Obituaries

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Wing Commander Jock Heatherill OBE :salute:

Wing Commander John "Jock" Adams Heatherill OBE, Bomber Command veteran. Born: 27 November, 1922 in Edinburgh. Died: 27 March, 2021 in Rutland, aged 98.
Jock Heatherill was such a tiny baby there were doubts over whether he would survive infancy. Born almost a century ago weighing just 3lbs 8ozs, the fragile infant resembled a drowned baby rabbit, according to his father. But cocooned in an empty drawer and lavished with loving care, he slowly began to thrive and was baptised in Edinburgh's Tron Kirk at the age of eight weeks. That he pulled through was something of a miracle in the 1920s. That he beat the odds of another life and death contest, as a member of Bomber Command 20 years later, was equally extraordinary. Half the aircrew were killed on operations, 12 per cent died or were wounded in accidents and a similar number became Prisoners of War. Only a quarter escaped unscathed. Heatherill was a Second World War bomb aimer who trained on open-cockpit Tiger Moth bi-planes and co-piloted Halifax heavy bombers. In peacetime, as part of Transport Command, he took part in the Berlin Airlift and enjoyed a long and distinguished RAF career, including as assistant air attache in Canberra and commanding officer of RAF Machrihanish.
Educated at schools in Parsons Green and Portobello before moving to Broughton Grammar, he was a rebellious youngster and a truant, prompting his father's decision that he should leave school at 14 and join him at Allan & Sons, granite and marble works. His father had been involved in installing the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle and his son followed in his footsteps, serving an apprenticeship as a granite polisher and helping on various projects, including the Ensign Ewart Memorial on Edinburgh Castle Esplanade.
In 1941 he became a Boy Scout messenger, delivering despatches from the Royal Navy office to ships at Leith Docks. Around that time he witnessed a Spitfire shooting down a German bomber over the Firth of Forth and joined the Air Training Corps. Visiting RAF Turnhouse and seeing a Spitfire up close inspired him to join the RAF.
However, he had no useful academic qualifications and knew they were needed to apply for aircrew. He did a correspondence course, went to night school, became a member of the Home Guard and a fire watcher. In August 1941 he volunteered for the RAF and subsequently trained as a bomb aimer in Canada. After returning to Britain he joined 158 Squadron based at RAF Lissett near Bridlington as a pilot officer and air bomber.
He took part in 17 operations with Bomber Command, flying in four-engined Halifaxes, acting as co-pilot until reaching operational height, then navigating to the target zone before crawling into the bomb aimer's position in the nose, directing the pilot to the target and finally dropping the explosives. His first mission was to Essen in November 1944 and his last to Mainz on February 1945. More than 70 years later, at a Buckingham Palace celebration of the RAF's centenary, while reflecting on those who did not come home, he recalled: "There was such a sense of purpose. We were fighting for king and country. There was adrenaline and you wanted to do a good job."
Post-war, flying Dakotas as part of RAF Transport Command, he was involved in the Berlin Airlift, a massive operation delivering supplies to the besieged population of West Berlin in Germany's Soviet zone, and made sure he did another good job, proud of keeping all his sorties on time.
Flying from North Luffenham to Fassberg, he ferried coal to Berlin's Gatow airfield, working a rota of four days flying followed by a rest day at the nearby shooting lodge of Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering. He later completed more than 500 hours delivering engineering supplies.
Describing the mission in his memoirs he said: "Operating the airlift could be a little tricky as we had to be spot on with our timings to Gatow, as aircraft were scheduled to land and take off every minute and, if you missed your allotted time you were required to overshoot and face the embarrassment of returning to Fassberg with a full load of coal: luckily we were spared that ordeal. The problems on navigating were that we operated at all weathers at 1,500 feet and along a restricted corridor and sometimes our aids were jammed by the Russians, and also occasionally harassed by 'buzzing' from Russian fighters."
He had a number of tours of duty to the Middle East in the 1950s and took command of the desert station RAF Riyan, where the personnel consisted of "myself the only officer, one SNCO, two corporals, 14 airmen, 50 Askaris (armed local tribesmen) 20 civilians and a camel".
In the late 1960s he went on attachment to the Royal Australian Air Force and became the Assistant Air Attaché at the British High Commission in Canberra. Returning home he was Deputy CO at RAF Lyneham and organised a 1973 royal visit to the base for The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. The following year he was responsible for the successful repatriation of 3,000 service personnel and their families from Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of the island, service for which he was made an OBE.
During the Cold War he mapped potential flight plans for future operations and remarked during the Falklands War that Vulcan bombers were using his flight plan. His last posting was back in Scotland at RAF Machrihanish, a strategically important base during the Cold War. After retiring in 1977 he moved to Rutland, becoming regional director of appeals for the British Heart Foundation, a keen golfer and president of Rutland Rotary Club. Passionate about community involvement, he chaired his local village hall committee for 25 years – only giving up aged 95, citing his "ageing bones".
Jock Heatherill is survived by his wife Mary, children Nicola, Claire and Richard and four grandchildren.
:salute:

