Interview with Peter Brian Edwards
Title
Interview with Peter Brian Edwards
Description
Peter Edwards is the son of a Halton apprentice. His father was based at RAF Wittering as Senior Technical Officer during the war, but his mother moved with him and his brother to Lytham St Anne’s for the duration. American servicemen were frequent visitors to their home and Glenn Miller stayed overnight. Peter also joined the apprenticeship scheme at RAF Halton. His first posting was at RAF St Eval. He was then posted to Northern Ireland before being posted to Malta. After the war, he worked as a technical author and welfare manager with Rolls Royce. After retirement, he earned a degree in medieval history from Nottingham and volunteered as a Samaritan.
Creator
Date
2025-02-06
Spatial Coverage
Coverage
Language
Type
Format
01:03:54 Audio Recording
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
AEdwardsPB250206
Transcription
MC: This interview is being conducted on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewee is Ted Edwards. The interviewer is Mike Connock and the interview is taking place at [redacted] in Lincoln. Okay, Ted, thank you for agreeing to the interview.
PE: My pleasure.
MC: Just, just start off just tell me when and where you were born. When and where you were born.
PE: When?
MC: When and where you were born.
PE: I was, I was born in 1934 at the RAF hospital adjacent to RAF Halton. My father at that time I think was working, he was stationed in the local Air Force station nearby so when my mother was due she went to the Air Force Hospital associated with Halton.
MC: So what did your father do? What was his trade?
PE: My father was in arguably the first entry. There’s always a bit of an argument.
MC: This was the apprentices.
PE: As an apprentice.
MC: Yes.
PE: Yes. In the, he was in the first entry.
MC: When was that?
PE: And he was —
MC: Sorry.
PE: He was, I think he was a fitter rigger or something.
MC: Okay. Yes.
PE: That was at the time when they had wing warping and things of that nature so so but you know the aeroplanes were getting a bit more technical and so they needed a Number One School of Technical Training to train people to be able to service the Royal Air Force aircraft as they were getting more complex. So that’s why I think Halton became an important place for the Air Force you know in order to train people to service them.
MC: So he was still there when you were born. Even though he joined, when did he join? Nineteen —
PE: Well, that was in 1934 when I was born and he was at Henlow.
MC: Oh, I see. He wasn’t at Halton.
PE: He, he not, not then but when he, when because you know I mean I was born sometime after he joined the Air Force you know.
MC: Yes. Yes I appreciate that. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So you were, so what, tell me and so obviously can you remember much about life before the war? Between being born, you were born in ’34 so up until the war in ’39 where did you live and what did you do?
PE: We were, during the war we were to begin with at Wittering.
MC: Was that during the war? What about before the war? I mean you were very young so I don’t expect you to be, I mean at the outbreak of war you’d be five.
PE: Yeah. Yes.
MC: So you probably wouldn’t remember much.
PE: So I don’t. I don’t know much about, about that.
MC: Okay. So during the war you were at Wittering you say.
PE: During the war for a short while my father was at Wittering. He was the STO at Wittering.
MC: Senior Technical Officer.
PE: And we lived at a place called Thornhaugh. If you go past the Stamford roundabout and carry on and then Wittering is on, the camp is on the right. If you carry on the, on the A1 just a few yards further on. There’s a sign which says Thornhaugh. T H O R N H A U G H or something. But that’s, that’s where, that’s where we lived.
MC: Oh right.
PE: And we lived there but then we lived actually because the peritrack at the station was so, was so near to the farm, farm buildings that we lived in that we had to move because Jerry was beginning to bomb around that neck of the woods you know. So we, we moved to Lancashire. To Lytham St Annes.
MC: Why? Any reason for Lancashire? Any reason for Lancashire?
PE: Only to get out of the, you know out of the bombing business.
MC: But your father stayed at Wittering.
PE: Oh yes. Yes.
MC: So, I mean obviously he was Senior Technical Officer. Do you know how and when he was commissioned?
PE: Yes. I do. I do know. Funnily enough if I looked around here I might be able to find —
MC: Don’t worry. [pause]
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah, so, so you moved to Lytham.
PE: Yes. My father didn’t obviously —
MC: No, he stayed at Wittering.
PE: He stayed at Wittering. Yeah.
MC: Yeah. Yeah.
PE: And so we moved to Lytham or as they say Lytham St Annes but you actually had Lytham and then Ansdell and then St Annes and then Squires Gate and then Blackpool so it’s a pretty, it’s a pretty safe area anyway.
MC: Yeah. Yes.
PE: And so that’s where I moved to and actually until such time as I joined the Royal Air Force.
MC: So what was life like at Lytham St Annes for you?
PE: Well —
MC: And your mother.
PE: I was a sort of, you know I was about seven. Seven years, seven or eight years old to begin with so and it was, it was [pause] it was really quite atypical really because I’m really, remember I’m Captain Tom and his era when he was a lad and it was exactly the same as mine. You know everyone kept chickens and you know and you had bran. You could have certain sorts of bran and you lost certain food points on your ration book if you had bran because then, because you were feeding chickens so you know it was sort of it was quite interesting in, in, you know in living in a wartime when that area although it’s supposed to be a safe area the Americans they moved in there. So that we had a lot of American bases just down the road from us.
MC: Did you have much to do with the Americans?
PE: Yes, because my mother she, she got to know quite a few of them who, who and this is what I’m going to tell you now is really quite astonishing but she got to know because the posh pub in Lytham was where the American officers used to, used to, you know have a drink with the locals, that sort of thing or with themselves and my, my mother got quite friendly with one of the, with one of the commanding officers because he had site this, site that. Various sites where these, where the Americans were and they had the sort of, the sort of command structures that you would expect in any and so that my, our house, 15 Preston Road which was coming into Lytham, after that you got Warton and then you’d got all these American sites and our place became very popular with the Americans and the VAD nurses and so on. And one of the rather odd things that happened during that time and I mean they used to call our place, site Site 18 or something. In other words [laughs] you know I’m not sure you know what reputation my mother probably had in all this but what did happen was that you had an American chap that came over. A big famous band leader and all the rest of it. You’ll know what I’m talking about because he came over here and then he came over in order to then head up a group of of entertainers, top flight entertainers to to entertain the American soldiers that were there and his name has just gone out of my head at the moment but you, it’s known that everybody will know because he was a [pause] he was somebody that was in all the films you know. He was, he was a [pause] and he was coming over and the Americans wanted him to have a good rest and he stayed at our place overnight. This [laughs] this whatever his name was. Whatever. I mean he was. He was from the top flight.
MC: Would that be Glenn Miller?
PE: Yes. Yeah. I’ve obviously told you about that before. Anyway, so so we did very well in the war there because we used to get American food, American rations, all sorts of things. My father was nowhere. He was, you know he was down in that neck of the woods that I’ve just mentioned where he was stationed.
MC: Yeah.
PE: And then, then but he was posted into the Far East.
MC: Oh right.
PE: When the, when the war with Europe was finished he got an immediate posting out to [pause] you know to the Far East. So that’s where he then went. So I didn’t see my father hardly at all in my lifetime.
MC: No.
PE: But —
MC: So, I mean did you have any friends in Lytham? People you used to associate with as a youngster.
PE: Well, yes. I was very much, I was I was a Lancashire lad you know. We had gangs you know as as well they did in those days. They had gangs you know. I belonged, I belonged to the Marsh Gang but the gang that was always threatening us was the Mornington Road Gang and it was like, it was a battle zone. It really was. It was. You know, you didn’t mix. You know it’s amazing actually that it happened like that but that’s how it, that’s how it was and that I mean I’m grateful to my father because he obviously paid to send me and my brother to Grammar School.
