Presentation of the Guard House Bell
December 2005

Attached is a photo of my wife and me presenting a bell to Richard Taylor.

I understand that this bell once stood at the guard house at RAF Debach. The story, as it was related to me, is that in the years after the war, some of the airmen from RAF Bawdsey were occasionally temporarily posted for a fortnight or so at RAF Debach, and that at some time they undertook to liberate the bell. They presented it to the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club, just across the river Deben from RAF Bawdsey, where it served in the bar for many years. During that time, the bell's clapper clapped out, so to speak, so the barman used to whack it with a hammer for the desired effect, which is why the bell is somewhat the worse for it. When the Sailing Club's bar was razed to make room for fancier accommodations, Mr. John Kennell of Felixstowe salvaged it from the skip that it had landed in, and stored it in his garage for some years.

During that time, I served a tour at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge as a USAF A-10 pilot, and at the end of that, in keeping with local custom, dragged off the lady in the picture, a local Felixstowe girl and a member of the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club, as my bride. Fifteen years after that, when Mr. Kennell learned that we were constructing an English pub in the basement of our home in Colchester, Vermont, he gave the bell to us. It was fitted with a new clapper and served admirably there for the last six years or so.

Now that we have seen the results of the efforts that Richard Taylor and others have put in to building a first-class museum at RAF Debach, it seemed proper to return the bell to its original home. However, we're not sure exactly where its original home might have been. Does anyone that was there during the war remember this bell, or where it was placed on the station?

Ted & Jenni Dudley
USAF Retired
Colchester, Vermont