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John and Marilyn Cox

HOW I CAPTURED THIS TREASURED SOUVENIR

by: John Touchet

    One thing nice about being an Army Photographer is the ability to get pictures of people with famous names.  My collection includes Gen. Eisenhower, Gen. Dolittle, Col. Jimmy Stewart and entertainers like James Cagney, Ginger Rogers, Allen Ladd plus many more not so famous.  What follows is the story of one of my most memorable photos.

    I was stationed in England during World War II about 2 hours by rail North of London, and occasionally I could get a 3-day pass to visit the Big City.  I decided to go to London alone this time and do some sight seeing.  We could not take a government issued camera off the base unless on Government business, so I borrowed a German made Voytlander from a friend to help document the 3 day vacation.

    On April 25, 1945, after visiting London Zoo and Westminster Abbey, I was riding in the upper deck of a double-decker bus when I noticed people were all heading one way and in a hurry.  So I and my Voytlander got off the bus and went with the crowd to see what all the excitement was about.  I worked by way to the front and sure and behold there was the Prime Minister and his party heading straight toward me.  I shot two exposures and pushed ahead again to get another chance for a photo.  This time the Prime Minister looked straight at me and sort of smiled.  I can just imagine him thinking "There is the 'Yank' again".  I did get two more pictures and all I could think of was, "I hope I had one worth saving out of the four exposures".

    I couldn't wait to get back to the photo lab at camp in Norwich.  All the negatives turned out OK, including the one where he was closest and looking toward me and the Voytlander.  I worked with the projection printer and ended up with two 8x10 enlargements worthy of the subject.  Both were sent to Winston Churchill at Number 10 Downing St. with a short note asking if he would autograph one of them and return it to me.  Six and one half weeks later I received an autographed photo of the WWII Prime Minister of Great Britain.

    Below are some photos of those documents.

Dennis Kochan and David Wander circa 1982.

Dennis' Pitts and David's Cessna 180.

Earle Richardson, Beverly Lerner & Ira (the Aeronca Champ)

Dick Creswell. This is the oldest picture of my finished airplane.  It was taken at the Frederick, Md. airport  in 1991 where I did my first test flight.  AOPA and Avemco are both located on that airport.  An Avemco employee saw me doing the test flights, and asked me whether it would be OK to use a picture of my RV4 in one of their upcoming advertisements in Kit Planes and Sport Aviation magazines.  I replied, "I think my ego could handle that".....