Today I heard an 86 year old man being interviewed on the radio, 35 years ago he bought a 5 bedroom detached house close to the beach in Sandbanks Dorset on the South coast for £60,000.
To put that in perspective the average house price at that time was £3,000 but the man was retiring and the peninsula’s position at the entrance to Poole harbour (second largest natural one in the world after Sydney) offers some stunning views.
Since then it has become the fourth most expensive place to buy property on the planet, a 1/4 acre plot sold recently for £5 million.
So when the old fellow was recently offered £10 million for his house, it might surprise some people that he turned it down without batting an eyelid. He chose to retire there because of the views, he likes living there and his grand children enjoy staying there in the holidays, and as he put it “what would I do with the money”.
So hats off to him, in an age of naked greed for sticking to his principles, it turns out that he was the guy who designed the release mechanism for the Dambusters bombs.
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4 comments:
Kick-ass!
He's such a cool cat - I saw a documentary on how he came up with the idea for the release on the bombs. He was playing with one of his kids with marbles and a tub of water. Clever man. Amazing how simple solutions present themselves if one is only open to possibilities. Good on him, too. Isn't it incredible to think how young he was when he did that, too?
Phlegmmy, Yes indeed, only 21 and able to deliver the goods. It is strange how solutions present themselves, often switching off the thinking process and doing something different can lead to that eureka moment.
One of my relatives worked on gas agents for Churchill. He had a little accident while doing his work in South Africa. He died.
That was totally off topic, eh?
Good for that guy, sticking with his view and his way of life. :)
rt, well we were talking WW11 stories so not that far off!
"gas agents"? Now you have got me intrigued.
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