MC: So which school did you go to?
PE: King Edward the VII Grammar School which is between Lytham and St Anne’s. A good school. The school song was in Latin so I won’t sing any of it to you but I’m sure I still remember it you know. Yeah. So my mother had to, they got divorced.
MC: Oh, did they? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
PE: And my father and my mother got divorced at the end of the war and so she, she looked after us kids pretty well really considering that she was on her own in that sense and the fact she was also the unofficial station commander of, of site whatever it was which was our house, 15 Preston Road [laughs] I’m not quite sure what reputation she had in, with the locals but it didn’t matter. You know, you make the best of what you’ve got and we used to have all sorts of good food. Unbelievably good food because it didn’t come, it came from the Americans. The American bases. Yeah. So that was a funny, a funny upbringing really.
MC: So —
PE: But my father was an apprentice.
MC: Yes.
PE: And my brother who was about four or five years older than I he was an apprentice and then I was an apprentice.
MC: So you became an apprentice. That was straight from school then.
PE: Yes. Well, it was but in fact because my, because we were so hard up that I more or less played wag for you know sort of I didn’t go to school. I got a job peeling potatoes. Eyeing potatoes for, for Blackpool. For you know. For the [pause] there was a chap I can’t think of his name now but he was always regarded as the number one cook that ran, that ran all the fish and chip shops in Blackpool and I spent well months, literally months eyeing potatoes and chipping them in in dustbins or, well they looked like dustbins. I think they were and, but you know brand new dustbins you know and they were because he had a whole row of fish and chip shops all on the Golden Mile at Blackpool. So that’s where I spent quite a lot of my ill spent youth I’m afraid was there.
MC: So, so that, you were there. So you, so you joined the Royal Air Force then.
PE: Yes.
MC: As an apprentice.
PE: It was, I think it was just accepted actually. That’s what happened. My, my brother had joined the Air Force. Well, joined the apprentices when it was his, when it was his time and, and I followed suit. It was sort of, it was sort of accepted.
MC: Family tradition.
PE: Yes. It was. Yes. Yeah. So, so I joined the apprentices. My father was at Halton too and he was —
MC: What made him join?
PE: No he —
MC: No.
PE: He could have been in the first entry.
MC: Yes, you said.
PE: There’s some doubt about people argue about who was in the first entry or was it because they split a little bit as to exactly where the Number One School Of Technical Training was going to be but that was quite at the very beginning of when, of you know this was going back again to when my father joined as a boy. I’m going to turn that. Oh, if you could just pull that. Pull that back.
MC: So yes, your father joined in 1924 you say.
PE: I’m not sure the date.
MC: Oh, I thought you said 1924. Yeah. So when you got to Halton how did you get selected for your trade? What was, what trade did you do?
PE: Well, it was childish really. I didn’t but there was one which was armament and it sounded exciting you know and I thought oh well that that’s good so I [pause] my first choice was armament. Most, most lads when they went there they had the advice of their fathers mainly because their father would be more attuned with what is appropriate. Most, most went for engine as engine fitters or airframe but I thought guns and bayonets and swords it’s exciting. So I went armament and I got armament. So I was a plumber as you would, as you would appreciate you know.
MC: So how long were you at Halton then for that apprenticeship?
PE: I think it was about three years.
MC: Three years. Yes.
PE: Yeah.
MC: So when you, when you finished at Halton what rank were you?
PE: When I, it was during in the middle of my period at Halton the new improved and different trade test parameters came into being and one of those was the pass mark. Whereas before I think it was, it was something like forty percent or something all of a sudden it had to be at least fifty percent. Well, many of us I mean I was already had gone in the first year and in the end of the first year you would then do a period down on the airfield and then you’d get you know you would do all prop swinging and all sorts of things down on the airfield and then you’d do, you’d have an exam down there and you were given a mark. Well, then if you were okay you know, just about okay all around you know you would, you would get, God willing and a fair wind you’d probably get about fifty. Fifty percent. That would, you know. Well, that’s not, that wasn’t a pass mark for the new trade test. I think it was sixty. Well, consequently loads of people including myself loads of people we all had to do it all again.
MC: Oh right.
PE: Because, because we, the new, the new pass rate meant that we’d all failed and it surprised me that they didn’t come and make some accommodation for that because if you were okay, you kept you nose clean and you sort of you know you were with the mainstream then you would get the basic pass mark. Well, all of a sudden that wasn’t the pass mark anymore. It was a fail. So consequently made, and I did an extra [pause] I forget now whether it was one or two years because my oppo he, he had gone down two entries and we were all going down because because our pass marks were not big enough and so when it came they said, ‘Oh, you’ll have to go down.’ And I said, I did a bit of a [pause] I made of a [laughs] I said, ‘Well, I think I ought to make a really good start rather than one step back. I think two steps back and then I could make a strong step forward.’ Good. And this zobbit as we used to call them, this zobbit said, ‘Jolly good, apprentice. I agree with that. Yes.’ So I went down two entries only because my mate was down two entries you know. So I did an extra year because of that business you know.
MC: So when did you leave Halton?
PE: Well, I was there from 1950 to probably ’54.
MC: But what was your first posting then?
PE: St Eval.
MC: Oh right.
PE: I hesitated because what happens there at Halton is that when an entry gets it’s marching orders to go when you finished you walked around with your, where you’re being posted to because you could, you could have, you could perhaps want to be, go somewhere and the one that you pinned on your back someone would, so there was a lot of swapping around and they were very accommodating and so that, so that we all for about two or three days swapped you know with, we would have our names on a bit of card, slap it on the back and then someone would say, ‘Oh you’re going to [pause] well I want to go so. Oh, St Eval. Where’s that?’ ‘Cornwall.’ ‘Oh, that sounds okay. Yeah. I’ll swap you.’ You know, and that’s how it went. So there was a lot of horse trading going on for about the last three or four days before it then settled down and that was, that happened every, every time an entry came up to go that happened.
MC: So, St Eval. Is that onto a squadron?
PE: When I started they already had a job for me in ASF.
MC: Air Safety Flight. Yeah.
PE: What they wanted was because it was planned servicing and the armourers were always getting in the way because the turret is slap in the middle of the walkway through a Shackleton. So that the armourers were always in the way and what they wanted to do was to build a turret from bits. From spare bits and then the next aircraft that came in whipped this turret out, put the new turret in and then do what had to be done.
MC: From the old turret.
PE: In the bay and not getting in everyone’s [laughs] and so that’s why. The armament officer told me this. That’s why they put in a request for a fitter armourer from Halton and that was my first job was to build a turret out of boxes [laughs] whole stand of boxes you know and but it was, it was okay. It was interesting.
MC: So how long were you at St Eval?
PE: I’ll take a bit of a stab on it. Probably about [pause] certainly two years.
MC: Did you fly at all during that time?
PE: Yes. I mean I went to South America from 228 Squadron which were, which [pause] there was, I think there were four squadrons because it’s a big airfield down at St Eval and anyway I was from, from this job that I was went out in the hangar to build a turret. As that was finishing I was assigned to, I think 228 Squadron with Shackletons of course and that was how I managed very lucky to for because I was the NCO in charge of armament, end of on 228 Squadron. And so I was detailed to go on this South American trip. So I went from, from 228 Squadron.
