Fleet Watcher Still Watches
(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, March 3.
Winchelsea, with a population of 580, which claims to be the smallest town in Sussex, still pays a man to look out for the coming of the French invasion fleet. It is not the Napoleonic fleet but ships of the Hundred Years’ War.
The official in question, who is called the Fleet Watcher, is Frederick Curd, a retired lorry driver who took the job on in 1943 at the original salary of £1 2s 6d a year. A reporter from the “Guardian" asked Mr Curd what he did. “Well,” he replied, “I go up to the lookout at the top of the hill every now and again when the weather’s fine and take a look round.
“I don’t go up when it Is foggy. It wouldn’t be much use, would it? I shouldn’t see anything.
“No, I never seen the French. But if I did I suppose I would have to inform the authorities,” he said.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29145, 4 March 1960, Page 11
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166Fleet Watcher Still Watches Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29145, 4 March 1960, Page 11
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