One morning in November 1940, the head of English at Wellington Grammar School, Mr AB ‘Dickie’ Richardson, was mysteriously missing.

And ever since, one of the young pupils, Frank Fuller, has wondered why. But retired journalist Frank, from Market Drayton, has a hunch.

“I was only a schoolboy. I didn’t investigate. At 10 years old, I was not the reporter I eventually became. The Wellington fire engine and crew, so I understand, went to the Coventry Blitz, but I’ve never been able to prove it.”

Frank was at the time in his first year at the school and Mr Richardson was a member of the Wellington Auxiliary Fire Service.

“The morning after the raid he did not appear in school. It was said later that the Wellington AFS had gone to Coventry. I have never seen anything official to back this up. It might be that the Wellington crew went on standby into the Midlands round Birmingham.”

Armoured car

“Talking about the war, when the Home Guard was formed – or Local Defence Volunteers as it was then – we heard that the Wellington lot decided to have an armoured car which, so the story went, was built at the Victoria Sheet Metal Co in Victoria Road. They did car body building and repairs.

“In about 1942 the Home Guard was very active in the Wellington area and often staged exercises. One was in the town and we lads used to watch. A Dutch column was ‘fighting’ its way down England testing out the Home Guards.

“We saw the following incident. We boys were standing at the corner of Crescent Road and Park Street. A Dutch armoured car roared along from Park Walls heading for King Street.

“The Home Guard had a mortar outside Corbet and Leeds builders yard and a Czech unit had an anti-tank gun right on the corner of Crescent Road and Park Street.

“As the armoured car appeared the mortar was fired and the anti-tank gun fired a blank round towards the front of the vehicle and then swivelled round to fire a round up its rear as it roared into King Street.

“The firing of the second round from the gun had rather disastrous consequences. All the glass fell out of the windows of The Crescent private hotel on the opposite corner. The hotel owner, a lady, remonstrated with the Czech officer, but apparently he could not understand her English.

“At the end of the war the Home Guards had a ‘commando’ unit of younger men led by Captain Ken Hunt. They challenged our school’s cross-country team to a race which included part of The Ercall. The grammar school boys came in virtually eight abreast. Captain Hunt came to school the following week and presented a magnificent trophy for cross-country running.

“I wonder what happened to that?”