Lionel was born in Tollard Royal, north Dorset in 1920, but his family moved to Long Bredy after a few years as his mother was a teacher at Long Bredy school. His father was Estate Foreman for Pitt-Rivers, who owned most of Burton Bradstock village. Lionel went to Long Bredy school before moving on to Litton Cheney. After leaving school, he worked at Tilleys garage in Dorchester as workshop reception engineer. Later they were taken over by Wadham Stringer and then by T.K.M. Co. In 1939 at the age of 19 when war was declared, Lionel & his mate decided to sign on so as to have some choice of what they did rather than wait to be called up and be put anywhere. So they went to Exeter to apply for the Fleet Air Arm, but they wanted them to sign on for a long time, so they crossed the road and joined the RAF instead! He was ordered to Uxbridge for 'Square Bashing' before being sent to Blackpool for Flight Mechanic training. His first posting was Aldergrove in Northern Ireland, and then on to Brize Norton before he was finally posted to Singapore. After arriving back in England after the war, he was sent direct from Southampton docks to RAF Cosford where he was demobbed. He then returned to his home in Long Bredy and went back to work at Tilleys. A little later, he married Sylvia but sadly, after two years his wife died. After her death, Lionel moved to join his parents who by then had moved to Greystones on Burton Cliff & he has lived in Burton Bradstock ever since. Some two or three years after Sylvia died, he married her best friend Betty. They have two girls, Rebecca and Diane. Rebecca has two sons, one of whom has just graduated (2003) from Cambridge University, while Diane has two daughters. Lionel and Betty still live in the village.
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Lionel Bailey