Tuesday's Letters: Our county's greatest Battle of Britain pilot

In his excellent article on the Battle of Britain (Yorkshire Post, July 19), Malcolm Barker mentions several gallant Yorkshire-born fighter pilots. Although such lists are necessarily selective, the Yorkshireman who scored most victories in the Battle fails to get a mention. Sgt James Henry "Ginger" Lacey DFM, was born in Wetherby on February, 1,1917, the son of a cattle dealer.

Forbidden by his father from joining the RAF, after completing a three-year apprenticeship as a pharmacist, he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve at the age of 19 and soon showed his mettle by qualifying to

fly solo in just six hours 55 minutes.

When war broke out, Sgt Lacey was posted to 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, a Hurricane squadron which moved to France in May 1940. During the Battle of France Sgt Lacey shot down five enemy aircraft and was awarded the Croix de Guerre and mentioned in despatches.

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With the fall of France, the squadron returned to England and Lacey was awarded the DFM. He fought with the squadron throughout the Battle of Britain and by the end had been credited with 15 confirmed victories and one shared, including on September 13, the Heinkel 111K which had just bombed Buckingham Palace.

Jim Lacey was the joint third top scoring RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain and the top scoring Auxiliary. He was awarded a bar to his DFM and finished the war a Squadron Leader with 28 victories, a true Yorkshire hero.

I suspect that the photograph which accompanied the article was taken well before the battle. It is obviously posed and the pilots are not wearing Mae West life jackets. The Spitfire lacks the three-blade constant speed propeller and armoured glass windscreen, both of which were almost universal by late July 1940.

From: John Redhead, Owst Road, Keyingham, East Yorkshire.

Keep our pavements free of traffic

From: Ann Taylor, Renton Avenue, Guiseley, Leeds.

I READ with dismay and dread the item on the Segway (Yorkshire Post, July 17).

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For heaven's sake, the pavements are crowded enough, cyclists are a dangerous menace – not children, but adults. There are more mobility scooters, yes they are a lifeline for the disabled, I know. However some of them though are very big, take up more room than a double pushchair and move far too fast. Five miles per hour on a pavement?

I can't believe that any owner of a Segway, if legalised, would be content to go on today's busy roads, they would be on and off the pavement all the time.

I sincerely hope Mr Coates is prosecuted, nothing personal I hasten to add, but if these means of transport do become legal, then life for pedestrians will become very difficult. Nothing is done about cycling on the pavements, against the law, by people over the age of 14.

We want more legislation, not less, for the elderly and parents with children and pushchairs who will need to be protected.

From: Tim Mickleburgh. Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.

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I AGREE with John Darby (Yorkshire Post, July 23) about pavements being for pedestrians. All over Grimsby I see examples both of vehicles

parking over the kerb, and illegal cycling. There is one stretch of path where the local authority have sadly allocated as being both for cyclists and walkers. The trouble is, there is a whale of a difference between a man riding with his young child on a path due to the busy nature of the road and youngsters who use this track as if they were auditioning for the Tour de France. At school-leaving time, people ride three or four abreast and woe betide the pedestrian.

In some parts of town, we have designated cycle lanes, but even when they exist you still get people riding on the adjacent pavement. Now the council has its own traffic wardens, but sadly pavement cycling is outside their range of responsibility.

Change on the menu

From: Judy Hargadon, chief executive, School Food Trust, St Paul's Place, Sheffield.

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Contrary to Dan Curtis's claims (Business Tuesday, July 20), the School Food Trust has spent the last five years advising Government at both national and local level on robust – but deliverable – standards for improving food in schools.

We work directly with nearly 60 local authorities and thousands of schools to help them implement the changes needed and to find practical solutions that will help them improve their school meals service day-to-day.

We have developed a national training infrastructure for school cooks and a network of school-based cooking clubs for families.

After one of the biggest in-year rises in take up for a decade, we have turned around a food culture in a country that had registered the message from Jamie Oliver but had no idea how to make change happen.

Respect our customs

From: Len Fincham, Warrels Road, Bramley, Leeds.

