FROM The Way We Were - 100 years ago (September 1): "The Lord Mayor and the City of York had reached an altitude of about 2,300 feet above the earth... The latter 'it is, perhaps, necessary to add' was Messrs Spencer's balloon."

My father, later Capt Sidney Ewart Spencer of the RAF, was the captain in charge of the ascent.

The Spencer brothers had a balloon factory in London. My father did the York demonstrations.

It is interesting that, after leaving the Army as a captain in the RADC, I practised in York for 30 years, finally in High Petergate.

Some of my older patients remember seeing my father.

I did a mind-reading act with my wife, Nancy. Because they knew of my father's fame as a balloonist, the York Balloon Society made me an honorary member and co-operated when Nancy went up in a balloon and received messages from me from the ground.

There was a photo of the event in the Evening Press.

My father, who was also a pharmacist, died at 69 in 1948 in St Helen's. I remember him doing his last jump in Wales when I was five. He was over 40.

Dr Ron Spencer

Beckfield Lane,

York.

Updated: 11:04 Saturday, September 04, 2004