source: The Scotsman
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Group Captain Harold Walmsley - Spitfire ace who destroyed at least 11 enemy aircraft (December 14 1922- April 2 2021)

Group Captain Harold Walmsley, who has died aged 98, was one of the last surviving Spitfire "aces" of the Second World War.
He joined 130 Squadron as a flight commander in October 1944 when it was based in Normandy flying the latest mark of Spitfire, the XIV, on ground-attack sorties in support of the advancing Allied armies.
On December 8, having moved to an airfield in Belgium, he was leading his section on an armed reconnaissance near Munster when Walmsley saw a locomotive. He turned to attack it with his cannons and as he pulled away, eight Messerschmitt Bf 109s appeared. In the ensuing fight, he shot one down.
In his combat report after the operation, Walmsley commented that the Spitfire XIV "is definitely better than the Bf 109, as I could do a better climbing turn even with my external fuel tank on and this prevented him from getting a deflection shot on me."
During the Ardennes offensive later in the month, he was assisting US forces when he was shot down by friendly fire. He baled out, landed in a tree and was rescued by Belgian forestry workers who helped him to reach US lines.
He was wearing khaki battle dress (RAF blue was too similar to the field grey uniforms of the Germans) and initially the Americans treated him with suspicion, but he eventually managed to convince them of his identity, and returned to his squadron.
The bitter winter of 1944-45 cut down the squadron's activities, but from March onwards it was involved in fierce dogfights with Focke-Wulf 190s. Flying from airfields in the Netherlands, on March 13 Walmsley shot down one of the single-seat fighters near Hamm. The German flew at very low level, but after chasing him for 10 miles Walmsley scored several hits and the enemy pilot baled out. On the 18th, 12 Fw 190s attacked Walmsley's formation head-on before breaking away into cloud. He and his pilots pursued them in and out of cloud before he got on the tail of one and shot it down. In two weeks of April, he destroyed seven more enemy aircraft in the air and two on the ground. On the 17th he shot down a Junkers 52 transport aircraft and destroyed two planes under camouflage netting in a field. On the 20th, his section intercepted four Fw 190s; Walmsley shot one down.
Three days later he attacked a Messerschmitt Bf 108, and as he began firing the two occupants baled out. Shortly afterwards, he attacked a second which crash-landed in a field.
Walmsley was appointed to command 350 (Belgian) Squadron, and within days he had accounted for two more Fw 190s; on April 26 he shared in the destruction of another. This was his 11th and final success, though he had probably destroyed one other and damaged a further four. On the day the war in Europe ended, his squadron was at Fassberg, north of Hanover. On that day, Walmsley wrote in his flying logbook: "Four Huns, bless 'em, landed in their 262s [the Luftwaffe's jet fighter] on the drome in the evening having taken off from Prague, bombed the Russians and then come here to surrender. Nice types!" He was awarded a Bar to an earlier DFC, and the Belgian Government awarded him the Croix de Guerre. The citation for the award of his second DFC recorded his "fine example of determination and devotion to duty".
