Eric 44

Discovered this wartime graffiti at Steamer Point this morning, just in time I reckon, the bark's become powdery and is beginning to disintegrate, it wont be long before Eric 44 disappears from the record. I wonder who Eric was? During World War Two there were coastal batteries here, there were pillboxes along the foreshore, the USAAF were stationed nearby, and it was also the site of a secret radar and communications research facility, maybe that's how Eric found himself here, or maybe he was a passing soldier on his way to Europe?  

Writing this, 'Eric 44' seemed familiar, and on checking past posts I found I'd recorded and posted about 'Eric 44' at Steamer Point back in 2015. Now, here's a thing, it wasn't this graffiti, it was another 'Eric 44'. Looking closely though the style and form do suggest that it -could- be the same scribe for both pieces of graffiti. I thought, it could indicate that Eric was indeed stationed here, and maybe graffiti was his way of alleviating the boredom. As always with graffiti and my imagination, there's a lot of shifting assumption. My mission now is check all the suitable trees on the site to see if I can identify any more. You never know.