Personal Memorabilia from the man we knew as Chuck Blair

Craig Prescott is the nephew of Chuck's girlfriend Jill Smith (née Oddy) known to Chuck's listeners as 'Lady Penelope' – after the aristocratic puppet character in Gerry Anderson's TV series 'Thunderbirds'. Cliff Richard's 'In the Country' was played for Jill (right) whom Chuck described as, "very, very dear to me" during his final Big L Breakfast Show, August 14th 1967.

Craig has discovered some fascinating memorabilia, which in 2013, he very kindly scanned for us. He explains: "My dad helped Chuck clear out his flat in London, and most of those bits ended up being stored in Dad's attic. Jill moved to South Africa in the early 70s. Sadly, she died a couple of years ago."

Some of the items are personal to Chuck and give no clues as to their significance. Others have been omitted as they are duplicates of items that we already have elsewhere on the site. A few do not date to the period when Chuck was aboard the Galaxy and appear to have come from a scrapbook, which perhaps originated in Curzon Street. We have shown the scans to ex-shipmates of Chuck's, who have managed to shed a little light on some of them.


The competition was properly titled 'Dinner With Donovan'. We have been unable to establish what the contestants were required to do. Brian Long's book 'The London Sound' dates the photos above to April 28th 1965 - over eighteen months before Chuck joined Radio London. Donovan's leather coat is apparently regarded as 'kinky gear'!


May 1965 was the month that saw the launch of the Radio London Club Saturday afternoons. Sadly, Anita Harris missed out on achieving a Fab Forty entry.

 


Contact sheets from photographic studio sessions for Chuck's official Radio London DJ portraits. Below, two selected images.


A Christmas card from Bawdsey Forces Network, based at RAF Bawdsey, near Felixstowe.

The Radar Pages website explains:

"BFN, the Bawdsey Forces Network, provided some piped entertainment around the billets; the studio was quite well equipped with three turntables and a couple of tape decks. The record library was extensive, up to date and covered a wide range of genres whilst specialist programme broadcasts were supplemented by records from our own collections."

More on Page 2
If you have any info concerning Chuck that you would either like to share with us (it will not necessarily appear on the website), or you wish us to pass on privately to Carleton, please contact Mary.
If you recognise yourself in one of the photos, we'd love to hear from you too:

(The most up-to-date information concerning the family history and the various names that the enigmatic DJ used are on our 2011 page.)

Chuck's 1967 CV and info The incredible story of how we found Chuck
Feedback from our story about finding Chuck Chuck's final show on Big L
Chuck shares his 'will' with Big L listeners Seventies photographs taken by Chuck's family
2011: much more information comes to light 2013: Bill Russo woked with Rick/Chuck on WSJR
2013: Page 2 of Chuck's memorabilia  

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