The Dancing Sailor

Dad always used to tell us a story about dancing with Lady Astor on Plymouth Hoe at the end of WWII. We assumed it was another of his "tall stories" until, decades later and a few years after his death in 1991, my sister spotted his picture in the Plymouth Evening Herald and realised that he had in fact been telling the truth! She took the newspaper to his sister, who of course knew him at the time and verified that it was indeed him. The photograph has featured frequently in articles about Plymouth in WWII and was also used in the exhibition about Nancy Astor in 2019 in Plymouth Guildhall. The Astor centenary event was also marked by a special bus, which travelled around Plymouth for the next two years with the Dancing Sailor photo displayed on it.