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My father ‘Spanner’ was a flying Second World War hero
Author Gill Horner, with a copy of Spanner.
Gill Horner always knew her father was a hero.
During the Second World War he flew Lancaster Bombers.
Leonard Newby Watson – who was nicknamed Spanner by his comrades – also helped his daughter recover from throat cancer.
After undergoing surgery and radiotherapy at St James’s Hospital Gill decided to visit her father in the Dales as part of her recuperation.
The 63-year-old from Pudsey, Leeds, discovered old logbooks, diaries and notes charting her father’s time serving for his King and country.
She decided to write an autobiography about his life but unfortunately Leonard died only a few months before the book was completed.
Gill said: “He was nicknamed Spanner because he was a stickler for making checks on the aircraft before he flew and got back. The rest of the crew used to get so mad with him. He recounted a lot of stories including one where he deployed a chute in error as he put an engine fire out and he said Frenchmen would get off their bikes and wave. The biggest problem was that as he told stories he kept jumping decades in one sentence and transcribing was difficult as he spoke in a broad Yorkshire accent.”
Gill said that she started writing the book Spanner A Dales Lad to Bomber Command and Back to keep her mind busy.
Gill added: “It was quite something going through all the old memories. I found a little heart my father had carved from some of the perspex canopy of the aircraft and he gave it to my mum who was in the Land Army.”
The book also charts her dad’s decision to buy a funeral directors’ business after the war before employing over 50 builders in the Dales for over 45 years.
Some of the men, who recalled Leonard’s life in the book, helped to build the Memorial Hall in Pateley and a new church at Thruscross.
Gill added: “It was sad bringing the book to an end because it was like a big chapter coming to an end. I think dad would be over the moon. Dad was a hero and a representative of those that flew in the war and died in the war.”
Gill’s book is available at Lidgett Hill Station in Pudsey or visit: www.spanner-lenwatson.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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