Tony Rogers recollects

“I owned the Hotel Kildare in Kingsbridge for 36 years and I was the mayor. I carried the chain for three consecutive years. It was during one of those periods when I was also the parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party that I spoke from the Compton Castle in front of a crowd they reckoned was 10,000. Prince Charles, he came on board her. That was when Norman Saunders was the chairman of the old urban district council. He was the local tobacconist and welcomed Charles on to the Compton Castle for a cup of tea . I suspect that was around 1971. Sam. Sam Baume, he was the town crier and had an interest in the boat. He only had one hand and either wore a hook or an artificial hand but mainly it was the artificial hand he wore. Sam's party-piece was that he would have a lit cigarette in his false hand stuck between the fingers, and then he would unscrew the hand. This was in my hotel and he’d leave it on the counter and walk down to the other end of the bar. Of course all of a sudden a visitor comes up to the bar for a drink they find a bloody hand there with a cigarette smouldering and no one attached to it. He was a character was Sam. I think he came to Kingsbridge on retirement and virtually arrived with the Compton. I never knew him do anything other than be the town crier. Before him a woman was the first town crier. She was the wife of the owner of the King's Arms and when she retired Sam took on the job, and was involved with the boat as well. It was very nice. Harry Wood was the owner I think but I didn't know much of him. Sam liked to be the front man. Sam died away from Kingsbridge, but they bought his body back to be buried in the cemetery down on the embankment.”