THIS week I’m going to tell you an odd little story and see what you make of it.

A couple who are downsizing gave away their beloved piano to what they thought was a good home, only to find it had been set on fire in a military ‘ceremony’.

Suzanne Rebdi advertised the instrument, which had been in her family for 35 years, online. The two men who collected it told her it was going to the Officers’ Mess at Boscombe Down, and Mrs Rebdi was delighted, assuming it would be enjoyed there for years to come.

To her horror, she then found out while chatting to an ex Boscombe Down employee that there is a ritual of burning a piano at some official functions.

She asked the station commander to investigate, and Group Captain Stephen Austin sent an apologetic letter confirming that a mahogany piano ceremonially burned at a Battle of Britain dining-in night on September 12 was indeed hers.

Mrs Rebdi, of The Grange, Winterbourne Dauntsey, had turned down a request from a family with young children because she wanted to be fair and give the piano to the first person who answered her advert.

Her husband Saleh even helped the airmen load it into their van and tie it in securely, and the couple received a text to say it had arrived safely.

The piano’s fate left Mrs Rebdi and her children, who had learned to play on it, “extremely distressed”.

In future, she said, the MoD should “be honest about it and try to obtain a piano which is no longer in a usable condition”. Group Captain Austin was sympathetic.

He told her he wasn’t making excuses, but rather than “an act of wanton vandalism”, piano-burning was a tradition dating back to the Battle of Britain itself. What’s more, it was supervised by firefighters!

The story goes that until the war, flying was the preserve of the upper classes. Once the RAF opened its doors to the general population, it forced pilots to take piano lessons to improve their dexterity and “increase their level of culture”.

That was, until the only piano at RAF Leuchars was lost in a fire. Airmen elsewhere quickly realised they wouldn’t have to do any more hated practice if their instruments were also reduced to cinders, and took matters into their own hands.

And they’ve re-enacted that “sign of defiance, triumph and celebration” ever since.

Although Mrs Rebdi didn’t want to get the delivery duo into trouble, he told her: “I suspect that they might have been economical with the truth in allowing you to part with your treasured possession under false pretences” and he would be having words with them.

He would also ensure that only pianos “beyond economical repair” were used in future.

Mrs Rebdi thinks it would be a welcome gesture if Boscombe Down made a donation to a local charity.

Over to you, chaps...

anneriddle36@gmail.com