Reading the two articles about the Queen's racing pigeon (The Argus, September 1) reminded me of an incident which happened to me about 40 years ago.

When I was a teenager, living in Whitehawk, my friend Jimmy Johnson and I kept pigeons.

When our birds came in to roost one night, there was an extra pigeon in the loft. I lifted out its wings and stamped on them, in black ink, was: "Queen's Loft, Sandringham".

My friend and I contacted the homing pigeon headquarters in Gloucester, which contacted the Queen's Lofts.

We received a telegram thanking us, explaining that the bird would be collected in two days and not to let it out. Unfortunately, my friend let our pigeons out the next day and the lodger went too.

When our birds came in that evening, the Queen's bird was missing. Jimmy searched around the nearby gardens and found it but with its crop eaten out and obviously stone dead.

When the warden from the Queen's Loft arrived the next day, carrying a cash reward, all I could offer him was a dead pigeon.

The warden reprimanded the pair of us we expected to be taken to the Tower. We didn't get the reward, either.

-H Atkins, Brighton.