Nigel Sweet

The sons of Arthur and Ethel, Nigel and Arthur were brothers. 

Nigel Sweet was fined £2 in September 1940 when he was stopped by the Home Guard at 11.50pm for “driving a car without the necessary lights” as he returned home from Kittisford. He could have been returning from the OB site at the time. 

This was not his first run in with the law. A “fracas” with a policeman, various traffic offences and an incident when a group of visiting Gypsies were thrown in a pond all lead to newspaper reports, one of which describes him as having “authority issues”. 

His friends and neighbours remember him with affection and respect and as a real character. He is remembered as a large, strong man who could pick a man up in each hand. He was very well travelled having spent time as a lumberjack in Canada, time in the Caribbean and even climbing Australia's largest tree in old age.

Some took a few items for their own use after stand down. Nigel took an amount of explosives and took them home to store in an unused inglenook fireplace. He used them to great effect getting rid of tree stumps and wasps nests.

Eventually he was persuaded to call the bomb disposal squad as the hoard was weeping and dangerous. They were moved to the bottom of the garden and destroyed with a controlled explosion. The locals were not warned of their intentions so were very alarmed when houses shook and some windows were blown in.