THE 'RETURN' OF STORM NELSON

Three years ago I gave a speech at the EAGLE Gathering in Southport where I commented on the number of storms that were battering the country. I said that giving them names was only encouraging them and that I was looking forward to 'Storm Nelson'. Well now we have 'Storm Nelson'. Named by the Spanish Weather Service, it has brought strong winds, heavy rain and low temperatures to Britain, with snow in places. EAGLE's Storm Nelson was a 'sea adventurer', who owned a Fleet of marine vehicles, including a ship, a motor launch, a submarine and a small helicopter, which he and his team used to right wrongs all over the world. The strip, by Guy Morgan, who wrote as Edward Trice, began in October 1953 and ran until March 1962. Morgan was a film and television writer who also wrote a 'Storm Nelson' novel, Storm Nelson and the Sea Leopard. Most of the stories were drawn by Richard Jennings, who also took over the writing of the strip for the final year. Giorgio Bellavitis also illustrated two stories. 

Steve Winders

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 22

Two contributors to EAGLE had been prisoners of the Germans during the War and both recalled their experiences in significant post war films. Guy Morgan, who wrote the Storm Nelson strip for EAGLE, using the nom de plume of Edward Trice, wrote The Captive Heart, which was made just a year after the War and was filmed in the actual camp where he had been held. Although the central plot of this film is fictional, it focuses on a large group of characters and convincingly conveys the experiences of prisoners of War. Morgan also worked on the script of Albert R.N. (1953) which is a fictionalised account of a real event that had involved another EAGLE contributor, the artist John Worsley, who illustrated The Adventures of PC 49 from 1951 until 1957. As a prisoner, Worsley made a dummy to fool the Germans at roll call, enabling a prisoner to escape without being missed. (See above). The original 'Albert' dummy did not survive the War, but Worsley made another one for the film and this can still be seen in the Royal Naval Dockyard Museum in Portsmouth.