John Walker
Feb, 2007
My first trip to the Outer Hebrides was in 1960; we were flown there in several Vickers Viscount planes chartered from British Airways. The service was a refreshing change from the military ferries we usually took from the Hook of Holland across the North Sea to Felixstowe, which could be a rough trip if the weather turned foul.
However, I had been Guard Commander the previous night, and as you weren't allowed any sleep during the night I had trouble staying awake. As we were boarding the plane at Dusseldorf I had been awake for about 29 hours and the world was definitely bleary. Some vaguely foggy WOII ordered me to be responsible for Capt. Anstey's baggage and clear it through customs in Benbecula. Captain Anstey was the REME Workshop Admin Officer, but I was given no explanation of why he wasn't on the flight with his own baggage. I asked for a list of contents in case anything needed to be declared to customs, since I was obviously going to carry the can if he had a case full of cameras or booze, but was told not to be so impertinent. This meant that I was far from wide awake and carrying my own back-pack and kit-bag plus Anstey's kit, which consisted of two wooden boxes, a large leather officer's grip and a huge wooden tripod.
The customs officer in Benbecula couldn't understand why I was clearing mine and what seemed like half the officers' mess kit. He also wanted to know what was inside the locked boxes, but since I didn't have the keys I couldn't tell him. Fortunately Capt. Middleton passed by and I got him involved, and while he was talking to the Customs man I sloped off and boarded the 3-tonner with everyone else. What happened to Anstey's luggage wasn't, and never has been, any concern of mine.
Sometime during the ten days we were in the islands I was told to be at the officers' quarters early on departure day to get Anstey's bags packed and ready for transport! As if I hadn't got enough of my own to do! Nobody made any arrangements to help me, so I conveniently 'forgot'. I hadn't seen Anstey all week, and I wasn't sure if he had even been there. As we arrived back in Dusseldorf I overheard Capt Brandon and Middleton discussing Anstey's luggage with two Royal Artillery officers.
Apparently it was still in the customs shed in Benbecula.
