life - JOHN HANNAM
David is a member of the West Wight Rifle Club
and in the past has represented the UK in various
competitions, it’s still a sport he loves today, although
he says his eyesight is a slight problem nowadays.
Mrs Thatcher
kept me on
my toes
John Hannam discovers some major surprises in the life
of David Langford. From being a cold war warrior planning
for World War 3 to briefing Margaret Thatcher, a hive of
60,000 bees and shooting for Great Britain.
If the Island’s new High Sheriff,
David Langford, had followed the
family tradition he might well have
been a Freshwater grocer. Instead,
he joined the Army and became
a cold war warrior and ended up
briefing Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher on many occasions.
28
Ironically, she was the daughter of a
grocer.
David grew up in the West Wight
and still has so many fond memories
of schooldays at All Saints Primary
and being marched to Colwell Bay
to learn to swim in the sea. His
thirteenth birthday was a sailing
David at home in his garden.
milestone when he became the
proud owner of his own dinghy. It
was built by George Weston in the
upstairs room of the Forrester’s
Hall, in Yarmouth. Before it could be
launched they encountered just one
small problem. It was too big and in
the end they took the window out
and used a crane to lower the boat
into the road.
Prior to this momentous moment
young David had been a typical
boisterous schoolboy roaming the
West Wight with catapults and
bows and arrows.
In 1965 he went to Sandhurst and
remained in the Army until 1993
when he retired with the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel. Probably the
most exciting part of his service life
was being an instructor in nuclear
weapons and he spent twelve
years in Germany. Every year he
was vetted by both the British and
Americans.
“My life was a total open secret
and I am still not able to talk about
certain things. I still can’t go to
certain places, like the old Soviet
Union.
“I had to get the Army’s nuclear
weapons organised, pointing the
right way and making sure they
were capable of doing it.
Island Life - www.isleofwight.net