During the height of the Second World War, an ordinary Sunday morning in the village of East Keal transformed into a memorable experience for the then 14-year-old Kit Lawie. Unwittingly, she found herself sharing her breakfast table with three RAF officers, little realising that one of them would come to be globally known as the leader of the infamous Dambusters raid. Now aged 97, Kit orally paints a vivid picture of that day, comfortably seated in her cosy cottage on the outskirts of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Her family home was fondly referred to as the Brickyard and was enveloped by fields that were owned by her father. On that fateful day, while overseeing the cows, her father came across three airmen donning their flight uniforms. Under the initial suspicion that they might be German spies, he cautiously invited them indoors upon learning that they were in the midst of a training exercise and had spent a frosty night in the woods.
Being as hospitable as ever, Kit’s mother extended the offer for breakfast, providing them with eggs, whilst her brother Fred was engrossed in quizzing their mysterious visitors. As they were hesitant but polite, the airmen wrote down their names on a slip of paper: Ernest Temple, David Llewellyn, and G Gibson, the latter standing out among them as it was the name of the quiet one- Wing Commander Guy Gibson himself.
When time came for their mysterious guests to leave, the family was left with an enigmatic piece of advice which was to ‘look at the newspapers’. It was only a few months later, listening in to the radio, that the family learnt about the courageous Dambusters raid and realised the true significance of their breakfast companions. Gibson had been the one to lead this audacious raid, resulting in the breaching of the Mohne and Edersee dams in Germany, and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.
Looking back at that morning, Kit wholeheartedly values the slip of paper bearing their names- an unexpected encounter with history that unfolded quite literally at her breakfast table.
The Lincoln Post adapted this story from original reporting by BBC News.