MC: How did you get to South America? What route did you take? What route did you take?
PE: Gibraltar. Gibraltar. End of Spain. Is that Gib?
MC: Gibraltar, yeah.
PE: Gib. Yeah. Except that because we were so overloaded because we you know you had to carry not only your spares but if things got [pause] we were carrying spare oleos and spare big bits you know.
MC: Yeah.
PE: Because once you were in South America you know if a bit goes for a ball of chalk you’ve lost an aeroplane until you go and so we, so the bomb bays were absolutely crammed with stuff and and so that when we were supposed to land at Gib. But there was a crosswind and because of the weight our aircraft were very much overweight we carried on a bit further down and there’s a French Naval Air Station there. So we lobbed in there and then and they treated us very nice except that our flying rations the next day because we were then going to cross the pond then over to south, to the north end of South America and during that —
MC: What [unclear] were the French?
PE: Oh, that’s right. Yeah. They were very kind and the food you know because there was it was a quick decision for us. We couldn’t land because of this crosswind and the weight of the aircraft and so and that’s where we pulled in and they treated us so well. And the next day when we were eventually then flying across the pond to South America over the electric [unclear] somebody said, ‘Hey, don’t. Don’t touch the fish. These, these this is real fishy. It’s horrible.’ You know. Well, what it was caviar and it all went down, it all went down the flare chute. We thought these bloody frogs you know. They don’t know how to, you know. Yes, it was. But our navigator was a, he was, I liked him but he was very very aloof. He was a very very aloof chap and he let everyone, over the electric. ‘Actually chaps,’ he said. ‘You’ve just thrown away very excellent caviar.’ [laughs] So no. We did a few daft things in amongst it. Yeah.
MC: So where, where did you fly to in South America?
PE: Do you know we were right at the very north tip of South America and there was about three different places where we logged in at and I can’t remember them off hand but they are all places which we were familiar with. In fact, we, we met Douglas Bader I think. Is he the tin —
MC: Yeah, that’s right.
PE: That’s right, at one of the places he flew in to say hello because it was, it was quite an event having a number of Shackletons going around and showing the Shackleton off to the South Americans. That’s what we were doing and and —
MC: What mark of Shackleton was it?
PE: It was, we were still Draggers.
MC: Known as a tail dragger. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. How long were you in South America then?
PE: Not, not all that long because I suppose I would say about probably about two or three weeks. That’s all.
MC: So did you take the same route back?
PE: No. No. Because what we did we were moving up bit by bit by bit by bit and then we went into Florida and then from Florida we flew back. There’s a couple of Atlantic islands there. Ones that anyone would like to go to. Posh sounding ones. I forget the names of them now unless I looked at a map but you know the sort of place that you know if you were going to go for a holiday oh we’re going, oh you know you were it was an up, an uprated. It was until we got there [laughs]] and then we of course we were wined and dined a lot you see. So it was a good experience. I mean it’s a [pause] everybody, everybody that went there was white overalls and three with sergeants stripes on each arm. Everybody. When I say everybody everybody who was beneath that rank you know.
MC: Non-commissioned.
PE: That’s right. Yeah. The idea of that because otherwise because some of the places that we did lob in at the the bed and breakfast would be pretty grim. You know the Air Force wanted a decent standard of of vittles for you know.
MC: The crew. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So back in the UK how long were you at St Eval for? When did you leave there? Where did you go?
PE: Actually I was quite peeved. I suppose I was there about two years or even [pause] yes two years probably at the most and the Troubles were on Northern Ireland and I got out of the blue I got a posting to Northern Ireland. And that was a very unhappy part of my life really. And the day you know you get your arrival chit and you go around to get you know well at the same time I also had an application for overseas. I was straight into when we, as we, as I arrived there there was a lot of trouble because the [pause] the powerlines had been blown up by the IRA. The power had gone for a ball of chalk and it was all, it was all a little bit iffy iffy arriving because you know they couldn’t bother with [pause] It didn’t matter where you came from. I mean I had the most disgusting woodland hut that I had to sleep in to begin with. You wouldn’t believe it that this was, this was the Royal Air Force you know. But anyway yeah so I applied for overseas at the same time as I —
MC: Right.
PE: Did my arrival chit and funnily enough I sort of noted it was, it was to the exact day an hour later. A day and a year later. The exact day a year later that my application had come through. Malta. Paradise because that was horrible in Northern Ireland. It was dreadful. A very unhappy time of my life.
MC: Did you experience any of the Troubles?
PE: Yes. Yeah. I mean the, the armoury itself. We had a lot of, a lot of weaponry there so we had an additional perimeter which was barbed wire and all the rest of it and dogs in between there and the next one. So actually just going to the station armoury and I mean it was an amazing thing happened which is true but it’s hard to believe that on one occasion the IRA attacked the, this isolated building which was now the station armoury with all the weaponry in it and the IRA turned up and they got in. Their key and this is, it was always a mystery. Their key fitted the station armoury lock which had to be a good one because it was, it had been moved from the camp to the other side of the airfield. And, and no one ever, no one ever worked out that except the poor bloke who offered his key. Anyway, that’s that beside the point but yeah so the, the Troubles were starting then and that was a very unhappy time.
MC: So we’re off to Malta. How did you get on in Malta then?
PE: Malta was fantastic. I got there and what they were looking for was for someone to go to Safi. I think that’s, I think that’s what it was called. Anyway, it was Marsaxlokk down at the, on the southern, there’s a fishing village. A Maltese fishing village and there’s a castle because you know in the 16th or 17th century they were always raiding. There was castles all the way around and that was one of those castles. Ideal for storing explosives because immeasurably thick. If I said to you something like fifteen feet thick you would say don’t be ridiculous nothing is fifteen feet thick. Well, it was. It was bordering on that and even you know in the middle of a really really hot day in Malta you went to [unclear] and you went down it was blooming cold down there. Ideal for storing explosives. So that’s where I spent my time. But because I was down there on the coast and Safi was inland in the morning I used to get up and then drive in a garrey down to Safi and I spent my my time down there. So I had my own boat. So, so it was, it was an unbelievable posting. I had my own boat and sailed that and because in the afternoon from 2 o’clock and that was it you know because it was too hot but it wasn’t too hot down there to get your boat out and go out and go out in to Marsaxlokk Bay and all the rest of it. So I had, I had, I spent two, two and whatever years. Two and a half years.
MC: Yeah. Did you work on any aircraft while you were there?
PE: No.
MC: No.
PE: No. Not at all. [pause] I forget what they were called but I worked hand in glove with the inspection regime of the Royal Air Force when it came to doing inspections. You had inspectors, a better name for it all but that sort of, but that so I was there to help with, because of the fact I’ve got, you know I’ve got experience with that sort of thing. So I was there to when the, oh I can’t think of the name of them but anyway that when they used to come to check certain explosive references or whatever they would want to come and they would so I was able to help them. I’m a bit vague on that now I’m afraid. It’s —
MC: So how long was the Malta posting?
PE: The normal time I think. Two and three quarter years I think it was.
MC: Three years. Yeah. So where did you go after Malta then?
PE: I have to just think of that for a moment. Oh yes. I really went back to the beginning because one of the first postings I got was there’s an ordinary RAF station just a few, about a thousand yards back from Bomber Command Headquarters in this country and it’s, and I got, I got posted back to to the station there as opposed to [pause] Bomber Command Headquarters had was a little area of its own in you know. But then there was an RAF station and that’s where I was basically in charge of the station armoury again. So I was there [pause] I don’t think I went very far after that because my, because I went to, I went to [pause] gosh. I’m drawing a blank at the moment. I’m trying to think of my first posting. I might have already mentioned it.
