Spike Abbott has moved from Abingdon to become the newest member of the Body of Yeoman Warders at HM Tower of London.

Before becoming a Yeoman Warder, Spike served for 35 years with the RAF, and is pictured above at his leaving event.

He was often to be seen at Civic Events in Abingdon – such as Remembrance Day and Freedom Ceremonies. A condition for becoming a Yeoman Warder – popularly known as a Beefeater – is to serve for at least 22 years with HM armed forces.

Spike lived in Abingdon from 1981, and his wife is here in Abingdon for a few months more. I think she still volunteers at Abingdon County Hall Museum.

Lesley Writes about her Abingdon neighbour, Tony Broad …

This is a small incite into the background of my former neighbour Tony Broad who died on 15th January aged 93. He talked a lot about his work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge where so much innovative research was being undertaken over the years.

Tony went through Technical college and then to EMI where he honed his technical knowledge on Cathode Ray Tubes. He worked under Otto Klemperer there.

Georgina Ferry, a Scientific blogger, writes that he was the creator of a nobel prizewinning x-ray tube.

He was the inventor and creator of many clever devices, before and after. After working at Cambridge he moved to Harwell and then set up his own company where he worked on early hole in the wall cash machines. Even in retirement he would spend his time creating fixing and rebuilding things. His work was his life.

Lesley says Tony also had narcolepsy all his life. He would fall asleep when she was visiting him and even on his mobility scooter once. But still managed to execute his work brilliantly.

Pictured is – a rotating anode tube of the type originally designed by Tony Broad – his most important invention (Picture Thanks to: Daniel W. Rickey, Wikimedia Commons).

May 15th is Conscientious Objectors’ Day, when Quakers, and Peace Campaigners remember the men who refused to take up arms.

One such man was Roland Caudwell ( 1880-1982). He will be remembered by some in Abingdon as the retired builder who lived at 52 Thesiger Road. He will be remembered by others as a Deacon at Abingdon Baptist Church. There are earlier pictures of him serving as a soldier in the Boar War where he looked after the horses. But during World War I, he had become a man of conscience who refused to fight or kill, and is listed as a Conscientious Objector.

In 1916 he was Clerk of the Abingdon Quaker meeting. Like many Quakers (or Friends) he held pacifist beliefs. He was exempted Military Service at a tribunal in July 1916 not only on grounds of conscience but also because he was a farmer – a reserved occupation.

Mr Caudwell reached the grand age of 101, and there are reports of him as a centenarian in the Abingdon Herald. The reports say that he made hundreds of blankets for Oxfam.