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War On The
Line 2009
Dear Arthur and Lesley,
Thank you very much for the pictures, a lovely reminder of a
great weekend. It was an absolute pleasure to see you first
thing in the morning and really gets people in the mood
(including us!)
I personally had such a good day on the Saturday, that I came
down for a visit to the railway Sunday too! So nice to see the
railway ‘off duty’!
Looking forward to seeing you next year,
Kind Regards.
Mark and all the team at Alton Station.
Women's
Land Army Reunion, Torquay
Hi Arthur, Lesley and
Jane
Well what can I say! You were
all brilliant and made our day – many, many thanks - I think we
will have to do it again next year! Perhaps we should keep to
that same May weekend as it seems quite a good time - perhaps
you could pencil it in? By the way, thanks for the bomb photos.
Write up and photos in tomorrows Evening paper so will send on a
copy.
We returned to the Railway in the evening for the BBQ to find
everything eaten and landed up with Chinese takeaway!
Hopefully see you soon at some local event.
Louise and Steve
Bruce Yarsley's 80th
birthday party
Dear Arthur and Lesley,
Well, what a fantastic set of photos
you put on your website. We didn't realise there were so many. We look
forward to the CD of them that you were going to forward. Do you have our
address?
The whole “do” was great, and everyone appreciated your efforts, and your
involvement of the children who were there. A look through the pictures
shows how many people actually went to the trouble of dressing up for the
occasion, and it was a lot!! Bruce thoroughly enjoyed and valued the event,
and continued the festivities back at his house.
It may well be that we now go and experience a bit more 1940s on the
Watercress Line in Hants later this year. Nice to dress up!
All the best for a fantastic year,
Ray and Janet.
Bruce Yarsley's 80th birthday party
Hi Arthur & Lesley
Just wanted to thank you both again for your fabulous night of
entertainment. We all had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I
know Bruce was delighted with it all too, even though he seemed very
overwhelmed!!!
Love all the pictures and we are hoping to make a slide-show from them, and
the video footage we have.
Best wishes to you both and hope to bump into you again some time!!
Regards
Linda (nurse) & Alan (RAF Officer)
ROYAL WINGS PARTY
Lesley, Arthur, and Jane.
Great meeting you today. Good show too - knew all your songs - but had to
miss after tea as Peter who gave me lift had to go to Plymouth and thick fog
and heavy rain meant slow journey.
Hope see you one day.
Kindest regards,
Doug Tidy
ROYAL WINGS PARTY
A few pics sent to me by Steve Wheeler, who was at our 'gathering of the
eagles' yesterday. The uniformed trio are entertainers and because of the
rain during the 'barbie' had to do it in the swimming pool, they had John
sitting there and were singing , 'oh Johnny! oh, oh Johny, how you can
love', never seen him with such a smile for a long time. Frank.
Till later then . . . .Bill Wild.
P,S. Att . . . us in full swing . . . I love girls in uniform !!!
ROYAL WINGS PARTY
Comment: Hi folks,
Just a word to say how much I personally, as well as Frank's other guests
enjoyed your 'concert' at Fairways last weekend, and to congratulate you on
a fine web site which I will certainly bookmark.
I hope and am sure that you will continue to give great pleasure and enjoy
great success in the future.
Best wishes,
Andrew M. Ockenden in Nottingham
(known 6 days a week as Andy to the Royal Wings group!
It was great to meet you!)
ROYAL WINGS PARTY
Many, many thanks for Fri night it was absolutely wonderful, could not have
been better, Bill was so pleased when you allowed him to accompany you on
the harmonica, I think he wanted the others to see and hear him anyway, and
this was the best way, the bit with John went down well as did the Pam Ayres
poem, especially with Jane's Oxfordshire accent, I had to print off a few
copies of this for some of them, I don't have Jane's e-mail address so hope
you will forward these bits on. I will forward some of the more interesting
comments and pics that I get the one below is from Ed Cooke, he was the one
who rang us from the USA whilst the party was on, a WW2 survivor of many
bomber raids over Germany. Hope that you will all keep in touch, and feel
free to drop in anytime, thanks again.
Frank Authers.
ROYAL WINGS PARTY
Hi Frank,
Enjoyed the pictures, looks like you were all having a good time! "oh Johnny
,oh johny, etc" ,that really brought back memories of Cardington April 1940
and walking into the camp cinema and that is what the organ was playing.
They were the days when I was young and foolish.
Ed: Edward M.Cooke Wing Commander (retired).
ROYAL WINGS PARTY
Hi Frank,
Many thanks to you and “Blitz and Peaces” for providing a grand day out and
fun entertainment.
There was lots of laughter all round so that can only be a good thing.
Best wishes, Steve Wheeler.
HOMETOR HOUSE
Dear Arthur and Lesley,
Many thanks for a wonderful show you all gave us on Sunday.
I have found your letter and photos on my computer, So, I am very happy and
have shown Anne and Gerrthem.
Bye for now.
Best Wishes from Barbara.