MC: St Eval. St Eval. St Eval.
PE: Oh yes. Yes. That’s right. Yeah. So I went back there.
MC: Oh right. So, did you —
PE: I was, I was also stationed in Driffield. It could have been Driffield I was posted back to. So I did, you know I did a spell in Driffield because we had the four, the four inter-range ballistic missiles down in I think in either four or five sites and there were certain parts of the, of each missile that needed, had explosives and needed the lab which was part of my domain. So that’s why. That’s why I got posted back there.
MC: So did you finish your service there or was that where you?
PE: Yes. I think I did.
MC: Yeah. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: So how many years was that you did? How many years did you serve all told?
PE: Give or take six months fifteen years. Could have been sixteen. Bordering on sixteen or fourteen and three quarters but it was basically the amount that I had signed on when I was lad of fifteen.
MC: Yes.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So you finished your Air Force career. You enjoyed it?
PE: Yes.
MC: Apart from Northern Ireland.
PE: Northern Ireland was awful but yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I did.
MC: So what did you do after you came out of the Air Force?
PE: Well [pause] because I was back at, I had, my work involved nuclear stuff and so I had contacts with what do they call themselves? Scientific Civil Service. In fact, I was offered a job with the Scientific Civil Service when I left the Air Force [pause] because we had to, there were certain, you know there were certain rules and things which which they needed people. I mean that was my job at Bomber Command most of the time was answering the phone to armament officers throughout Bomber Command because once you’ve got nuclear stuff you’ve got your ordinary distances, safety distances and so on but you put a nuclear, anything nuclear and it it rubbished all of it. It all had to be worked out again. Safety distances and so on. So that was, that was a solo job for quite a long time.
MC: So where did you live when you came out of the Air Force? Where did you live [pause] after the Air Force?
PE: I lived in a caravan. Yeah.
MC: So we never did did get around to what job you did. What job did you get when you first started?
PE: What? After the Air Force?
MC: After the Air Force.
PE: I know I was offered by the Civil Service I was offered a job.
MC: Yeah, you said.
PE: And you know when it came to pay it was embarrassing. It was so low you couldn’t believe your ears. They offered me a job with apologies. They were apologising about the pay but they wanted me to be a Scientific Civil Servant. To begin with I didn’t know any better. But I sure very very quickly did and realised they, I was going to get peanuts you know. I couldn’t. I couldn’t survive on it and so I phoned them up to say, ‘I’m sorry but your pay is unbelievable.’ It was something like fifteen pounds a week. Well, you know if you’re married and you know I mean fifteen quid and you’ve got a car, you need to get to work and back I mean you know it was absurd.
MC: So that brings me to the subject when did you get married? Were you married at that time?
[pause]
MC: Were you in the Air Force?
PE: I wanted to say [pause] I think I was. I think I was married a few days after I left the Air Force. It was a very, a very close-run thing. It wasn’t a long period.
MC: So you both lived in the caravan.
PE: Unofficially to begin with because I was still in the sergeant’s mess and so it was, it was a bit difficult. A bit complicated so but that was only for, that was only for a couple of weeks and then I was out because we were both strapped for cash and Betty, so Betty got a job almost straight away and I’m living in this caravan. So it was a difficult period for about two weeks. I’d got this absurd, this job which sounded Scientific Civil Servant, oh yeah, you know. How much? About twelve and six a week. I mean it was ridiculous you know. But anyway, I then, I wasn’t very far from Rolls Royce, Leavesden so I contacted Rolls Royce Leavesden and I got a job as a technical author at Rolls Royce to begin with and I ended up as a welfare manager at Rolls Royce, Leavesden.
MC: So how long were you with Rolls Royce?
PE: Well, giving you a rough figure it would be ten years.
MC: Was that until you retired?
PE: Yes.
MC: And what age did you retire then?
PE: Presumably [pause] I mean I’m going to have to, I’m only going to have to give you a guess on that. I would say I retired at about the age of sixty.
MC: So you didn’t do anything after you retired then. When you retired.
PE: I don’t think I’ve got [pause] not paid. Not paid work. I did a lot of work. I was a, I was a Samaritan for twenty-nine years I think and to begin with you were called out so you know. I could be called out in the night and that sort of thing so I had, I did, that was you know an important part of my life I think for quite a while.
MC: So going back to Rolls Royce you said you started as a technical author and finished up as a welfare manager. That was over a long period. Over a long period of time was that? Nothing in between? How did you come from technical officer to welfare manager.
PE: Well, because I was a technical author and I [pause] it’s a good question [laughs] I knew that they were very, I know that the Civil Service was very angry with me because I turned the job down in the end because I got a much much higher job from Rolls Royce. I’d applied to Rolls Royce as a technical author as well as —
[recording interrupted]
PE: At an absurdly, well I thought it was rather low but it was absurdly low pay and then all of a sudden I got, I got a letter after quite some while from the Rolls Royce chap at Leavesden. Yeah. I think its Leavesden.
MC: Yeah.
PE: Airfield, and that. Yeah. And it was, it was virtually twice as much. I mean it was, it was, you know I was thinking you know I’m going to be up queer street here you know with this pay offer from the Civil Service. It was, it was absurdly low and so I had to make a few tentative enquiries here, there and everywhere to see and it was some little while later when I suddenly got this letter to go over to Leavesden for an interview. I went over there and they offered me the job straight away and that was a job of a technical author. But within a very short time I was managing an area in in [unclear] and then in the end I was given a [pause] they wanted me to take over probably because of the experience I’ve had in with, with well Samaritans.
MC: Samaritans. Yes. Of course.
PE: They, they thought they could use me better and they did and so in the end I got quite a quite a decent pay award from —
MC: Yeah.
PE: From Rolls Royce. So that’s where I stuck. I stuck with it.
MC: So that Samaritans carried on after you, after you retired did it? The Samaritans work continued after you retired?
PE: To begin with, yeah. Yeah. Yes.
MC: Anything else you got, you occupied your time with? [pause] Education of any sort. Education.
PE: Yes. I [pause] I got a degree.
MC: You did a degree?
PE: Yeah.
MC: This was after you retired?
PE: Yeah.
MC: So you went to university. How old were you? Sixties.
PE: Yeah. At a place near here somewhere [pause] Where’s the universities near here?
MC: Well, there’s Lincoln.
PE: Not Lincoln.
MC: Nottingham?
PE: Yeah. Nottingham.
MC: Oh right.
PE: So I used to go to Nottingham and yes and I [pause] medieval. Medieval history I think it was that I got a degree in so —
MC: So what brought you to Lincoln?
[pause]
PE: I think, yeah to begin with my wife Betty she’s from Bridlington and all her family and folk and friends were in that area and when we were down in the south of England there was no problem about visiting because it’s too distant. But once you start getting a bit nearer you need a good excuse and I remember we, we didn’t want to get any, any, we wanted to have about seventy miles between us and Brid otherwise we would have to make excuses because Betty’s family was a fisherman’s family. There were, there were seven brothers or sisters and of course then, now their kids are, I mean there’s a huge [pause] so consequently there was a lot of, a lot of [pause] we had to be careful where we moved to and we thought Lincoln was ideal because it’s something like seventy, I think seventy miles came into it. I thought that was good. We don’t have to apologise for not going there at the weekend you know what I mean. So that’s why. That’s why we chose Lincoln I’m afraid. Not for any grand, grand reason. Yeah.
