In favour of statue tribute
ON Boxing Day, 1995, I was admitted to Worthing Hospital and put in one of the old wards since demolished but where the car park is now.
I was there for five days and there was an elderly gentleman there who was a real character and made everyone in the ward laugh.
It was after about two or three days I was to find out that he was the chap who cycled around in the fancy, old-fashioned gear, smoking a cigarette or cigar in a holder.
I then found out what his real name was, Horace Duke.
During his stay there, he was asked to vacate his bed due to a shortage or his operation was cancelled, something like that.
He stubbornly refused to leave until he had his operation.
Sadly, I believe he died soon afterwards.
My mother used to call him Burlington Bertie and we use to see him over here in the Shoreham area as well as Worthing.
On one occasion, he would be cycling along singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and on another on being heckled by some youngsters in a car he gave a slow, dignified sign that Harvey Smith would have been proud of.
I am very much in favour of having a statue of him erected somewhere, possibly in the middle of the roundabout on the A24/A27.
Derek Dearlove
Whitelot Way
Southwick
NOTE: All letters must include a name and address which can be withheld by request.
Write in to Readers' Letters, Worthing Herald series, Cannon House, Chatsworth Road, Worthing, BN11 1NA, or email the Herald.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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