Harold Edward Walmsley was born on December 14 1922 in Preston, Lancashire, but when the war broke out he was living in Uxbridge, where he was working as a metallurgical laboratory assistant. He joined the RAF in December 1940 and was one of the first pilots to be trained in Rhodesia.
He returned to Britain as a sergeant pilot and in September 1942 joined 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron to fly the Spitfire from Biggin Hill. The squadron provided escort for bomber squadrons attacking targets in northern France. On January 9 1943 Walmsley probably destroyed an FW 190, and over the next few weeks he claimed to have damaged at least three more. On July 25, while escorting bombers to Amsterdam, he shot down a Bf 109. In August he moved to 132 Squadron as a flight commander, also equipped with the Spitfire, flying sweeps and escort over France. On January 7 1944 he shot down a FW 190 over Abbeville. After 20 months of continuous operational flying he was rested in April and awarded the DFC. He spent time as a fighter instructor before returning to operations with 130 Squadron in October.
After the war, Walmsley took command of 80 Squadron in Germany, flying the Tempest fighter. In November 1947 he became a flying instructor and in May the following year was posted back to his first squadron, 611, as the adjutant and flying instructor. Now part of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, flying Spitfires from Woodvale, near Southport, he was one of three regular officers on the squadron. A return to the Central Flying School as an instructor was soon followed by his appointment as the chief flying instructor at 4 FTS based in Rhodesia. After attending Staff College he converted to the Sabre, and in April 1955 assumed command of 67 Squadron at Wildenrath in Germany, remaining as the CO for two years.
His next appointments were in the fighter role, first in charge of flying operations at Tangmere, near Chichester, and then, as a group captain, he commanded the radar unit at Boulmer in Northumberland, a key station in the chain of fighter control units that provided for the air defence of the UK. In 1965 he left for Singapore, with responsibility for plans during the Indonesian Confrontation campaign, before going on to serve in the MoD on the Defence Policy Staff. He was the RAF parliamentary adviser to Denis Healey, a man he held in high regard, although on the whole he had little time for the Labour politicians. After a period as the senior RAF instructor on the Senior Officers' War Course at Greenwich, he retired from the Air Force in 1971 and moved to the village of Waldringfield in east Suffolk. On leaving the RAF, Walmsley was immediately offered a two-year contract as deputy director of the British Defence Consortium being set up in Saudi Arabia. He spent a further two years as the general manager of Airwork in Oman, providing maintenance and technical support to the expanding Sultanate of Oman Air Force, which was being equipped with the Strikemaster light attack aircraft.
After his second retirement he was able to focus on his passion for sailing. He owned a Deben Four Tonner, a small wooden cabin cruiser which he sailed to Channel ports.
He visited the Baltic, and joining a friend and his Moody 336, he sailed to the Channel Islands and the Frisian Islands. His other great love was his garden.
Harold Walmsley married Jean, a wartime nurse, in 1945; she died in 2017. Their son and daughter survive him.