MC: So you’ve lived in Lincoln for good number of years now then.
PE: Yes. Yes. Yeah.
MC: Well, Ted I think we’ve covered just about everything.
PE: I’m sorry I’m a bit flaky about all this.
MC: No. It’s alright. It’s understandable. No, that’s great and I appreciate very much you talking to me.
PE: Well, ditto.
PE: My pleasure.
MC: Just, just start off just tell me when and where you were born. When and where you were born.
PE: When?
MC: When and where you were born.
PE: I was, I was born in 1934 at the RAF hospital adjacent to RAF Halton. My father at that time I think was working, he was stationed in the local Air Force station nearby so when my mother was due she went to the Air Force Hospital associated with Halton.
MC: So what did your father do? What was his trade?
PE: My father was in arguably the first entry. There’s always a bit of an argument.
MC: This was the apprentices.
PE: As an apprentice.
MC: Yes.
PE: Yes. In the, he was in the first entry.
MC: When was that?
PE: And he was —
MC: Sorry.
PE: He was, I think he was a fitter rigger or something.
MC: Okay. Yes.
PE: That was at the time when they had wing warping and things of that nature so so but you know the aeroplanes were getting a bit more technical and so they needed a Number One School of Technical Training to train people to be able to service the Royal Air Force aircraft as they were getting more complex. So that’s why I think Halton became an important place for the Air Force you know in order to train people to service them.
MC: So he was still there when you were born. Even though he joined, when did he join? Nineteen —
PE: Well, that was in 1934 when I was born and he was at Henlow.
MC: Oh, I see. He wasn’t at Halton.
PE: He, he not, not then but when he, when because you know I mean I was born sometime after he joined the Air Force you know.
MC: Yes. Yes I appreciate that. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So you were, so what, tell me and so obviously can you remember much about life before the war? Between being born, you were born in ’34 so up until the war in ’39 where did you live and what did you do?
PE: We were, during the war we were to begin with at Wittering.
MC: Was that during the war? What about before the war? I mean you were very young so I don’t expect you to be, I mean at the outbreak of war you’d be five.
PE: Yeah. Yes.
MC: So you probably wouldn’t remember much.
PE: So I don’t. I don’t know much about, about that.
MC: Okay. So during the war you were at Wittering you say.
PE: During the war for a short while my father was at Wittering. He was the STO at Wittering.
MC: Senior Technical Officer.
PE: And we lived at a place called Thornhaugh. If you go past the Stamford roundabout and carry on and then Wittering is on, the camp is on the right. If you carry on the, on the A1 just a few yards further on. There’s a sign which says Thornhaugh. T H O R N H A U G H or something. But that’s, that’s where, that’s where we lived.
MC: Oh right.
PE: And we lived there but then we lived actually because the peritrack at the station was so, was so near to the farm, farm buildings that we lived in that we had to move because Jerry was beginning to bomb around that neck of the woods you know. So we, we moved to Lancashire. To Lytham St Annes.
MC: Why? Any reason for Lancashire? Any reason for Lancashire?
PE: Only to get out of the, you know out of the bombing business.
MC: But your father stayed at Wittering.
PE: Oh yes. Yes.
MC: So, I mean obviously he was Senior Technical Officer. Do you know how and when he was commissioned?
PE: Yes. I do. I do know. Funnily enough if I looked around here I might be able to find —
MC: Don’t worry. [pause]
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah, so, so you moved to Lytham.
PE: Yes. My father didn’t obviously —
MC: No, he stayed at Wittering.
PE: He stayed at Wittering. Yeah.
MC: Yeah. Yeah.
PE: And so we moved to Lytham or as they say Lytham St Annes but you actually had Lytham and then Ansdell and then St Annes and then Squires Gate and then Blackpool so it’s a pretty, it’s a pretty safe area anyway.
MC: Yeah. Yes.
PE: And so that’s where I moved to and actually until such time as I joined the Royal Air Force.
MC: So what was life like at Lytham St Annes for you?
PE: Well —
MC: And your mother.
PE: I was a sort of, you know I was about seven. Seven years, seven or eight years old to begin with so and it was, it was [pause] it was really quite atypical really because I’m really, remember I’m Captain Tom and his era when he was a lad and it was exactly the same as mine. You know everyone kept chickens and you know and you had bran. You could have certain sorts of bran and you lost certain food points on your ration book if you had bran because then, because you were feeding chickens so you know it was sort of it was quite interesting in, in, you know in living in a wartime when that area although it’s supposed to be a safe area the Americans they moved in there. So that we had a lot of American bases just down the road from us.
MC: Did you have much to do with the Americans?
PE: Yes, because my mother she, she got to know quite a few of them who, who and this is what I’m going to tell you now is really quite astonishing but she got to know because the posh pub in Lytham was where the American officers used to, used to, you know have a drink with the locals, that sort of thing or with themselves and my, my mother got quite friendly with one of the, with one of the commanding officers because he had site this, site that. Various sites where these, where the Americans were and they had the sort of, the sort of command structures that you would expect in any and so that my, our house, 15 Preston Road which was coming into Lytham, after that you got Warton and then you’d got all these American sites and our place became very popular with the Americans and the VAD nurses and so on. And one of the rather odd things that happened during that time and I mean they used to call our place, site Site 18 or something. In other words [laughs] you know I’m not sure you know what reputation my mother probably had in all this but what did happen was that you had an American chap that came over. A big famous band leader and all the rest of it. You’ll know what I’m talking about because he came over here and then he came over in order to then head up a group of of entertainers, top flight entertainers to to entertain the American soldiers that were there and his name has just gone out of my head at the moment but you, it’s known that everybody will know because he was a [pause] he was somebody that was in all the films you know. He was, he was a [pause] and he was coming over and the Americans wanted him to have a good rest and he stayed at our place overnight. This [laughs] this whatever his name was. Whatever. I mean he was. He was from the top flight.
MC: Would that be Glenn Miller?
PE: Yes. Yeah. I’ve obviously told you about that before. Anyway, so so we did very well in the war there because we used to get American food, American rations, all sorts of things. My father was nowhere. He was, you know he was down in that neck of the woods that I’ve just mentioned where he was stationed.
MC: Yeah.
PE: And then, then but he was posted into the Far East.
MC: Oh right.
PE: When the, when the war with Europe was finished he got an immediate posting out to [pause] you know to the Far East. So that’s where he then went. So I didn’t see my father hardly at all in my lifetime.
MC: No.
PE: But —
MC: So, I mean did you have any friends in Lytham? People you used to associate with as a youngster.
PE: Well, yes. I was very much, I was I was a Lancashire lad you know. We had gangs you know as as well they did in those days. They had gangs you know. I belonged, I belonged to the Marsh Gang but the gang that was always threatening us was the Mornington Road Gang and it was like, it was a battle zone. It really was. It was. You know, you didn’t mix. You know it’s amazing actually that it happened like that but that’s how it, that’s how it was and that I mean I’m grateful to my father because he obviously paid to send me and my brother to Grammar School.
MC: So which school did you go to?
PE: King Edward the VII Grammar School which is between Lytham and St Anne’s. A good school. The school song was in Latin so I won’t sing any of it to you but I’m sure I still remember it you know. Yeah. So my mother had to, they got divorced.
