During the second world war the Dirty Duck public house on Waterside was regularly used by Canadian air crews based at Wellesbourne airfield just outside the town.

One night a bomber captain and his crew were in the pub having a quiet and thoughtful drink. It was the night before his final mission, one more raid to complete his tour of duty. He was telling his crew that when it was complete he would take them all out to celebrate.  They all agreed that this would be an excellent idea.

The mission went well but as the plane returned to base it developed engine problems and negan to lose altitude.  The captain forced the crew to bail out but stayed on board himself to try and pilot the plane safely back to base.

Later that night Mavis, the landlady of the Dirty Duck, was awoken by a noise at the front door. Accustomed as she was to visits at odd hours from the local air crews she glanced at her clock and noted the time was 2 a.m.  She left her bed to investigate the noise .

As she entered the bar the temperature dropped, it was freezing cold, she looked across the bar to the door and notiecd that it was open.  "Odd," she thought, knowing that she had securely locked it before retiring.

It was then that she noticed the figure at the bar. It was the Canadian captain holding a pint.  She was rather surprised to see him there but realising he had been on a raid she was lenient and went over to close the door and chat to him.  After about 30 minutes, he explained that he had to be leaving.

"I completely understand," she said, "God speed." and with that he left. 

She walked to the door behind him and glanced outside expecting to see him walk away, but the captain was gone.  As she closed the door she noticed that the temperature had returned to normal.

The following night the crew of the bomber were in the pub looking a little down, Mavis told the crew how she had seen their captain in the pub the night before. The crew looked startled and told Mavis she could not possibly have seen the captain when she did as that was the time when the plane had crashed.  That was the time that he had died.