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Great picture Dennis. Really good to see more people contributing to the site. Looking forward to seeing more of your photographs.
I have just shown your wonderful photogaph to my husband, Ralph. He remembers well a family friend taking him to see Amy Johnson’s landing in Abergele. We had no idea her untimely death was due to drowning. So very very sad.
Wonderful photo Dennis. This is quite a piece of history you’ve shared here. I second David’s comment too. There’s a photo showing Amy’s plane on this page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/abergele/pages/mb_slideshow.shtml?6
The date given there is 11 July 1932.
A couple of interesting things,
The aircraft in the photo was a de Havilland Puss Moth registered to her future husband Jim Mollison, a Scotish record breaking flier. They were married later in the same month as the event in Abergele. Does anyone know who the other people are ?, I think the man in the middle is her husband to be.
Concerning her death, it seems to be a complete mystery, there are many rumours that she was on a secret mission or some other clandestine activity. Despite being recorded as flying alone there were eye witness reports that two people bailed out of the plane but the bodies were never found. In 1999 a retired Navy gunner admitted that they has shot her down as she approched because she didn’t give the correct identification code word. About ten years ago a team of divers claimed that they had found her plane in the Thames mud. I don’t know if it was ever recovered. Maybe the plane holds the truth of what happened ?
The man on the left in the photo is William Kerfoot of Hendre Bach Abergele where Amy Johnson actually landed in a field next to what we now know as Thorncliff’s recycling. The kerfoots were in Hendre Bach before my father came there in 1936 and it was William Kerfoots grandson who was born in Hendre Bach remembers her landing there and who in fact said she also stayed the night at the farm with Jim Mollison.
I can confirm that Amy Johnson and her fiance at the time, Jim Mollison, did land in the field of William Kerfoot’s farm.
The photo attached to the article is not William Kerfoot. Although I have similar photos with Willam Kerfoot on them.
I am William Kerfoot’s Grandaughter. His son George, my Dad, died in 2021 age 90. I have photos, taken at the same time as the one in the newspaper article, with Amy Johnson, Jim Mollison, my Taid (Grandad) William Kerfoot, my Nain (Grandmother) Minnie Kerfoot, who is holding my dad George Kerfoot as a toddler (he was born 13.1.31 so would be 18 months old).
The couple did spend the night in the farmhouse. My Mum tells me the story that Nain was worried about whether to sleep them in the same bedroom as they were engaged but NOT yet married.
I have 2 photos and autographs which I would be happy to share, but not sure how to upload to this site.