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Leith lies on the South Shore of the Firth of Forth and is regarded as Edinburgh’s port. John Paul Jones, founder of the US Navy, tried to capture it with a squadron of seven ships during the American War of Independence in 1779 but it was too windy so he gave up and went home. Meanwhile, the people of Leith were ignoring him because they were too busy inventing the game of golf. ↩
For American readers (and young English readers): A panda car was the UK equivalent of an American ‘black and white’ – because pandas are black and white. Unfortunately panda cars were actually teal and white so the name was pretty stupid. They were phased out and replaced by white cars with a vivid orange stripe down each side – known as ‘jam butties’ or ‘jam butty cars’ , jam butty being British English slang for a jelly sandwich ↩
It is interesting to note that when this letter featured on www.emeregencyservicesforum.com, members of Her Majesty’s constabularies commented that they were equally impressed by a response time of just 16 hours. ↩
Norris McWhirter, and his twin brother Ross, were the authors of the Guinness Book of Records from 1954 until 1985. On 6 May 1954, Norris kept the time for Roger Bannister when he ran the first sub four minute mile. Christopher Chataway, another competitor in the same race, worked for Guinness and introduced the brothers to his employer. The rest, as they say, is history. ↩
Norris Mcwhirter may have kept one of the times for Roger Bannister but there would have been two others. In those days there were 3 time keepers, they took the average between the 3. This is fact as I know the owner of one of the stop watches. Sorry to be a bore.
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Thank you for your kind words.