Paul Harris's Page

It was a cold February Saturday in 1962. Grey clouds blanketed the sky, threatening to spill their heavy load at any minute.
John Glenn's space flight had been put on hold yet again. The world waited for a lucky break in the weather over Eastern Florida. When it came Mr Glenn would sit in the command module, Friendship 7, to be thrust violently heavenwards by the Mercury rocket beneath him. He would become the first American to orbit the Earth.
Well that's what the public thought. Today, I would… Continue

Arthur West sailed on the Titanic with his wife and two young daughters.

Now, we all know the story of what happened on that fateful night in April 1912. What we didn’t know until just recently was that, after Mrs West and their two daughters had been safely placed in Lifeboat No. 10, Arthur retuned to their cabin and prepared a Thermos flask of warm milk.

Returning to the deck he found that the life boat had been lowered. So he climbed down the ropes into it and handed the flask to his wife.… Continue

Hampton Court Palace was taken over from The Order of St John by Cardinal Wolsey in 1514. Over the following seven years it was rebuilt to be the finest palace in England at a cost of two hundred thousand gold crowns. King Henry VIII first stayed there in 1525 and by all acc… Continue

It’s a funny old world. There are personal dramas and sagas played out on a daily basis. Each person has his or her own play in which they alone are the key role.

The new week started, as the last one ended, with a visit to a hypnotist.

With the Formula One world gearing up for anot… Continue

The twin Bristol Pegasus engines of the Wellington howled as Captain Arthur 'Archie' Turnbull threw the aircraft into a series of high banked turns. He didn’t like daylight raids, even short sorties like this one. Bomber Command had assured all of the squadrons that there we… Continue