DO you remember the recent Bygones story about scrap dealer Val da Ree, otherwise known as Tommy Samuel Thompson, who once plied his trade in Darwen, Blackburn and Chorley?

A well known character with his cart in the late forties and fifties, he was easy to spot as he always wore an Australian bush hat, a belt full of military badges and a bayonet or sword tucked in his belt!

A Royal Marine Commando in WWII, he was friendly with another ex-marine from Darwen, called Bob Lakey, an excellent pencil artist who once did a portrait of Tommy, along with other drawings of cowboys, Indians and wildlife.

Reader Peter Cooper asked if anyone knew where these drawings were today and after numerous phone calls, has found this example of Val da Ree.

It was one of a collection displayed in an exhibition by his family in Darwen Library some years ago.

Tommy joined the Marines in 1941 at the age of 17 and served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy; he was also part of the Normandy landings and was said to have been recommended for the Military Medal.

He had worked at Belgrave Mill after leaving school and once climbed Belgrave chimney for a bet.

He loved his life as a scrap dealer, being his own boss and meeting people out in the fresh air; he got his nickname for shouting Val da Ree round the streets to announce his presence and residents, with anything to get rid of, would reply, val da rah, from the song Happy Wanderer,

When he started his business he had a horse and cart and a black and white collie dog called Flash.

He lived in the big house in Robin Bank and had a brother, Ernie and sister, Sylvia.

This is a picture of him in Bob Townsend's scrap yard, which was then in old Elizabeth Street, off Whalley Crescent.

Born in 1924, he died in 1988.