'The drug dealer was on the run with the police sniffer dogs giving chase. Quick thinking and a ladies bike lying outside the shop in Tollcross seemed the answer to making a swift exit along the canal. He made it as far as the Leamington Lift bridge before he turned to see the dogs barking and off the leash.
Seeing the life buoy at the side of the path, he ditched the bike, grabbed the life buoy from the case and flung himself into the muddy waters of the canal,paddling like fury until he reached the next bridge and the opposite bank..........'

Having had two requests from blippers for an account of His Lordship's journey to Fort George yesterday, he has been cajoled into penning a few words. Here they are:-

Father's Medals
'Like others who endured the full horror of the Great War, father seldom spoke of his experiences. There were vague mentions, but never anything specific.
He never for example explained why he had been awarded the MM "For Bravery in the Field", or why the French Croix de Guerre, nor did he explain the Mention in Dispatches which earned him an Oak Leaf Cluster on his victory medal.
If that wasn't enough, there was no explanation for the Card of Honour,"for an act of gallantry", which had been presented and signed by his Commanding General.

It was left to me to rescue his medals and have them framed, so that for many years they could be displayed proudly above my desk. I was happy to accept that they made my own GSM look paltry in its frame hanging alongside.

My father is long dead, he died aged 62- an old man, his health broken by wounds and a gassing attack which he survived in France.
As I grew older it seemed appropriate that these medals should be donated to his Regimental Museum at Fort George, and it was there I visited to see them again yesterday.
I had not anticipated how emotional this encounter would be. It was almost like seeing my father again.
His medals, or rather what they represented, were so much of a part of him.
When I left the museum, there was a tear in my eye. I was saying farewell to my father, but pleased to know that in essence, he was at home amongst the medals and accoutrements of many other old soldiers- his comrades.
He would be happy.