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source: The Telegraph
 

Wing Commander Peter Bailey (March 28 1922- April 14 2021)

Wing Commander Peter Bailey, who has died aged 99, towed a glider to Normandy on D-Day and flew a similar operation on the first assault during the ill-fated Arnhem operation. Post-war he commanded VIP transport squadrons in Britain and in Australia. Just before midnight on June 5 1944, Bailey took off from Blakehill Farm near Swindon in a Dakota of 233 Squadron. He was piloting one of six aircraft towing Horsa gliders loaded with jeeps, trailers and motorcycles for the men of the 3rd Airborne Brigade who were parachuted on to a dropping zone near Touffréville. His school friend Bryan Hebblethwaite was flying the glider. The following day, Bailey dropped supplies to the ground forces near Ranville, east of Caen, when he met intense light flak from "friendly forces". Two of the squadron aircraft failed to return. Over the next few weeks he flew into hastily prepared airstrips in Normandy carrying supplies and returning with casualties. At the end of August he flew on three consecutive days to an airfield near Paris carrying food for the local population. By September he was taking ammunition to airfields near Brussels. On September 17, the first day of Operation Market Garden, Bailey towed a Horsa carrying men of the King's Own Scottish Borderers to a landing zone west of Arnhem. Again Hebblethwaite was the glider pilot, but he was killed in the ground fighting a few days later. During the next few days, Bailey flew re-supply missions to the 1st Airborne Division when he met intense anti-aircraft fire. Over the next few weeks, he took supplies for the advancing Allied armies into airfields in France and Belgium. For his service during the airborne operations, he was awarded the American DFC. The son of a severely wounded First World War veteran of the Leicestershire Yeomanry, George Peter Brett Bailey was born on March 28 1922 and educated at Framlingham College, Suffolk, where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps and where he excelled at sport, being a key member of the shooting VIII. He joined the RAF in 1941 and trained as a pilot in Canada. After gaining his wings, and being assessed as above average, he remained in Canada as a flying instructor until the end of 1943, when he returned to Britain and converted to the Dakota. After a brief spell with 512 Squadron flying supplies to Gibraltar and North Africa, he joined the recently formed 233 Squadron and began training for operations with the airborne forces.
In December 1944, Bailey was transferred to a new Dakota squadron, No 243. The crews sailed for Canada to collect Dakotas built there, which they flew across America and the Pacific Ocean, landing at Camden in New South Wales. From there, the squadron provided support for British forces operating in the south-west Pacific area; this included sorties into Papua New Guinea and Borneo. After the Japanese surrender he flew to Hong Kong to repatriate PoWs. When the squadron disbanded in April 1946, he remained in Australia on the staff of the British Mission.
Bailey returned to Britain in late 1947 and became an instructor on Dakotas. He was detached to Lübeck in Germany and from there he flew some 250 re-supply sorties into Berlin during the emergency airlift. In 1950 he returned to Australia to serve with the Royal Australian Air Force VIP transport squadron, No 34, based near Sydney. On one occasion he flew the Prime Minister Robert Menzies to London, a five-day flight with numerous stops en route. In 1953 he served on the intelligence staff in the Air Ministry before becoming a flight commander on 80 Squadron flying the photo-reconnaissance variant of the Canberra from RAF Laarbruch on the Dutch/German border. During his time on the squadron he was deployed to Malta to conduct an aerial survey of Italy. He was awarded a Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air.
After further service in the Air Ministry responsible for aircrew training policy, Bailey returned to flying, in command of the Metropolitan Communications Squadron at Northolt. This was the RAF's VIP transport squadron, and his many passengers included Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Mountbatten, and the Queen when the Queen's Flight needed support.
In June 1964 Bailey served in Germany on the staff of the Second Allied Tactical Air Force as a reconnaissance specialist. On return to Britain two years later he became the wing commander responsible for operations at RAF Wyton, the home of the RAF's strategic reconnaissance force of Victors, Comets and Canberras.
Bailey retired from the RAF in 1970 and went to Karoo in South Africa to manage the production side of a game farm. While there, he became friends with Dr CHristiaan Barnard, the first heart-transplant surgeon.
Back in England, Bailey ran the government's Youth Training Scheme until 1986, when he emigrated to Queensland, where he took on a major role with the Red Cross as disaster officer for the Sunshine Coast. In 2000 he was president of the local Probus club.
He was a strong supporter of squadron reunions and the Society of Old Framlinghamians. On a brief visit to Britain to celebrate his 90th birthday he was able to meet the son of his friend killed at Arnhem, Bryan Hebblethwaite, and to attend the annual reunion of 80 Squadron.
Peter Bailey married his first wife Shirley in 1946. In 1997 he married Joy Mason after a long friendship. She died in 2011 and he is survived by his two children and a stepchild.
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source: The Telegraph
 

Flight-Lieutenant Freddie Nicoll (November 5 1920- May 14 2021)

