The Font Cover at Radlett
The same month that Joe Mack came home for good, his parents, Kathleen and R.J., gave a new font cover to Christ Church in his home village of Radlett, in gratitude for the sparing of their son's life.
The gift was made anonymously, but the correspondence refers to it being for the recovery of a young airman from a serious accident in December 1943, and that the wish of the donors was that it should be dedicated in December 1944, on the anniversary of the incident.
The gift was made anonymously, but the correspondence refers to it being for the recovery of a young airman from a serious accident in December 1943, and that the wish of the donors was that it should be dedicated in December 1944, on the anniversary of the incident.
The cover was made by A R Mowbray and Co, in wainscot oak 8 feet high. The RAF crest was painted in its proper colours, and the dates 1939-44 were cut in Roman letters and gilded. It must have been a most impressive thing, but its very anonymity, no names being inscribed upon it, must have contributed to its eventual fate because it did not appear to commemorate anyone.
The font cover stayed in position for perhaps twenty-four years. My father would have seen it every time he went to church, as would his family and their friends. The identity of the donors was soon an open secret and thus the link with Joe was well known in the village.
But as the years went by, one by one the Mack family moved away from Radlett. Times changed dramatically, memories of the war faded, and the font cover lost its hitherto well understood significance.
Because the date the war ended (self-evidently not known at the time of the construction of the font cover) was actually 1945, the date 1939-44 started to look increasingly odd.
Sometime in the 1960s, the then vicar, Gordon Manley, took a dislike to the font cover, said it was unsafe, and had it removed to the bier shed, the rather fancy name for the corrugated iron shack which housed all the discards and rejects from the church. The roof leaked and in the end, being a chronic eyesore and too close to the church, the bier shed was taken down and its contents disposed of.
By then the cover had been in there for some 25 years, and was in very poor condition and riddled with woodworm. Probably someone chopped it up and burned it. With it went the only memorial I know of to the crash of K-King.
But as the years went by, one by one the Mack family moved away from Radlett. Times changed dramatically, memories of the war faded, and the font cover lost its hitherto well understood significance.
Because the date the war ended (self-evidently not known at the time of the construction of the font cover) was actually 1945, the date 1939-44 started to look increasingly odd.
Sometime in the 1960s, the then vicar, Gordon Manley, took a dislike to the font cover, said it was unsafe, and had it removed to the bier shed, the rather fancy name for the corrugated iron shack which housed all the discards and rejects from the church. The roof leaked and in the end, being a chronic eyesore and too close to the church, the bier shed was taken down and its contents disposed of.
By then the cover had been in there for some 25 years, and was in very poor condition and riddled with woodworm. Probably someone chopped it up and burned it. With it went the only memorial I know of to the crash of K-King.
Original Drawing for the Font Cover,
Hertfordshire Records Office
Hertfordshire Records Office
December 16/17 1943 & The Battle of Berlin