MC: Oh, did they? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
PE: And my father and my mother got divorced at the end of the war and so she, she looked after us kids pretty well really considering that she was on her own in that sense and the fact she was also the unofficial station commander of, of site whatever it was which was our house, 15 Preston Road [laughs] I’m not quite sure what reputation she had in, with the locals but it didn’t matter. You know, you make the best of what you’ve got and we used to have all sorts of good food. Unbelievably good food because it didn’t come, it came from the Americans. The American bases. Yeah. So that was a funny, a funny upbringing really.
MC: So —
PE: But my father was an apprentice.
MC: Yes.
PE: And my brother who was about four or five years older than I he was an apprentice and then I was an apprentice.
MC: So you became an apprentice. That was straight from school then.
PE: Yes. Well, it was but in fact because my, because we were so hard up that I more or less played wag for you know sort of I didn’t go to school. I got a job peeling potatoes. Eyeing potatoes for, for Blackpool. For you know. For the [pause] there was a chap I can’t think of his name now but he was always regarded as the number one cook that ran, that ran all the fish and chip shops in Blackpool and I spent well months, literally months eyeing potatoes and chipping them in in dustbins or, well they looked like dustbins. I think they were and, but you know brand new dustbins you know and they were because he had a whole row of fish and chip shops all on the Golden Mile at Blackpool. So that’s where I spent quite a lot of my ill spent youth I’m afraid was there.
MC: So, so that, you were there. So you, so you joined the Royal Air Force then.
PE: Yes.
MC: As an apprentice.
PE: It was, I think it was just accepted actually. That’s what happened. My, my brother had joined the Air Force. Well, joined the apprentices when it was his, when it was his time and, and I followed suit. It was sort of, it was sort of accepted.
MC: Family tradition.
PE: Yes. It was. Yes. Yeah. So, so I joined the apprentices. My father was at Halton too and he was —
MC: What made him join?
PE: No he —
MC: No.
PE: He could have been in the first entry.
MC: Yes, you said.
PE: There’s some doubt about people argue about who was in the first entry or was it because they split a little bit as to exactly where the Number One School Of Technical Training was going to be but that was quite at the very beginning of when, of you know this was going back again to when my father joined as a boy. I’m going to turn that. Oh, if you could just pull that. Pull that back.
MC: So yes, your father joined in 1924 you say.
PE: I’m not sure the date.
MC: Oh, I thought you said 1924. Yeah. So when you got to Halton how did you get selected for your trade? What was, what trade did you do?
PE: Well, it was childish really. I didn’t but there was one which was armament and it sounded exciting you know and I thought oh well that that’s good so I [pause] my first choice was armament. Most, most lads when they went there they had the advice of their fathers mainly because their father would be more attuned with what is appropriate. Most, most went for engine as engine fitters or airframe but I thought guns and bayonets and swords it’s exciting. So I went armament and I got armament. So I was a plumber as you would, as you would appreciate you know.
MC: So how long were you at Halton then for that apprenticeship?
PE: I think it was about three years.
MC: Three years. Yes.
PE: Yeah.
MC: So when you, when you finished at Halton what rank were you?
PE: When I, it was during in the middle of my period at Halton the new improved and different trade test parameters came into being and one of those was the pass mark. Whereas before I think it was, it was something like forty percent or something all of a sudden it had to be at least fifty percent. Well, many of us I mean I was already had gone in the first year and in the end of the first year you would then do a period down on the airfield and then you’d get you know you would do all prop swinging and all sorts of things down on the airfield and then you’d do, you’d have an exam down there and you were given a mark. Well, then if you were okay you know, just about okay all around you know you would, you would get, God willing and a fair wind you’d probably get about fifty. Fifty percent. That would, you know. Well, that’s not, that wasn’t a pass mark for the new trade test. I think it was sixty. Well, consequently loads of people including myself loads of people we all had to do it all again.
MC: Oh right.
PE: Because, because we, the new, the new pass rate meant that we’d all failed and it surprised me that they didn’t come and make some accommodation for that because if you were okay, you kept you nose clean and you sort of you know you were with the mainstream then you would get the basic pass mark. Well, all of a sudden that wasn’t the pass mark anymore. It was a fail. So consequently made, and I did an extra [pause] I forget now whether it was one or two years because my oppo he, he had gone down two entries and we were all going down because because our pass marks were not big enough and so when it came they said, ‘Oh, you’ll have to go down.’ And I said, I did a bit of a [pause] I made of a [laughs] I said, ‘Well, I think I ought to make a really good start rather than one step back. I think two steps back and then I could make a strong step forward.’ Good. And this zobbit as we used to call them, this zobbit said, ‘Jolly good, apprentice. I agree with that. Yes.’ So I went down two entries only because my mate was down two entries you know. So I did an extra year because of that business you know.
MC: So when did you leave Halton?
PE: Well, I was there from 1950 to probably ’54.
MC: But what was your first posting then?
PE: St Eval.
MC: Oh right.
PE: I hesitated because what happens there at Halton is that when an entry gets it’s marching orders to go when you finished you walked around with your, where you’re being posted to because you could, you could have, you could perhaps want to be, go somewhere and the one that you pinned on your back someone would, so there was a lot of swapping around and they were very accommodating and so that, so that we all for about two or three days swapped you know with, we would have our names on a bit of card, slap it on the back and then someone would say, ‘Oh you’re going to [pause] well I want to go so. Oh, St Eval. Where’s that?’ ‘Cornwall.’ ‘Oh, that sounds okay. Yeah. I’ll swap you.’ You know, and that’s how it went. So there was a lot of horse trading going on for about the last three or four days before it then settled down and that was, that happened every, every time an entry came up to go that happened.
MC: So, St Eval. Is that onto a squadron?
PE: When I started they already had a job for me in ASF.
MC: Air Safety Flight. Yeah.
PE: What they wanted was because it was planned servicing and the armourers were always getting in the way because the turret is slap in the middle of the walkway through a Shackleton. So that the armourers were always in the way and what they wanted to do was to build a turret from bits. From spare bits and then the next aircraft that came in whipped this turret out, put the new turret in and then do what had to be done.
MC: From the old turret.
PE: In the bay and not getting in everyone’s [laughs] and so that’s why. The armament officer told me this. That’s why they put in a request for a fitter armourer from Halton and that was my first job was to build a turret out of boxes [laughs] whole stand of boxes you know and but it was, it was okay. It was interesting.
MC: So how long were you at St Eval?
PE: I’ll take a bit of a stab on it. Probably about [pause] certainly two years.
MC: Did you fly at all during that time?
PE: Yes. I mean I went to South America from 228 Squadron which were, which [pause] there was, I think there were four squadrons because it’s a big airfield down at St Eval and anyway I was from, from this job that I was went out in the hangar to build a turret. As that was finishing I was assigned to, I think 228 Squadron with Shackletons of course and that was how I managed very lucky to for because I was the NCO in charge of armament, end of on 228 Squadron. And so I was detailed to go on this South American trip. So I went from, from 228 Squadron.
MC: How did you get to South America? What route did you take? What route did you take?
PE: Gibraltar. Gibraltar. End of Spain. Is that Gib?
MC: Gibraltar, yeah.
PE: Gib. Yeah. Except that because we were so overloaded because we you know you had to carry not only your spares but if things got [pause] we were carrying spare oleos and spare big bits you know.
MC: Yeah.
PE: Because once you were in South America you know if a bit goes for a ball of chalk you’ve lost an aeroplane until you go and so we, so the bomb bays were absolutely crammed with stuff and and so that when we were supposed to land at Gib. But there was a crosswind and because of the weight our aircraft were very much overweight we carried on a bit further down and there’s a French Naval Air Station there. So we lobbed in there and then and they treated us very nice except that our flying rations the next day because we were then going to cross the pond then over to south, to the north end of South America and during that —
MC: What [unclear] were the French?
