ALBERT Dryden had shown a fascination with guns and rockets from an early age.

It is hard to believe, even by today's standards, that he managed to buy his own gun at the tender age of 11.

Tragically, it was the .455 Webley revolver which would eventually take the life of Harry Collinson.

Dryden bought the weapon from a friend at Consett Secondary Modern School, who had told him he had a "real live cowboy gun".

It belonged to the boy's father, who had kept it in a draw out of the way. The boy sold Dryden the gun for ten shillings, to be paid at a rate of sixpence a week, because that was the limit of Dryden's pocket money.

As he grew up, he and his friends would practice shooting tin cans from one another's heads.

Inevitably, in 1962, it led to a potentially fatal accident when a bullet skimmed the surface of his skull, leaving a nasty groove in his scalp which can still be seen.

Among colleagues at Consett Steel Works, he was seen as a character, an eccentric with wild cowboy interests.

"It was not unknown for him to dress as a cowboy within the works and he was even seen to carry a pistol," writes Mr Blackie.

Astonishingly, after the fatal shooting at Butsfield, Dryden attempted to get his Webley revolver back - in order to sell it.

"He thought he could put it up for auction and expected that its sale would realise him tens of thousands of pounds," writes Mr Blackie.

Dryden later told the author: "Because I carried that gun for 40 years, I feel I should be entitled to some money from it. The money could then be put into a savings account for me for when I come out of prison."

Dryden was so serious about recovering his gun that he launched a legal bid for it. On July 10, 1992, Mr Justice Waite refused the request and issued a destruction order, finally consigning the Webley, and Dryden's other considerable weaponry, to the history books.