Just before our December 1934 meeting, a Home Office inspector had allegedly told Stamford Bridge Football Ground to replace fire extinguishers with buckets of water and Bantam stirrup pumps.

Since the original Association of Liquid Chemical Fire Extinguishers had been formed eighteen years earlier specifically to fight for the advancement of highly technical extinguishers as a vast improvement over simple water, we found this more than disappointing, and sent off an immediate ‘snotty’ letter to Home Office asking what authorisation they had for this advice.