PE: Oh, that’s right. Yeah. They were very kind and the food you know because there was it was a quick decision for us. We couldn’t land because of this crosswind and the weight of the aircraft and so and that’s where we pulled in and they treated us so well. And the next day when we were eventually then flying across the pond to South America over the electric [unclear] somebody said, ‘Hey, don’t. Don’t touch the fish. These, these this is real fishy. It’s horrible.’ You know. Well, what it was caviar and it all went down, it all went down the flare chute. We thought these bloody frogs you know. They don’t know how to, you know. Yes, it was. But our navigator was a, he was, I liked him but he was very very aloof. He was a very very aloof chap and he let everyone, over the electric. ‘Actually chaps,’ he said. ‘You’ve just thrown away very excellent caviar.’ [laughs] So no. We did a few daft things in amongst it. Yeah.
MC: So where, where did you fly to in South America?
PE: Do you know we were right at the very north tip of South America and there was about three different places where we logged in at and I can’t remember them off hand but they are all places which we were familiar with. In fact, we, we met Douglas Bader I think. Is he the tin —
MC: Yeah, that’s right.
PE: That’s right, at one of the places he flew in to say hello because it was, it was quite an event having a number of Shackletons going around and showing the Shackleton off to the South Americans. That’s what we were doing and and —
MC: What mark of Shackleton was it?
PE: It was, we were still Draggers.
MC: Known as a tail dragger. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. How long were you in South America then?
PE: Not, not all that long because I suppose I would say about probably about two or three weeks. That’s all.
MC: So did you take the same route back?
PE: No. No. Because what we did we were moving up bit by bit by bit by bit and then we went into Florida and then from Florida we flew back. There’s a couple of Atlantic islands there. Ones that anyone would like to go to. Posh sounding ones. I forget the names of them now unless I looked at a map but you know the sort of place that you know if you were going to go for a holiday oh we’re going, oh you know you were it was an up, an uprated. It was until we got there [laughs]] and then we of course we were wined and dined a lot you see. So it was a good experience. I mean it’s a [pause] everybody, everybody that went there was white overalls and three with sergeants stripes on each arm. Everybody. When I say everybody everybody who was beneath that rank you know.
MC: Non-commissioned.
PE: That’s right. Yeah. The idea of that because otherwise because some of the places that we did lob in at the the bed and breakfast would be pretty grim. You know the Air Force wanted a decent standard of of vittles for you know.
MC: The crew. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So back in the UK how long were you at St Eval for? When did you leave there? Where did you go?
PE: Actually I was quite peeved. I suppose I was there about two years or even [pause] yes two years probably at the most and the Troubles were on Northern Ireland and I got out of the blue I got a posting to Northern Ireland. And that was a very unhappy part of my life really. And the day you know you get your arrival chit and you go around to get you know well at the same time I also had an application for overseas. I was straight into when we, as we, as I arrived there there was a lot of trouble because the [pause] the powerlines had been blown up by the IRA. The power had gone for a ball of chalk and it was all, it was all a little bit iffy iffy arriving because you know they couldn’t bother with [pause] It didn’t matter where you came from. I mean I had the most disgusting woodland hut that I had to sleep in to begin with. You wouldn’t believe it that this was, this was the Royal Air Force you know. But anyway yeah so I applied for overseas at the same time as I —
MC: Right.
PE: Did my arrival chit and funnily enough I sort of noted it was, it was to the exact day an hour later. A day and a year later. The exact day a year later that my application had come through. Malta. Paradise because that was horrible in Northern Ireland. It was dreadful. A very unhappy time of my life.
MC: Did you experience any of the Troubles?
PE: Yes. Yeah. I mean the, the armoury itself. We had a lot of, a lot of weaponry there so we had an additional perimeter which was barbed wire and all the rest of it and dogs in between there and the next one. So actually just going to the station armoury and I mean it was an amazing thing happened which is true but it’s hard to believe that on one occasion the IRA attacked the, this isolated building which was now the station armoury with all the weaponry in it and the IRA turned up and they got in. Their key and this is, it was always a mystery. Their key fitted the station armoury lock which had to be a good one because it was, it had been moved from the camp to the other side of the airfield. And, and no one ever, no one ever worked out that except the poor bloke who offered his key. Anyway, that’s that beside the point but yeah so the, the Troubles were starting then and that was a very unhappy time.
MC: So we’re off to Malta. How did you get on in Malta then?
PE: Malta was fantastic. I got there and what they were looking for was for someone to go to Safi. I think that’s, I think that’s what it was called. Anyway, it was Marsaxlokk down at the, on the southern, there’s a fishing village. A Maltese fishing village and there’s a castle because you know in the 16th or 17th century they were always raiding. There was castles all the way around and that was one of those castles. Ideal for storing explosives because immeasurably thick. If I said to you something like fifteen feet thick you would say don’t be ridiculous nothing is fifteen feet thick. Well, it was. It was bordering on that and even you know in the middle of a really really hot day in Malta you went to [unclear] and you went down it was blooming cold down there. Ideal for storing explosives. So that’s where I spent my time. But because I was down there on the coast and Safi was inland in the morning I used to get up and then drive in a garrey down to Safi and I spent my my time down there. So I had my own boat. So, so it was, it was an unbelievable posting. I had my own boat and sailed that and because in the afternoon from 2 o’clock and that was it you know because it was too hot but it wasn’t too hot down there to get your boat out and go out and go out in to Marsaxlokk Bay and all the rest of it. So I had, I had, I spent two, two and whatever years. Two and a half years.
MC: Yeah. Did you work on any aircraft while you were there?
PE: No.
MC: No.
PE: No. Not at all. [pause] I forget what they were called but I worked hand in glove with the inspection regime of the Royal Air Force when it came to doing inspections. You had inspectors, a better name for it all but that sort of, but that so I was there to help with, because of the fact I’ve got, you know I’ve got experience with that sort of thing. So I was there to when the, oh I can’t think of the name of them but anyway that when they used to come to check certain explosive references or whatever they would want to come and they would so I was able to help them. I’m a bit vague on that now I’m afraid. It’s —
MC: So how long was the Malta posting?
PE: The normal time I think. Two and three quarter years I think it was.
MC: Three years. Yeah. So where did you go after Malta then?
PE: I have to just think of that for a moment. Oh yes. I really went back to the beginning because one of the first postings I got was there’s an ordinary RAF station just a few, about a thousand yards back from Bomber Command Headquarters in this country and it’s, and I got, I got posted back to to the station there as opposed to [pause] Bomber Command Headquarters had was a little area of its own in you know. But then there was an RAF station and that’s where I was basically in charge of the station armoury again. So I was there [pause] I don’t think I went very far after that because my, because I went to, I went to [pause] gosh. I’m drawing a blank at the moment. I’m trying to think of my first posting. I might have already mentioned it.
MC: St Eval. St Eval. St Eval.
PE: Oh yes. Yes. That’s right. Yeah. So I went back there.
MC: Oh right. So, did you —
PE: I was, I was also stationed in Driffield. It could have been Driffield I was posted back to. So I did, you know I did a spell in Driffield because we had the four, the four inter-range ballistic missiles down in I think in either four or five sites and there were certain parts of the, of each missile that needed, had explosives and needed the lab which was part of my domain. So that’s why. That’s why I got posted back there.
