Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 4, 2020^ Page 27
My MBE is
for all the
poor devils
who never
made it back
how i see it
by Robert
Hardman
Chimewatch: Who stole the bell
from England’s smallest church?
Baby bumblebees are being
brain damaged by pesticide
By Colin Fernandez
Science CorrespondentENGLAND’S smallest church will fall silent Daily Mail Reporter
for the first time in 1,000 years after its
bell was stolen.
Bremilham Church, which is 10ft by 11ft
and has room for only ten worshippers,
was targeted by thieves last week.
The 3ft brass bell is 291 years old and
weighs around 220lb. Police believe it
would have taken two or more people to
remove it from its oak beam.
There has been a chapel on the site at
Cowa g e Fa r m , n e a r M a l m e s b u r y,
Wiltshire, since 1179.
Farmer Thomas Collins said: ‘There’s onlyone bell like it. We’re poorer for losing it.
We’ve lost a little bit of heritage.’
The current church dates from the 15th
century and holds a Guinness World
Record for being the smallest in England.
The Grade II-listed building has only one
service a year on Rogationtide, the sixth
Sunday of Easter.
Mr Collins is not optimistic about the bell
being returned, joking: ‘I’m going to buy
a lottery ticket instead.’ Wiltshire Police
said they are investigating.BABY bumblebees are being harmed
by a commonly used pesticide.
Researchers from Imperial College Lon-
don scanned the brains of bees exposed to
the insecticide imidacloprid and found the
key region of the brain that facilitates
learning showed reduced growth.
The researchers said the findings, pub-
lished in journal Proceedings of the Royal
Society B, show that residues of this insec-
ticide in flowers and plants can cause per-
manent brain damage in the insects.
The pesticide is restricted in the EU and
the research supports Government policy
to maintain the ban in the UK after Brexit.However, it is widely applied in other
countries including the US where it is one
of the most commonly used pesticides.
Study lead Dr Richard Gill said: ‘Bee colo-
nies act as “superorganisms”, so when any
toxins enter the colony, these have the
potential to cause problems with the devel-
opment of the baby bees within it.
‘These findings reveal how colonies can be
impacted by pesticides weeks after expo-
sure, as their young grow into adults that
may not be able to forage for food properly.’Hero: Aged 18 before D-Day
E
XACTLY six months
from today, he will see
his greatest wish come
true when he watches
the unveiling of the
tribute to the 22,442 men and
women who never came home.
But yesterday, D -Day veteran
Harry Billinge was the one being
honoured as he met the Queen at
Buckingham Palace and received
the MBE for his tireless work on
behalf of the Normandy Memorial
to the liberators of Europe.
Meeting the monarch, he said, had
left him ‘overwhelmed’ but also hugely
proud on behalf his fallen comrades.
Mr Billinge, 94, from St Austell,
Cornwall, has been one of a group of
veterans who have spent more than
five years campaigning for a memo-
rial to all members of the British
Armed Forces who were killed on D-
Day and in the subsequent three -
month Battle of Normandy through
the summer of 1944.
Uniquely among the Allies, Britain is
the only country without a national
memorial on French soil.
Following last year’s victorious
campaign by the Daily Mail and
its generous readers, that omis-
sion will be corrected later this
year when the spectacular Nor-
mandy Memorial is opened.
Yesterday the Queen congratu-
lated Mr Billinge on the achieve-
ment and asked him about the
unveiling on September 4.
‘You’re going over there, are
you?’ she asked him.
‘If I’m still alive,’ he replied
cheerfully.
The Queen also noted that Mr
Billinge had been discharged from
the Forces through injury.
‘I see you’ve got the King’sBadge,’ she said, looking at the
badge on his lapel, a silver badge
for civilian wear which showed
that the wearer was a veteran.
Mr Billinge confirmed that it was
indeed. He said afterwards: ‘He
was a good bloke, King George VI,
and it meant everything to meet
his daughter.
‘I told her the MBE wasn’t for
me but for all them poor devils
who never came back.’
On the morning of D-Day itself,
Mr Billinge was a teenage member
of a Royal Engineers unit charged
with demolishing a German radar
station near Arromanches.
Of his ten-man unit, only four ofthem survived. To this day, he can
still rattle off the names of the
others in his sleep.
In advance of yesterday’s cere-
mony, Mr Billinge and his wife,
Sheila, had been guests of honour
at 24 Commando Regiment Royal
Engineers over the weekend.
They were then driven to the
Palace yesterday in a Bentley
belonging to Falklands veteran
and ex-Royal Engineer com-
mando, Dan Newbold.
‘It’s been the most marvellous
day. I’ve never known anything
like it in my life,’ said Mr Billinge
before being taken to a celebra-
tory lunch with the NormandyMemorial Trust, which is still rais-
ing vital funds for landscaping and
maintenance of the 50-acre memo-
rial site overlooking the landing
beaches at Ver-Sur-Mer.A
MONG those who were
a l s o r e c o g n i s e d a t
yesterday’s investiture
w e r e a c t r e s s We n d y
Craig, 85, who said she has no
plans to stop working in enter-
tainment as she received her CBE
from the Queen.
The great-grandmother is best
known for her role as Ria Parkin-son in the Carla Lane sitcom
Butterflies, which aired on BBC2
from 1978 to 1983.
Novelist Rose Tremain, 76, was
also made a dame for her services
to writing. Her novels and short
stories have been published world-
wide in 27 countries, and have won
various awards including the
Orange Prize for Fiction in 2008
for her book The Road Home.
■ Donations for the Normandy
Memorial can be made via http://www.
normandymemorialtrust.org or
cheques sent to The Normandy
Memorial Trust, c/o The Secre-
tary, 56 Warwick Square, London
SW1V 2AJ.Chat: Mr Billinge and Queen Pride: With MBE at palace yesterday
Poignant:
Harry
Billinge
returns to
Normandy
beaches
in 2018As Queen honours veteran behind Normandy memorial...