about than were acknowledged. Why?
Bert came from Silesia, a territory claimed by Germany, so he was forced into the army to fight against his own people, and I think this caused his problems
Fenella, I may have the name wrong, was the second daughter of Susan Cowdy, she did a lot of work for the RSPB. In fact when I first knew her she organised the cooking for the vigilant watches kept on the first Osprey nests in Scotland. I never knew her status, other than I think she was wealthy, and possibly widowed or separated. However on my return to Bardsey in 1983, she was due to visit and prior to this huge parcels were brought over by the then farmer.
When I mentioned to him one day that it must cost a lot to get all this stuff from Liberty's, he told me that she owned it. Her husband from who she had been estranged died suddenly, and she had inherited the lot. I had always had an open invitation to visit her home near Gt. Missenden, but had never taken the opportunity. She did visit my home when I was away once and took my eldest boy to a meeting she was attending at Shoreham, near our home.
Another un-explained thing happened that relief. When going off I learned that Ted Whaley was going off to Skerries as an S.A.K. which seemed peculiar as he was about 6 months senior in service to me. On going ashore, the wharf Bo'son, Bill Cave approached me and asked if I knew anything about a certain keeper.
Then went on to explain that over the Xmas period he had contacted the depot for someone to send two bunches of flowers for him, but despite the easy contact with the depot via Valley helicopters, no money had since been forth coming. Bill Cave had paid for these flowers and was anxious to be reimbursed.
I told him of my limited knowledge of the fellow and suggested that he might want a bit of watching. On my return from leave following that trip I found an excessively grateful wharf Bo'son, because he had kept a watch out and the keeper had attempted to make off without re-paying the £3 owed. This was to have a very gratifying effect.
When I had first arrived at Holyhead I discovered that the keepers were rather sore because the depot labourers would no longer handle their gear. It had come about because someone going off or coming ashore from the Smalls Lighthouse had received damage to a portable wireless set and was claiming upon the staff.
Following my dealing with Bill, all that changed at least for our station anyway, Bill could not do enough for me the rest of my period there. I can only presume that Ted was put back in service due to the incident on Alderney.
Having had nearly 10 years service in the Police, it was interesting to watch the different characters who entered the job. Come the end of my turn on this relief, when I went down to the boat Will gave me a goose also, but I do not know if George got one.
I am not now quite sure of the sequence of circumstances, but I believe it was when George went ashore that Bob Anderson joined the station as P.K. He had moved to us from South Bishop, whereby hangs another story. He was a delightful quiet Tynesider.
Hughie had also been transferred and as his replacement had not arrived Eddie continued to make up the third hand. We made ourselves comfortable. New broom business. Instead of sitting in the kitchen we used the dining/sitting room more, with the fire in the grate for cosiness. There was a small and peculiar incident regarding the light during this stage.
I had been on the middle watch, and towards the end of it I suddenly noticed that the lens was slowing down. By the time I had got to the top of the tower, it was nearly stopped. I gave it a push to keep it rotating whilst I investigated as to why it should be stopping.
Remember, the only light I would have was from the light itself and a torch. Poking around in the gloom I found a lot of loose wire and immediately thought that the clock wire had broken, and I would finish the night winding the lens by hand.
Keeping the lens in motion by a push I went down the tower to look in the tube door, where I would have expected to find the weights, but they were not visible. Where were they? I carefully peered up the tube with the aid of the torch but could see nothing.
Going back to the lantern I continued with pushing the lens to keep it moving and commenced winding the clock handle gently and re-laying the wires in the grooves as I did so. Once the wire had taken up the slack, I was able to estimate how far down the tube the weight was, and discovered it to be little over half way. I wound the weight up to the top and waited to see what would happen. By now the time was getting on, being near time to call out Bobby.
Having called the P.K. out on watch I told him of the peculiar circumstances, for which I suppose he was perhaps sceptical. One must remember he had come to a new station and did not know the calibre of its staff. He probably thought it was an excuse for calling him late for watch, and perhaps thinking I had fallen asleep.
I told him how long I expected the clock to run if it was to mis-behave again. The time came and went, and so I decided to go to bed. I had only just got my head on the pillow, when Bobby came to the room and said that the lens was slowing. We went up to the lens, me reaching it first; possibly because of the 40 a day Capstan Full Strength that Bob smoked, and was there soon enough for there not to be any slack created round the drum.
We wound up before we commenced any investigation of the cause. There is an inspection door at the top and bottom of a weight tube, but at Bardsey, for some reason the tube had been boarded over that the weights never came up as far as this door. Therefore we could not see if anything was amiss we commenced to remove these boards, then wound the weights up higher till they were visible.
Continued in part 4
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