On 12th October 1919, the future WWII hero, Captain Brian Horrocks of the Middlesex Regiment was fighting with the White Army on the front line in Siberia when he met Major Leonard Vining of the British Railway Mission at Lebedyja.
Vining had been tasked to ascertain the damage to a bridge that was only 15 yards from the front line. He came under fire whilst taking photographs in a biplane, but survived the ordeal and returned to Omsk before the Red Army broke through the following week.
I am looking forward to talking about these exploits at Horrocks’ old school, Uppingham, one hundred years on.
Rupert Wieloch 