At the end of March 1963 I was posted to 229 OCU Chivenor and as usual went to the station adj to arrange my "welcome to Chivenor" interview with Billy only to be told that he had been summoned to Fighter Command but would be back in the office to see me at the end of the afternoon. It was not to be and we later learned that the Anson bringing him back was instructed to land anywhere but Chivenor. He was not seen on the base again and we heard it was because of an incident in The Three Tuns in Barnstaple when he pissed in the fire, to the annoyance of the landlady. One could imagine that his retirement resulted from an offer he could not refuse.