Flight Lieutenant Freddie Nicoll, who has died aged 100, flew Hurricanes during the desert war in North Africa and from bases in Italy against targets in the Adriatic and Yugoslavia.
He joined 6 Squadron in late 1943. It was equipped with a later model of the Hurricane modified to carry rockets in place of two of its cannons. The squadron had gained fame during the desert campaign as a "tank-busting" squadron but its new role was to be anti-shipping operations. Early in 1944 it moved to southern Italy. Nicoll flew his first operation with 6 Squadron on April 5 1944, when he attacked targets in Corfu harbour. Over the next few weeks he attacked armed schooners, barges and ferries carrying supplies to coastal areas. On May 3, his leader's aircraft was hit by flak during an attack on a schooner. He was eventually forced to bale out and Nicoll, who had escorted him, searched the sea area for him, but in vain.
Desperately short of fuel, Nicoll made a forced landing on the rudimentary forward airstrip on the island of Vis off the Croatian coast. Refuelling from jerry cans, he returned to his squadron the following day. Targets in Albania and along the Dalmatian coast were attacked with rockets but the primary objective was to destroy the enemy's re-supply vessels. Nicoll attacked patrol boats, and on May 23 his rockets blew a hole in the side of a 5,000-ton cargo ship, which caught fire.
By the end of May, Nicoll was flying many of his sorties from Vis, which allowed the Hurricanes and their Spitfire escorts to cover most of the Adriatic. Many vessels were hit so the enemy shipping started to sail at night. Nicoll led attacks against them flying at very low level and firing his rockets in level flight.
In August, the squadron's commanding officer was shot down, resulting in Nicoll's promotion to flight commander. He led many sorties from Vis and others from Brindisi. By early October he had completed 55 operations, many against fierce anti-aircraft fire, and he had witnessed the loss of several pilots flying in his formations. He was awarded the DFC for his "courage and devotion to duty". In later years he modestly commented: "Whilst with 6 Squadron, a number of small ships, and a few bigger ones, got in the way of my rockets, which happened to be carrying 60lb high-explosive heads. In appreciation of this, I was issued with a piece of blue and white ribbon!"
The son of a bricklayer, John Frederick Nicoll was born in Walthamstow on November 5 1920 and educated at the local Sir George Monoux Grammar School. He enlisted in the RAF in November 1940 and six months later started his flying training.
He sailed for South Africa before travelling to Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where he spent the next eight months completing his pilot training. He was commissioned and left for Egypt, and on to Syria to train on Hurricanes in the tactical reconnaissance role. In September 1942 he joined 208 Squadron at Burg-el-Arab, 40 miles behind the front line in the Western Desert. The Eighth Army was established at El Alamein and the squadron flew reconnaissance sorties to identify enemy positions and ground movements. Nicoll flew his first sortie on October 3, when he acted as the "weaver" (escort) to a colleague who concentrated on taking photographs and making visual observations. Over the next few days, Nicoll flew further sorties when large concentrations of enemy vehicles and tanks were noted. On the 12th, on a sortie to the edge of the Qattara Depression, he reported over 600 motor transports dispersed and heavy movements of road traffic in the region. On later sorties he photographed the enemy's forward defence positions. When the Battle of Alamein commenced, Nicoll's flight had been withdrawn to the Canal Zone, with the squadron's other two flights seeing most of the action.
At the beginning of 1943 the squadron moved to Kirkuk in Iraq for intensive training and to provide support for the Army's 21 Corps and the Polish Brigade Group. After six months it moved to Rayak in Syria, and in October Nicoll was posted to 6 Squadron. On his return to England after three and a half years, Nicoll joined a ferry flight delivering aircraft throughout the United Kingdom. His final posting was to 631 Squadron based in West Wales, equipped with the Griffon-engined Spitfire and the Vengeance, towing target drogues for visiting squadrons to practice air-to-air firing. He was finally demobilised in May 1946.
Taking advantage of a government training scheme, Nicoll attended Brixton School of Building and became a quantity surveyor before working in Wrexham, and Stevenage, where he later established his own company. A man with a keen sense of humour and fun, he was an enthusiastic actor with the Lytton Players in Stevenage. He was also a self-taught musician, playing the piano, clarinet and accordion to a high standard. During his time in the desert he had found an abandoned accordion, which he kept. Many years later when he had it serviced, one pound of North African sand was recovered from its workings.
During his time in Stevenage he became a justice of the peace and was president of the local Rotary Club. When he retired in the early 1990s he moved to Cumbria, where he played the organ in the Eden churches, and he was active on the golf course into his nineties.
He made several visits to the island of Vis, where the locals treated him as a hero. His last visit was in May 2011, when he joined other veterans and laid a wreath on the RAF memorial.
Nicoll was a devoted member of the 6 and 208 Squadron Associations and rarely missed an annual reunion, travelling from Carlisle to London to attend until a few years ago. On his 100th birthday he was given an honour guard by members of the current 6 Squadron as a Spitfire and a Mustang flew over his home.
Freddie Nicoll married Beryl, a WAAF flight mechanic, in 1944; she died in 1997. Their son and two daughters, and Ruth, his companion of 21 years, survive him.
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Source: The Telegraph
 

