Out of the blue
Just a few days ago I received an email from Matthew Wigton advising me that he is a buyer and seller of photographic negatives and slides. About 7/8 months ago he had purchased a lot of negatives at an auction that had about 100/150 that seemed to be related to RAF Kasfareet and one image showed a cycle race with a banner proclaiming " Grand Prix de Kasfareet ". He bought them with no knowledge of who might have owned them or who was shown on some of the pictures. He searched the web and arrived at my website hence the reason he had contacted me.
I replied to his email and expressed my pleasant surprise that he had tracked down my website and explained that it had set off originally to display my photographs and memories at Kasfareet 1953-1956 but had been so successful with other RAF servicemen who also had many photographs and memories and so were happy to share them with me on my site. To that end I only worked on the basis of images being provided for free for use on the site and that I could not take the route of buying material for my site. I thanked him for his interest and suggested that if he would like any insight on any of his images, I was sure that Jack Garry would be only too pleased to inspect a picture or two.
I was gobsmacked when Matthew replied that it was no intention of his to seek any compensation at all and that he would be only too pleased to mail me a disc of all the images !
It was a very wonderful and generous offer and I thanked Matthew advising that I would upload them onto a page specially attributed to him as the donor and that Jack Garry would immediately commence a new " Time Team " investigation. I don`t doubt that he will circulate his Exile contacts to see if they can name any of the cyclists in the photo`s and where they were taken. The year of the Grand Prix image may suggest the year that the photographer was at Kasfareet.
A most fortuitous offer by Matthew
I replied to his email and expressed my pleasant surprise that he had tracked down my website and explained that it had set off originally to display my photographs and memories at Kasfareet 1953-1956 but had been so successful with other RAF servicemen who also had many photographs and memories and so were happy to share them with me on my site. To that end I only worked on the basis of images being provided for free for use on the site and that I could not take the route of buying material for my site. I thanked him for his interest and suggested that if he would like any insight on any of his images, I was sure that Jack Garry would be only too pleased to inspect a picture or two.
I was gobsmacked when Matthew replied that it was no intention of his to seek any compensation at all and that he would be only too pleased to mail me a disc of all the images !
It was a very wonderful and generous offer and I thanked Matthew advising that I would upload them onto a page specially attributed to him as the donor and that Jack Garry would immediately commence a new " Time Team " investigation. I don`t doubt that he will circulate his Exile contacts to see if they can name any of the cyclists in the photo`s and where they were taken. The year of the Grand Prix image may suggest the year that the photographer was at Kasfareet.
A most fortuitous offer by Matthew
