A dense foggy night thirty nine years ago. in The odd entries from life …….

Today I know where I was thirty nine years ago, through the day we were in London, more looking than shopping, it was a day trip organized by Morris’s of Shrewsbury; Mum worked there! We left Shrewsbury quite early to be in London by mid morning, we had time for lunch and a look around, then an evening meal before going to the theatre, it was a comic play with Terry Scott as the star of the show, by chance it is twenty years since he passed away.

He was a comic of the 60’s and 70’s, he and June Whitfield had been working together as wife and husband in ‘Happy Ever After’ and the ‘Terry and June’ June Whitfield was in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ until it’s finish. It was an amusing evening, I think the bus picket us up at the theatre. The journey as we left London was slow as there was fog about, once on the M1 the fog was very thick and progress was slower.

The driver turned on the radio, it was about eleven-o-clock an the news was on, the lead story was of a plane crash near Arkley Golf Course, it was thought that Graham Hill was on board. Hill was one of our great racing drivers of the 60’s and was champion in 1962 and 68. Hill was piloting the Piper Aztec in dense fog, the plane clipped a row of trees, Graham Hill and five members of his racing team died.

Graham Hill had retired from driving six months before, motor racing was a more danger sport then; yet he survived his years racing! And that is why I knew just where I was on the 29th November 1975. His Son Damon Hill was Formula 1 Drive for seven years, 1992 to 99 and was champion in 1996.

There are several incidents I can recall where I was, when Kennedy was assassinated I was watching a local news program when the news came through, 7-7 in London I was in Tesco in Holleyhead, there was a bank of televisions turned on, we were just starting our journey home from Anglesey, all along the home there were sine’s telling us to avoid London; we were as far west of London as we could with out getting wet!

The death of Graham Hill has remained vivid with me, I was younger, we were travelling through the same dense fog; and I had watch his race!

Last updated November 30, 2014