Some Memories of Ron Dewey
Title
Some Memories of Ron Dewey
Description
A short biography of Ron by his younger brother, Fred. Fred discusses his schooling and his love of photography and amateur radio, his engagement to Audrey Ridgwell and his short career flying. He lost his life on his fifth operation. His father lost his faith when his son died.
Creator
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Two typewritten sheets
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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.
Contributor
Identifier
BDeweyFDeweyRv1
Transcription
Some memories of Ron Dewey by Fred Dewey
My Elder Brother – Ronald, born July 1921. Elementary School – Boy’s British School, Saffron Walden until 1932, then won a scholarship to Newport Free Grammar School about three miles away from Saffron Walden. Took Cambridge School Certificate in 1937 and gained distinctions and credits in all subjects except French, which he failed. Returned to school for another try at S.C. in 1938, this time gained distinctions in all subjects except French which he failed again. He was then temporarily employed as a projectionist at the Plaza Cinema in Saffron Walden, which was useful to me as I got into the cinema free! He had done temporary Christmas work as a Post Office sorter and eventually got a permanent job in the Post Office as a counter clerk (had to go on a course in London during which he stayed with our uncle Alfred in Eltham).
Ron was a very keen photographer who did his own developing and printing, sometimes allowing me to help him. As soon as he could afford it he bought himself a Foth Derby (a German VPK camera with a focal plane shutter, an unusual feature on a relatively inexpensive rollfilm camera in those days). His ambition was to own a Leica, a much more up-market camera altogether.
He was also a very enthusiastic short wave radio listener spending many hours with headphones clamped to his ears. He was a member of the British Short Wave Radio Society, had his own OSL cards printed and sent them all over the world to let radio stations know that he had heard them. They went to amateurs in many countries (North and South of the Equator), to Police Stations in the USA, to Russian Polar expeditions, to Nazi. German stations, etc. Replied came back from nearly all of them – amateurs sent their own cards, some organisations sent letters while all sorts of information and propaganda came from Russia and from Germany.
Stamp collecting was another of his hobbies (we still have his old album) and his replies from his radio contacts made an interesting addition to his collection.
Ron had a terrible temper and although it was always short-lived it did not make for an exactly peaceful home.
Soon after the Second World War began he became engaged to Audrey Ridgewell, the daughter of friends of my father. Joined the RAF in 1942, was accepted for Air Crew and trained as a Bomb Aimer. After intensive training joined 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron flying Lancaster bombers from Lincolnshire. After operations against Spezia (Italy), Dortmund and Duisburg (twice), he was posted missing after his fifth operation, to Pilsen – this was his crew’s second operation in two successive nights. We later learned that his plane had been shot down just inside Germany near the Dutch border on the way back from their target. My father later persuaded a neighbour of ours who had been a newspaper reporter, and was serving in the area just after the end of the war, to investigate
[page break]
He found that the locals remembered it well, the plane had come down in flames, the crew’s remains were buried in the churchyard with military honours and their graves apparently were well looked after when he visited them. I think he sent us a photograph of the site. Later on they were moved to British Military Cemetery just over the border into Holland. My father visited this cemetery not long before he died.
***
When my brother was posted “missing” in 1943 my father stopped going to Chapel every Sunday and seemed to lose whatever faith he may have had in God. The old and retired Congregational Minister, the Rev. Morley Worsom(?), who was one of his personal friends, tried to be of some comfort to him but could not explain to him how God could allow such a thing to happen (I don’t think he had thought of it when he was serving in the Army himself and was in danger of death himself). The new young Minister was worse than useless. For the rest of his life father’s Church (or Chapel) going was more or less confined to weddings, funerals and church parades.
[page break]
My Elder Brother – Ronald, born July 1921. Elementary School – Boy’s British School, Saffron Walden until 1932, then won a scholarship to Newport Free Grammar School about three miles away from Saffron Walden. Took Cambridge School Certificate in 1937 and gained distinctions and credits in all subjects except French, which he failed. Returned to school for another try at S.C. in 1938, this time gained distinctions in all subjects except French which he failed again. He was then temporarily employed as a projectionist at the Plaza Cinema in Saffron Walden, which was useful to me as I got into the cinema free! He had done temporary Christmas work as a Post Office sorter and eventually got a permanent job in the Post Office as a counter clerk (had to go on a course in London during which he stayed with our uncle Alfred in Eltham).
Ron was a very keen photographer who did his own developing and printing, sometimes allowing me to help him. As soon as he could afford it he bought himself a Foth Derby (a German VPK camera with a focal plane shutter, an unusual feature on a relatively inexpensive rollfilm camera in those days). His ambition was to own a Leica, a much more up-market camera altogether.
He was also a very enthusiastic short wave radio listener spending many hours with headphones clamped to his ears. He was a member of the British Short Wave Radio Society, had his own OSL cards printed and sent them all over the world to let radio stations know that he had heard them. They went to amateurs in many countries (North and South of the Equator), to Police Stations in the USA, to Russian Polar expeditions, to Nazi. German stations, etc. Replied came back from nearly all of them – amateurs sent their own cards, some organisations sent letters while all sorts of information and propaganda came from Russia and from Germany.
Stamp collecting was another of his hobbies (we still have his old album) and his replies from his radio contacts made an interesting addition to his collection.
Ron had a terrible temper and although it was always short-lived it did not make for an exactly peaceful home.
Soon after the Second World War began he became engaged to Audrey Ridgewell, the daughter of friends of my father. Joined the RAF in 1942, was accepted for Air Crew and trained as a Bomb Aimer. After intensive training joined 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron flying Lancaster bombers from Lincolnshire. After operations against Spezia (Italy), Dortmund and Duisburg (twice), he was posted missing after his fifth operation, to Pilsen – this was his crew’s second operation in two successive nights. We later learned that his plane had been shot down just inside Germany near the Dutch border on the way back from their target. My father later persuaded a neighbour of ours who had been a newspaper reporter, and was serving in the area just after the end of the war, to investigate
[page break]
He found that the locals remembered it well, the plane had come down in flames, the crew’s remains were buried in the churchyard with military honours and their graves apparently were well looked after when he visited them. I think he sent us a photograph of the site. Later on they were moved to British Military Cemetery just over the border into Holland. My father visited this cemetery not long before he died.
***
When my brother was posted “missing” in 1943 my father stopped going to Chapel every Sunday and seemed to lose whatever faith he may have had in God. The old and retired Congregational Minister, the Rev. Morley Worsom(?), who was one of his personal friends, tried to be of some comfort to him but could not explain to him how God could allow such a thing to happen (I don’t think he had thought of it when he was serving in the Army himself and was in danger of death himself). The new young Minister was worse than useless. For the rest of his life father’s Church (or Chapel) going was more or less confined to weddings, funerals and church parades.
[page break]
Collection
Citation
Fred Dewey, “Some Memories of Ron Dewey,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed February 9, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/32860.
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