Larry Donovan Bridge Jumper (1862-1888)<\/b><\/p>\n
I have done two really stupid things in my life which might have endangered my life.<\/p>\n
The first was when I was thirteen years old and I was dared (and offered money) to climb along the outside of a railway bridge in my home town<\/p>\n
That was a stupid thing to do how high was the bridge? It was a sixty foot drop into the river So if the fall didn\u2019t kill you You would drown But I made it If you had fallen then you would not have met me The second happened when I was twenty when I dived into Harwich Harbour in November for the reward of ten pounds<\/p>\n You could have drowned Was the water cold?<\/em><\/p>\n Freezing Did you swim?<\/em><\/p>\n Funny question but yes I swam back to the harbour steps Did you do it naked? No I wore my underwear<\/em><\/p>\n When did you thaw out Peter?<\/em><\/p>\n During the summer I was sent to the South of France to recover \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Larry Donovan was a bridge jumper who became famous because he jumped without *serious injury from the following bridges<\/p>\n Brooklyn Bridge<\/p>\n Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge<\/p>\n Clifton Suspension Bridge<\/p>\n Schuylkill River and High Bridge<\/p>\n Chestnut Street Bridge<\/p>\n London Bridge<\/p>\n Waterloo Bridge<\/p>\n Hungerford Bridge (* this was his final bridge and he drowned in the attempt)<\/em><\/p>\n What are you writing about Peter?<\/em><\/p>\n Larry Donovan the famous bridge jumper<\/em><\/p>\n I have never heard of him He is forgotten But he was a brave man \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In 1922 a secret tunnel stretching from Buckingham Palace to Clapham Junction Railway Station was discovered during improvements at the station<\/p>\n It had been constructed during the 1850s and was to be used to transport the Queen to safety in the event of an attack on Buckingham Palace<\/p>\n When discovered three men walked its entire length and were arrested when they emerged in Buckingham Palace<\/p>\n The intruders were later given \u00a35000 each by the state in exchange for their silence and were told that disclosure of any kind would result in imprisonment<\/p>\n When the last of these men (James Cole) died in 1959 he told his son of the 1922 discovery on his deathbed.<\/p>\n In June 1960 the\u00a0Daily Mirror<\/em>\u00a0ran a story about the mysterious tunnel after being contacted by the son of James Cole<\/p>\n After official denials the newspaper was fined \u00a310000 in camera<\/p>\n The son James Cole (Graham Cole) was threatened with imprisonment but was subsequently given \u00a32000 and told to issue a denial saying that he had made the whole story up<\/p>\n The Daily Mirror ran this story on the 9th<\/sup>\u00a0of September 1960 and the story went dead until December 1967 when a number of newspapers reported that Graham Cole who was by then the owner of a successful car dealing partnership in Croydon had drowned off of a beach in Southern Australia<\/p>\n I am off shopping do you want anything?<\/em><\/p>\n Nothing I can think of I am meeting Justine at Macy\u2019s and we are going to have a coffee together Give her my regards<\/em><\/p>\n She hates you That is because I married you She thinks you are an arrogant shit and that I could have done better You married a writer A successful writer We live in Manhattan In a nice apartment<\/em><\/p>\n You have written about all the major bridges in New York Thanks to Larry I owe him a lot If I had not read about him I would have not come to New York and written the book And you would have not met me I was bi-curious at the time I cured you of that And now I am just curious Curious about the love- lives of my girlfriends Would you do me a favour?<\/em><\/p>\n Ok<\/em><\/p>\n Would you pop this into Jerry\u2019s it is my piece about the Buckingham Palace tunnel Are they going to publish it? In the next edition of Spotlight Will that not piss the British Government off? You might get fined or even imprisoned after all you do hold a British passport<\/em><\/p>\n I have not written it under my name I have used another name What name have you used?<\/em><\/p>\n Larry Donovan You see they cannot prosecute a dead man even if they wanted to prosecute someone<\/em><\/p>\n Especially one who has been dead for one hundred and twenty-nine years \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Translation Whilst he was in Vietnam in 1968 Bobby Schultz was given a copy of\u00a0The Natural History of<\/em>\u00a0Selborne\u00a0<\/em>by the Reverend Gilbert White<\/p>\n He was given this book by a dying peasant who explained that his father had purchased the book in Paris before the war<\/p>\n The book saved the life of Bobby Schultz as it deflected a bullet away from his heart during an ambush some months later<\/p>\n Because of the seriousness of his injuries Bobby was invalided home but he recovered and subsequently translated the book into Vietnamese<\/p>\n Before his recent retirement Bobby Schultz taught in a prestigious university and was recognised as an expert on the Austroasiatic language families<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Larry Donovan Bridge Jumper (1862-1888) I have done two really stupid things in my life which might have endangered my life. The first was when I was thirteen years old and I was dared (and offered money) to climb along the outside of a railway bridge in my home town That was a stupid thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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