MC: So did you finish your service there or was that where you?
PE: Yes. I think I did.
MC: Yeah. Yeah.
PE: Yeah.
MC: So how many years was that you did? How many years did you serve all told?
PE: Give or take six months fifteen years. Could have been sixteen. Bordering on sixteen or fourteen and three quarters but it was basically the amount that I had signed on when I was lad of fifteen.
MC: Yes.
PE: Yeah.
MC: Yeah. So you finished your Air Force career. You enjoyed it?
PE: Yes.
MC: Apart from Northern Ireland.
PE: Northern Ireland was awful but yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I did.
MC: So what did you do after you came out of the Air Force?
PE: Well [pause] because I was back at, I had, my work involved nuclear stuff and so I had contacts with what do they call themselves? Scientific Civil Service. In fact, I was offered a job with the Scientific Civil Service when I left the Air Force [pause] because we had to, there were certain, you know there were certain rules and things which which they needed people. I mean that was my job at Bomber Command most of the time was answering the phone to armament officers throughout Bomber Command because once you’ve got nuclear stuff you’ve got your ordinary distances, safety distances and so on but you put a nuclear, anything nuclear and it it rubbished all of it. It all had to be worked out again. Safety distances and so on. So that was, that was a solo job for quite a long time.
MC: So where did you live when you came out of the Air Force? Where did you live [pause] after the Air Force?
PE: I lived in a caravan. Yeah.
MC: So we never did did get around to what job you did. What job did you get when you first started?
PE: What? After the Air Force?
MC: After the Air Force.
PE: I know I was offered by the Civil Service I was offered a job.
MC: Yeah, you said.
PE: And you know when it came to pay it was embarrassing. It was so low you couldn’t believe your ears. They offered me a job with apologies. They were apologising about the pay but they wanted me to be a Scientific Civil Servant. To begin with I didn’t know any better. But I sure very very quickly did and realised they, I was going to get peanuts you know. I couldn’t. I couldn’t survive on it and so I phoned them up to say, ‘I’m sorry but your pay is unbelievable.’ It was something like fifteen pounds a week. Well, you know if you’re married and you know I mean fifteen quid and you’ve got a car, you need to get to work and back I mean you know it was absurd.
MC: So that brings me to the subject when did you get married? Were you married at that time?
[pause]
MC: Were you in the Air Force?
PE: I wanted to say [pause] I think I was. I think I was married a few days after I left the Air Force. It was a very, a very close-run thing. It wasn’t a long period.
MC: So you both lived in the caravan.
PE: Unofficially to begin with because I was still in the sergeant’s mess and so it was, it was a bit difficult. A bit complicated so but that was only for, that was only for a couple of weeks and then I was out because we were both strapped for cash and Betty, so Betty got a job almost straight away and I’m living in this caravan. So it was a difficult period for about two weeks. I’d got this absurd, this job which sounded Scientific Civil Servant, oh yeah, you know. How much? About twelve and six a week. I mean it was ridiculous you know. But anyway, I then, I wasn’t very far from Rolls Royce, Leavesden so I contacted Rolls Royce Leavesden and I got a job as a technical author at Rolls Royce to begin with and I ended up as a welfare manager at Rolls Royce, Leavesden.
MC: So how long were you with Rolls Royce?
PE: Well, giving you a rough figure it would be ten years.
MC: Was that until you retired?
PE: Yes.
MC: And what age did you retire then?
PE: Presumably [pause] I mean I’m going to have to, I’m only going to have to give you a guess on that. I would say I retired at about the age of sixty.
MC: So you didn’t do anything after you retired then. When you retired.
PE: I don’t think I’ve got [pause] not paid. Not paid work. I did a lot of work. I was a, I was a Samaritan for twenty-nine years I think and to begin with you were called out so you know. I could be called out in the night and that sort of thing so I had, I did, that was you know an important part of my life I think for quite a while.
MC: So going back to Rolls Royce you said you started as a technical author and finished up as a welfare manager. That was over a long period. Over a long period of time was that? Nothing in between? How did you come from technical officer to welfare manager.
PE: Well, because I was a technical author and I [pause] it’s a good question [laughs] I knew that they were very, I know that the Civil Service was very angry with me because I turned the job down in the end because I got a much much higher job from Rolls Royce. I’d applied to Rolls Royce as a technical author as well as —
[recording interrupted]
PE: At an absurdly, well I thought it was rather low but it was absurdly low pay and then all of a sudden I got, I got a letter after quite some while from the Rolls Royce chap at Leavesden. Yeah. I think its Leavesden.
MC: Yeah.
PE: Airfield, and that. Yeah. And it was, it was virtually twice as much. I mean it was, it was, you know I was thinking you know I’m going to be up queer street here you know with this pay offer from the Civil Service. It was, it was absurdly low and so I had to make a few tentative enquiries here, there and everywhere to see and it was some little while later when I suddenly got this letter to go over to Leavesden for an interview. I went over there and they offered me the job straight away and that was a job of a technical author. But within a very short time I was managing an area in in [unclear] and then in the end I was given a [pause] they wanted me to take over probably because of the experience I’ve had in with, with well Samaritans.
MC: Samaritans. Yes. Of course.
PE: They, they thought they could use me better and they did and so in the end I got quite a quite a decent pay award from —
MC: Yeah.
PE: From Rolls Royce. So that’s where I stuck. I stuck with it.
MC: So that Samaritans carried on after you, after you retired did it? The Samaritans work continued after you retired?
PE: To begin with, yeah. Yeah. Yes.
MC: Anything else you got, you occupied your time with? [pause] Education of any sort. Education.
PE: Yes. I [pause] I got a degree.
MC: You did a degree?
PE: Yeah.
MC: This was after you retired?
PE: Yeah.
MC: So you went to university. How old were you? Sixties.
PE: Yeah. At a place near here somewhere [pause] Where’s the universities near here?
MC: Well, there’s Lincoln.
PE: Not Lincoln.
MC: Nottingham?
PE: Yeah. Nottingham.
MC: Oh right.
PE: So I used to go to Nottingham and yes and I [pause] medieval. Medieval history I think it was that I got a degree in so —
MC: So what brought you to Lincoln?
[pause]
PE: I think, yeah to begin with my wife Betty she’s from Bridlington and all her family and folk and friends were in that area and when we were down in the south of England there was no problem about visiting because it’s too distant. But once you start getting a bit nearer you need a good excuse and I remember we, we didn’t want to get any, any, we wanted to have about seventy miles between us and Brid otherwise we would have to make excuses because Betty’s family was a fisherman’s family. There were, there were seven brothers or sisters and of course then, now their kids are, I mean there’s a huge [pause] so consequently there was a lot of, a lot of [pause] we had to be careful where we moved to and we thought Lincoln was ideal because it’s something like seventy, I think seventy miles came into it. I thought that was good. We don’t have to apologise for not going there at the weekend you know what I mean. So that’s why. That’s why we chose Lincoln I’m afraid. Not for any grand, grand reason. Yeah.
MC: So you’ve lived in Lincoln for good number of years now then.
PE: Yes. Yes. Yeah.
MC: Well, Ted I think we’ve covered just about everything.
PE: I’m sorry I’m a bit flaky about all this.
MC: No. It’s alright. It’s understandable. No, that’s great and I appreciate very much you talking to me.
PE: Well, ditto.
Collection
Citation
Mike Connock, “Interview with Peter Brian Edwards,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 15, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/56381.