Browse Items (33 total)
- Creator is exactly "Heather Hughes"
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Interview with Vic Farmer
Vic Farmer volunteered for the Royal Air Force at 18 and trained, in South Africa, as a navigator. He describes his experiences of crewing up and serving in 550 Squadron, RAF North Killingholme. He saw action on D-Day and participated in further…
Interview with Vera Willis
Vera Willis nee Tomlinson volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force because she wanted to be a driver. Her driving career in the RAF involved driving long distances as well as driving aircrew to dispersal. Some crew gave her letters for…
Interview with Vera Willis
Vera Willis volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force because she wanted to be a driver. Her driving career in the RAF involved driving driving aircrew to dispersal.This content is available as embedded video:
Interview with Vera Chard
Vera was born in the Myrtha Tydfil area of Wales. Vera went to the grammar school at Chepstow before getting work in the cashier’s office at the Royal Navy Propellant Factory. After joining the Women's Auxilliary Air Force, Vera was posted to…
Interview with Ted Mawdsley
Ted grew up in Essex. Before the war, he worked for the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1940 and became an instrument mechanic. He was posted to RAF Elsham Wolds in 1942 and overseas the following year. After…
Interview with Robert Woodhouse
Robert Woodhouse was living in Pembroke Dock when the bombing of the town began, and after losing their home due to the bombing, the family relocated to Cardiff. In Cardiff, Robert joined the Air Training Corps, to follow in the footsteps of his…
Interview with Ralph Alfrado Ottey. Two
Ralph Ottey joined the RAF from Jamaica. After the war he returned to Jamaica. However, he had met the woman he was to later marry while based in the UK and returned to settle here. He settled in Boston and had a long career with a local firm. On his…
Interview with Ralph Alfrado Ottey. Three
Ralph Ottey recounts an occasion when he came to the rescue of a local lady who found herself in difficulty while swimming in the local river.
Interview with Ralph Alfrado Ottey. One
Ralph Ottey was born in Jamaica in 1924. Raised by his grandparents, he describes his education and the family hopes that he would become a teacher. He left school at 16 and a half but was too young to attend teaching college so worked for his uncle…
Interview with Peter Parker
Peter Parker grew up in Gainsborough. He had hoped to be a pilot but was unsuccessful. However, as he had taught himself Morse code in his shed at home, he trained as a wireless operator and became an instructor. He was posted to RAF Yatesbury and…
Interview with Oluwole Hyde. Two
Olu Hyde continues his interview by describing his experience as the son of a Bomber Command veteran.
Interview with Oluwole Hyde
Oluwole Hyde’s father was Adesanya Hyde, who served as a navigator with 640 Squadron. He was badly injured but continued to navigate the aeroplane on operation. It was only when they were over the UK that he accepted the morphine for the pain. After…
Interview with Neville Shenbanjo
Neville was born in Leeds in 1945, one of seven children of Akin Shenbanjo DFC, who served as a wireless operator with 76 Squadron.
The first part of the interview relates to Neville's early life and relationship with his father. Neville was brought…
The first part of the interview relates to Neville's early life and relationship with his father. Neville was brought…
Interview with Mollie Caunt, Michael Bassett and Professor David Stocker about the Freiburg Letters
Talk with Mollie Caunt, Michael Bassett and Professor David Stocker about the origin and publication of the Freiburg letters.
Dorothy May was a British woman living in Germany during the war. Her husband was conscripted into the Germany Army.…
Dorothy May was a British woman living in Germany during the war. Her husband was conscripted into the Germany Army.…
Interview with Johnny Johnson. Two
George ‘Johnny’ Johnson was born in rural Lincolnshire. As a child he won a scholarship to Lord Wandsworth’s Agricultural College in Hampshire. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered for the Royal Air Force, and was selected for…
Interview with John Charles McAllister
John McAllister tells the story of his family connection with Bomber Command, through his uncle who was killed on operations. John is a musician and, movingly, explains how, through writing songs about his uncle and the crew, and putting them on the…
Interview with Jack Crawford
Jack Crawford volunteered for the RAF in Jamaica. He was posted to the UK in 1944 and began his precision instrument training before being finally posted to work on trainer aircraft. After the war he returned to Jamaica. He married and then returned…
Interview with Helga Wynne and Gordon Atkinson
Helga (00:00-34:00) was born in Kiel in 1926. Her father was a sailor, who then worked at Krupp shipbuilding yard; her mother was a tram driver during the war. None of her brothers were called up, either because of age or disability. She mentions…
Interview with Helga Wynne
Helga Wynne was born into a family of twelve in 1926 in Kiel, Germany. She describes her childhood and her father working as a shipbuilder in the dockyards. She left school at 14 and went to work on a farm. She fell through the hayloft opening,…
Interview with Hazel Carby
Hazel Carby discusses her father Carl's early life in Jamaica, his experiences training in Canada and serving as aircrew in the RAF, and how he and his family were treated in London in the post war period. She also discusses her research into her…
Interview with Fiona Andrews
Fiona mainly lived in Southampton. On leaving school she had a job for two years but as soon as she was 17 and a half she volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and became a wireless operator. She was posted to the far north of Scotland…
Interview with Eunice Burley and Leonard Bennett
William [Billy] Lord volunteered for the RAF and, having worked for Cable and Wireless before the war, he served as a wireless operator with 619 Squadron based at RAF Woodhall Spa. He had one sister with whom he was very close and who was the mother…
Interview with Eileen Pickering
Eileen Pickering, from Sheffield, was conscripted in to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. She was posted to Grantham and after working in the Orderly Room she re-mustered to work on the teleprinters. She was in post on D-Day and she describes how busy…
Interview with Eddy Smythe. Two
Eddy Smyth’s father was John Smythe. John left Sierra Leone to join the RAF during the Second World War. He was shot down over Germany and spent two years as a prisoner of war. After the war he trained as a barrister and returned to Sierra Leone…