Harper Lee
RHW Cooper writes: Having retired, after teaching for 30 years in central London, where To Kill a Mocking Bird was a constant presence, both in the curriculum and libraries, I at last had the opportunity to read it myself. I was so impressed that I took the unusual step of writing a thank you to Harper Lee (obituary, Feb 20) on a card illustrated with a painting by my wife, of a local scene, Helvellyn in Winter. I used the simple address given on the dust jacket — Monroeville, Alabama. To my amazement and great pleasure, I received a handwritten Christmas card from Miss Lee in 2003. “Thank you for your most generous note and watercolour,” she wrote. “Every time I go back to England I visit your part of the country — Helvellyn is an old friend.”
Kenneth Cobley
Lieutenant-Commander Alan Tyler writes: I was most interested in your obituary of Lieutenant-Commander KW Cobley (Feb 17). As a young sub-lieutenant, I was in command of “A” turret of two 8-inch guns in HMS Norfolk at the Battle of the North Cape on December 26, 1943, which was fought in twilight or darkness. We engaged the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst that morning before she came in range of our six-inch gun cruisers. Only our two forward turrets “A” and “B” could fire as we raced directly towards her since our two after turrets could not train so far forward. There is a 50 per cent likelihood that one of our shells destroyed her radar. She was then quite literally in the dark for the rest of the battle. She was still virtually undamaged and fired back at the flash of our guns since — unlike the other cruisers — we did not have flashless cordite, and we were hit by two of her 14-inch shells. Fortunately, they passed right through us without exploding and with few casualties, or I would not be writing this to you today.
Mary French
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Liz Robertson writes: When I arrived at Croydon high school in 1966 as a very raw PE teacher with responsibility for coaching netball — which I, as a hockey player, thought was a feeble game — it was my enormous luck to find Mary French (obituary, Feb 5) on the staff. England netball has still to match the international ranking it achieved under her leadership, and, when she finished working with England, she went on to coach Wales and Northern Ireland. The gymnastics club was just a sideline.