► ILLEGAL SALMON

Fishermen who find salmon in the fixed nets they have set for sea fish outside the River Teign must throw them back in the water to avoid prosecution, even if they are dead. The bailiff for the Lower Teign area, Horace Benjafield, had been looking down into Labrador Cove through binoculars, and observed fixed nets with orange floats.

He saw the defendant arrive in his red inboard engine motor boat, and went to Back Beach to watch it come round the Ness. He asked him: ‘Bringing in your nets, then?’ to which he replied: ‘It’s not worth keeping them out there.’

The bailiff found a fish box in the bows covered with sacking, holding two salmon, weighing 14lbs and 8lbs fresh and limp from the sea. These were produced in court from the deep freeze. Said the defendant: ‘I know the law.

I am not throwing good fish back, with the present cost of living. I have applied for a licence but they won’t let me have one.’ The defence solicitor asked the bailiff: ‘If I put down a lobster pot and accidentally catch a salmon, am I committing an offence?’

The reply was ‘It would not be an offence – it would be a miracle!’

► CAREER IN SAIL

Lt Cdr John Elliott Armstrong, RNR (retired) of Commons Lane, Shaldon, who died on December 30,1972, in his 80th year, was one of the few seafarers remaining who can claim that they commenced their career in sail.

He was also a proud member of the International Association of Master Mariners – the Cape Horners – and a member of the Dartmouth branch for many years. His first ship as an apprentice was the square rigged sailing vessel Westgate. Later, he served in the Royal Naval Reserve in an armed merchant cruiser, HMS Edinburgh Castle as a midshipman, followed by two round-the-world voyages, in 1910-1912, including two passages of Cape Horn.

He was awarded the Humane Society’s bronze medal for saving a man overboard, off the coast of Brazil in February 1918. He was appointed in charge of confidential books, entailing de-coding Admiralty messages, which he personally collected from various sources such as the islands of Fernando Naronha, Ascencion, Rio de Janiero, Montevideo, the Falklands, and mail ships.

At the end of the war, he ‘swallowed the anchor’ and entered the family business of John Thomas & Sons, sugar dealers in Bristol. During the 1939-45 war, he was appointed sugar area officer for the South West by the Ministry of Food.

He was associated with Shaldon for 70 years, and a member of Teign Corinthian Yacht Club, Shaldon Sailing Club, Brixham Yacht Club, the Royal Naval Sailing Association, and the Bristol Yacht Club.

At his request, his ashes are to be scattered at sea by the Teignmouth pilot boat.

► MP’S BOYCOTT

MrRobin Maxwell-Hyslop (Tiverton) has declared that he will have nothing to do with Newton Abbot Urban Council because of its ‘scandalous action’ over salaries for officers.

Teignmouth and other authorities that will form the new district council next year are still angry with Newton Urban, who gave most officers disproportionate salaries, giving an unfair advantage when the new staff are chosen.

► ORGAN REPAIRS

Dawlish Parish Church organ will be out of action for several months for modernisation. Mr Edward Heath, the Prime Minister, whose prowess as an organist has been given much publicity, has not accepted an invitation to contribute to the cost.

The vicar, Rev Leo Sherley-Price, may approach Mr Harold Wilson, leader of the Opposition, whose son Mr Robin Wilson was married there four years ago.

► RIVIERA CINEMA

Sitting Target; The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight; Henry VIII and His Six Wives.