The Walking Stick That Ended Up A Spy's Nose in 1914.

[Flying10uk]

I have mentioned this true story previously but I have not been able to post pictures of the walking stick until now as I have only just rediscovered the stick. Although the story does have an amusing side to it there is also a human side to it as well in that, my understanding is that, the spy was eventually caught and he would have faced the death penalty. However he was spying, in time of war, and he did hold my grandmother and her mother up at gun-point.

Basically in 1914 my gran's father was running a farm and the estate next-door was owned by a German family who were interned on the outbreak of war. For whatever reason their German chauffeur wasn't interned which gave him the opportunity to spy. Why he came back to ask where the girl was when it was obvious that he had been rumbled is a mystery. Why the girl wasn't immediately suspicious of the man is another mystery.

As I understand it the walking stick was thrust hard up the German spy's nose and the sudden surprise of having a walking stick up one's nose gave my grandmother the opportunity to run off and get help, without being shot in the process. Apparently a small amount of the walking stick parted company with the rest of the walking stick as it was being pushed up the spy's nose.

The write up on the board is my late father's words.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Ovidio]

Precious item!

[eric27]

That's a precious item indeed

[old tanker]

Granny was badass!! Good on her!

[Flying10uk]

According to my late gran there was a fair amount of blood because her mother had thrust the walking stick up the spy's nose with as much force as she could muster.

My gran was 10 years old at the time, in 1914, and before the end of WW1 she was helping part-time in a local Red Cross hospital.

[NORTHOF60]

Now that's what I call a family heirloom

[Flying10uk]

Please do not try any of what follows as this happened 100 years ago or more, before health and safety was invented.

Although not connected to the above story the following did happen on the same farm, as I understand it, so a bit of an "aside". My gran told me that she and her brother had "great fun", when their father was out for the day, using a cattle water trough as a canoe on the river that ran through the farm. Apparently it was easy enough to get the cattle trough into the river but less easy getting it out again when the fun was over for the day and they had to get it out before their father arrived home. This was because he got angry very easily and very quickly. The solution was found by my gran's brother "borrowing" their father's Model T Ford and tying a rope round the cattle trough and the other end round the back axil of the Model T Ford and then simply "hauling" the cattle trough out of the river. Their father wasn't aware that my gran's brother could "drive" at this time or that his Model T Ford had been "borrowed". He was also never able to figure out how his Model T Ford had come to get a bent rear axil.

[Surpmil]

Scrape some blood residue out of the nooks and crannies, send it in to Ancestry with your $75 and see what comes back!