Wing Commander Jock Heatherill (November 27,1922- March 27,2021)

Wing Commander Jock Heatherill, who has died aged 98, was a bomb-aimer during the final months of the war and later flew 48 re-supply missions during the Berlin Air Lift.
In November 1944, Heatherill joined 158 Squadron at Lissett in East Yorkshire, where the squadron was equipped with the four-engine Halifax bomber. He flew his first operation on November 29 1944, the target Essen; on a return visit to the industrial city on December 24, 10 Halifaxes of his Squadron were damaged by flak, including Heatherill's.
During the German advance in the Ardennes, bad weather hampered air support for the Allied ground forces. On December 26, however, conditions improved and Heatherill and his crew joined 300 other Bomber Command aircraft to attack German troop concentrations at St Vith. During the final days of 1944, marshalling yards became the priority target and Heatherill flew four operations in a few days. In the New Year, with the situation in the Ardennes stabilising, attacks against oil targets resumed and Heatherill bombed the benzyl synthetic oil plant at Dortmund. On a daylight raid to Hanover on January 5, his crew saw jet fighters attack the bomber formation. By the end of February Heatherill had completed 17 operations before attending a bombing leader's course. John Adams Heatherill, always known as Jock, was born in Edinburgh on November 27 1922. He left Broughton Grammar School aged 14 without qualifications and became an apprentice stonemason and granite polisher. He was a King's Scout, joined the Air Training Corps and served in the Home Guard.
Determined to join the RAF to fly, he studied hard to gain the necessary educational qualifications and succeeded. He trained in Canada as a bomb-aimer.
After the war he specialised in the air transport role and in August 1948 he began operations on the Berlin Airlift. Flying in Dakotas from the RAF airfield at Fassberg in western Germany, he delivered coal to the RAF airfield at Gatow. "Operating the airlift could be a little tricky as we had to be spot on with our timings to Gatow, as aircraft were scheduled to land and take off every minute," he recalled. "If you missed your allocated time you were told to overshoot and face the embarrassment of returning to Fassberg with a full load of coal; luckily we were spared that ordeal."
Heatherill flew 48 re-supply missions into Berlin before spending a year flying engineering supplies from the UK to the RAF airfields in Germany being used to support the Berlin airlift.
In April 1950 he joined 114 Squadron in the Middle East, flying transport support throughout the region. He later specialised in navigator training, serving at Lyneham, the home of the Comet and Britannia fleets, before becoming the senior navigation officer at HQ Transport Command.
In May 1968 he left for Australia, initially to command the RAF detachment at Edinburgh Field before becoming Assistant Air Adviser to the British High Commission in Canberra.
In August 1972 he returned to Lyneham, by now the base of four squadrons of Hercules, where he was responsible for administration. He organised a Royal visit by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1973. Following the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus a year later, a major operation to repatriate service personnel and families was activated. Heatherill was responsible for the reception arrangements and care of the large number of returning families. He was appointed OBE. His final appointment was as commander of RAF Machrihanish in western Scotland, a Nato-funded airfield used during major exercises; it was also used by the Nimrod force and by detachments of Vulcan aircraft. Heatherill retired in 1978.
He worked for the British Heart Foundation, first as regional officer for the East Midlands before becoming director for the Midlands. He retired after 12 years' service.
In July 2018 he attended the RAF 100 celebrations at Buckingham Palace, where he met Prince William. Heatherill was very impressed with the Prince and commented: "I always thought he would be a good chap because he was in the RAF. It was a tremendous day."
He was a keen member of the Rotary and was president of Rutland Rotary Club. He was also the chairman of the village hall for 25 years, retiring at 95 because of his "ageing bones".
Jock Heatherill is survived by his wife Mary and by a son and two daughters.
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Source: The Telegraph
 
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