Page 146 - Wish Stream Year of 2017

the time. From then on, it was open season for the Archbishop in the tabloid press.
Deeply moved by the kidnap and imprisonment of his special envoy to Lebanon, Terry Waite, from 1987-1991 he nevertheless visited the Pope in Rome in 1989. For the remainder of his time in office he maintained a conservative approach to the growing issues of the ordination of women and the Anglican Church’s view on homosexuality. Retiring in 1991, Robert Runcie was created a life peer as Baron Runcie of Cud- desdon. He died in 2000 and is buried in the grounds of St Albans Cathedral. His dry sense of humour was revealed when asked to write the postscript to his biography, which contro- versially revealed details of his private views on the breakdown of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He wrote: ‘I have done my best to die before this book is published. It now seems possible that I may not succeed!’
David Purley
1967 Parachute Regiment
The son of the director of LEC Refrigerators, David Purley was
born in 1945 and was a mem-
ber of Intake 38. One fellow cadet
remembers him arriving on Ironing
Board Sunday in a Rolls Royce. Commissioned into the Para-
chute Regiment, he lost the first of his nine lives when his parachute failed to open on a training jump. Miraculously, he landed on his Platoon Sergeant’s ‘chute and both survived the heavy landing. Having seen action with his Battalion in Aden, he left the Army to pursue a career in motor racing. Purley competed in seven Formula One Grands Prix with a best finish of ninth at Monza in 1973. By no means a ‘rich kid’ racer,
he had genuine talent and, during this race, he beat two past and two future world champions.
In the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix, fellow British rookie driver Roger Williamson crashed and Purley abandoned his own race and attempted to free Wil-
liamson from the blazing, overturned, car. The marshals and police in the area did not have fireproof clothing and Purley was unable to right the car himself. No other drivers stopped, most believed that Purley was fighting the fire on his own car, although one future world champion said; “I’m paid to race – not stop”. Purley was awarded the George Medal for his gallant, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to save Wil- liamson’s life.
David Purley’s Formula One career ended when he suffered severe leg injuries during practice for the 1977 British Grand Prix. At the time he held the unenviable world record of surviving the highest g-force ever recorded, decelerating from 108mph to zero in 26 inches. Undeterred, he took to aerobatics but was killed when his plane crashed into the sea in 1985.
...he beat two past and two future world champions.
144 HISTORICAL