Sir,
Like Bowen Eastlake I am sure that Emperor Haile Sallassie's family spent the early war granted a safe haven on Caldey. My own experience and strong memory differs from Bowen's and, in my mind, establishes that the Emperor did a Caldey trip on more than one occasion. So why should his family be there?
In 1935 there was a border incident between Abyssinia and what was then Italian Somalia. For the next nine months the League of Nations was taken as the one organisation to keep the peace - a forlorn hope as the League totally failed. Abyssinia and its Emperor were at risk, so he and his family were whisked away and Britain was the logic haven.
My memory starts with the only boat that I have ever wanted, the 'Bunty', a classic design and a picture of wonderfully finished timber, a rich deep brown. Some time before the start of the war, 'Bunty' was out of favour and to my dismay was moored in one of the corners of the sluice. She was moored away from the entrance with her bow toward the large building now used by the Sea Cadets and Yatch Club.
But soon after, 'Bunty' was stripped of tarpaulin and some local men worked on her; I am sure that the leader was Josh Richards, but here memory is suspect. If I were in the quay area, my first place of call, at the end of 1940 or January 1941 I visited 'my' boat in early twilight and alongside 'Bunty' were four men, one of whom was the Emperor. They boarded 'Bunty' and cleared the old pier and turned to follow Castle Hill.
Like Bowen, I came to the conclusion that 'Bunty' was Caldey bound. Like Bowen, I was a 12-year-old and not given to imaginations.
Ivor Jenkins,
Cheshire.