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THE Immigration Minister, Damian Green, is being very foolish uttering his own thoughts on the subject of Muslims wearing the face covering in Britain (Yorkshire Post, July 19).

He has got it all wrong when declaring it is "un-British" to ban it, when in fact it is un-British to wear the face covering in public and has always been so.

He has not listened to the public since they voted him into power for the vast majority want the face uncovered in public. This goes for "hoodies" as well. What anyone does in private is their affair.

Most intelligent Brits recognise and respect local customs when in foreign countries so we should expect people permanently living here to respect our customs.

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I suggest Mr Green stops giving his own ideas and listen to his

constituents.

Uncaring Conservatives

From: M White, Burniston, North Yorkshire.

I WONDER if there are any other people who like me are appalled at the way Con-Lib-Government has turned on people working in the public sector with such venom as if the credit crunch is all their fault.

It is not the fault of the public sector workers or indeed even the previous government but an unregulated capitalist system in general and the greedy, arrogant financial sector based in the City of London.

I am totally disgusted at the way this present Government has set one section of the community against another sector just so as to implement their ideology. I am utterly amazed at the Lib Dems for supporting the same Conservative policy they have opposed many times in my lifetime, namely, mass unemployment so that there are 10 people for every job which in turn equals low wages and a lower standard of living for the ordinary working people of the country.

Camerons' caring Conservatives?

Now there is a joke if ever there was one.

We are paying price for closing psychiatric hospitals

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From: Miss Judy Gibbard, Littlecoates Road, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire.

ONE of the reasons the prisons are so full is because there are 20,000 people, or even more, in jail who are clearly mentally ill. They should be in secure mental hospitals like Rampton and the less severe in psychiatric hospitals. For many years, I worked for Dr John Harding Price in Grimsby and Lincoln, a retired consultant psychiatrist, who begged the authority not to close down psychiatric hospitals.

We need these hospitals, not only for mentally ill people, but for alcoholics (which is an illness) and drug addicts, in order to wean them them off drugs. A lot of them sleep rough and simply cannot cope. I can understand why they closed the old Victorian hospitals, but they should at the same time have built modern new ones for those who require short-term care.

Several years ago, Dr Harding Price opened up Barrow Hall, Barrow, North East Lincolnshire and although he is now retired, it is still going strong under new management.

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One just has to look at Raoul Moat and Derrick Bird, both of whom should have been in a secure hospital, to see what a mess we are in, without many psychiatric hospitals available.

Blair's war, not Britain's

From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lane, Hull.

UNDER the scrutiny of the media, Nick Clegg's debut at Prime Minster's Questions was much maligned. The reason? He said Britain's invasion of Iraq in 2003 was illegal. Maligned for telling the truth?

The powers that are seen to be, and the unseen dark ones lurking in the sewers of government, through a leading lawyer say such a statement could put Britain at risk of charges in international courts.

I suggest Nick Clegg amends his statement as soon as possible to read – Tony Blair and his cronies illegally invaded Iraq in 2003, not Britain, millions rebelled at the decision. It was Blair's war, not Britain's.

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As for charges in international courts – for Bush, Blair and

representative cronies, bring it on.

Peace pipe for non-smokers

From: Holgate Illingworth, Mount Pleasant Farm, Bossall, York.

I WAS very interested in your article on smoking (Yorkshire Post, July 21).

I will be 80 years-old in August. I have smoked a pipe since I was 25 and still do. When I go to friends' houses since the ban, if I want a pipe I say: "Please may I go outside for a pipe?" They all appreciate this.

Same in a restaurant, all over the world.

I do not want to harm other people with my bad habit.

Outside chance for children

From: John Gordon, Whitcliff Lane, Ripon.

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IT felt like the end of summer term last week, but where had all the children gone? All I saw was little groups of figures clad in brilliant yellow flak jackets ordered by their teachers to queue at traffic lights. Is there nowhere they can learn and nowhere they can play under our new Government?

Waste over Ripper appeal

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

As usual, Barrie Frost of Filey (Yorkshire Post, July 20) is totally right when he says that spending all that money on the charade of an appeal by the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe is a scandalous waste of UK cash. He should serve what his sentence stated: 20 life sentences.