BAY FM RADIO
Arthur and Lesley Cook's WW2 Memorabilia show "The Way We Were" which gave a
library of wartime news, information and music that was played during
Britain’s dark times in the 1940's.
Arthur Cook Said: “We really enjoyed the challenge of writing the script for
the show and trying to ensure that the historical facts of the era were
correct, it took hours of work, but upon listening to people comments since
the broadcast, it seems that it was well worth while. We would like to get
more listeners tuned in next year, but for the older listeners this is quite
difficult as they find new radio receivers difficult to operate. We are
going to try to get the local rotary to help people tune in their sets next
year”.
“Age Concern made a lot of favourable comments, regarding the playlist and
the content and we also had favourable comments from families with young
children who listen in to the broadcast, so hopefully next years shows will
benefit from this years introduction to our style of presentation”.
WOMEN'S LAND ARMY REUNION
Dear Arthur and Lesley,
Just a note to thank you both for providing the entertainment at the Lord
Mayors Land Army Girl’s Tea in the Guildhall.
Everyone who attended had a lovely afternoon and your entertainment brought
back some poignant memories for them. Thankk you so much.
I enclose a photograph which I thought you might like to keep.
J. Henderson.
Lord Mayor’s Support Officer
CLYST HEATH SCHOOL
On Monday 13th of October the Class 3 at Clyst Heath Primary School had some
very special visitors in the form of ‘Blitz and Peaces’, otherwise known as
Lesley and Arthur Cook. They brought along hundreds of artefacts, mostly
original, that dated back to the period of World War II. The children were
able to handle everything that was safe, although there were some items
deemed unsafe, such as the tail-end of a German bomb! The children learnt
about the ‘real’ impact that the war had on Exeter and its people. They
heard about the role of women left behind whilst the men were away at war
and how many became Land Girls. Evacuation was also key, and the children
heard about many stories of real evacuees, which fitted very well with the
story of one of the children’s grandmothers, as you can see from the
photograph, who had been evacuated and who has written to the children to
tell of her experience. The children were able to model the uniform of the
Home Guard along with a variety of helmets belonging to various divisions of
the Forces. They even had time for a good old-fashioned wartime sing-song.
What a great example of learning through ‘almost’ real experience!
ALAN DYER'S 80TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
Dear Lesley , Arthur and jane ,
Happy New Year! I haven’t had a minute yet to thank you for making dad’s day
so incredibly special. He thoroughly enjoyed it. As did all of his friends
and relatives. Have recommended you to Millwater School in Honiton for a
School visit.
Once again, thanks a million – you were absolutely fantastic!
Trish and Paul.
WOMEN'S LAND ARMY REUNION TORQUAY
Hi Arthur, Lesley and Jane,
Well what can I say! You were all brilliant and made our day –
many, many thanks - I think we will have to do it again next
year! Perhaps we should keep to that same May weekend as it
seems quite a good time - perhaps you could pencil it in? By the
way, thanks for the bomb photos. Write up and photos in
tomorrows Evening paper so will send on a copy.
We returned to the Railway in the evening for the BBQ to find
everything eaten and landed up with chinese takeaway!
Hopefully see you soon at some local event.
Louise and Steve
TOPSHAM WHITE
ENSIGN CLUB
Dear Arthur,
Thank you very much for a wonderful day, Please thank Lesley and
Jane on my behalf and that of the White Ensign Club. I will be
in touch soon about the next event.
Yours Sincerely,
Bruce Mattock.
Club Manager.
CHITTLEHAMPTON CHURCH
Hi Arthur, Lesley and Jane,
Forgive me for attaching my 'thank you' to this e-mail but it is
the easiest way to pass on the photos! I have sent these to the
North Devon Journal so they may feature in this week's edition
if I am not too late.
Thank you so much for coming to perform. It was enjoyed by all
and many have said so, including the family at the front with
the children. It bought back memories for many of us, either of
the war itself or of childhood memories of 'Mother singing these
songs around the house'!
I hope you got to the next venue in time to clear up etc & that
you had a safe journey home.
Hopefully 'we shall meet again'.
Best wishes to you all
Carole
The Alzheimer’s Café
Hi Lesley,
Just a note to say thank you for the photographs on the disk.
The pictures are great and we can use them to publicise the
Alzheimer’s Café in the future. Everyone really enjoyed the
afternoon. It was fabulous! Thank you again.
Anne.
Community Care Worker
Exmouth and Budleigh Complex Care Team
The Royal Albert
Memorial Museum (RAMM)
Dear Arthur,
As promised the book you lent to us some time again now. We
found it very interesting and useful.
I think I have mentioned a while ago about our WW II volunteers
coming along to one of your events but at the time we did not
have a full-time co-ordinator in place to help organise events
from our end. However, Rachel Ackerman now manages our
volunteers and would be interested to hear if you have any local
WW II events that we could come along to as participants, or
just to observe.
Thanks again Arthur and I hope we can do some events together in
the future.
Yours Sincerely.
Mark Griffin.
Visitor Services Advisor |
