Browse Items (59 total)
- Coverage is exactly "Second generation"
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Interview with Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson reminisces about John Blair, his great-uncle. He discusses family life in rural Jamaica as a mixed-ethnicity person, highly respected by everyone. He was a qualified teacher, a lawyer, and a farmer. He reminisces about other Caribbeans…
Interview with Alan Jury
Alan Jury began his career with the RAF as an engineering apprentice at RAF Halton. When he retired from the RAF he joined the Parish Council at his local village and was informed that a Lancaster had crashed in the village in March 1945. After a…
Interview with Joan and Linda King
Joan King was born in Lincoln and together with her daughter, Linda King, talks about her husband, Eddie King, who served as a mid-upper gunner on Lancasters at RAF Scampton with 57 Squadron. He did two tours of operations. While he was briefly…
Interview with Mike Cope
Mike is the adopted brother of James (known as Sonny) who was in the Royal Air Force with 460 Squadron. The crew were all English apart from the Australian pilot. James was a wireless operator/mid-upper air gunner. Mike was seven in 1943 when his…
Interview with Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson is the nephew of Fred Denzel James Thompson. Fred’s father was Churchill’s bodyguard. In 1936 Fred joined the Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigation Department and, following a meeting with Winston Churchill, volunteered as a…
Interview with Malcolm Francis Morris
Malcolm Francis Morris was a child when war broke out and remembers joining the RAF as a boy entrant. He then served as an armament technician during the Cold War. He describes his training at St Athans and being then posted to Aden, where he was in…
Interview with Ann Mullin
Ann Mullin’s father, Sergeant George Fredrick Bedwell, was killed in action. She found it difficult to come to terms with the loss. She found it impossible to visit his grave although she lived in Germany after the war.
Interview with Richard Overy. One
Richard Overy discusses the bombing war. Richard became interested in air power whilst doing doctoral research at Cambridge, studying German aircraft production during World War Two. He started as an economic historian but became a military…
Interview with Evelyn Paine
Two of Evelyn Paine’s three brothers joined the RAF. She discusses the service of her brothers Philip Jenkinson and Peter Raeburn Jenkinson. Philip Jenkinson trained as an air gunner. He was was shot down on his 10th operation and, after evading…
Interview with Brian Payne
John Payne was born in 1932 and went into the Royal Air Force as part of his National Service, becoming a Navigator on the Canberra aircraft with 15 Squadron. His father went into the combined service in the First World War and was training to be a…
Interview with Philip Peel
Mike's son Phillip gives a detailed account of his father's RAF career, using logbook and letters, as well as recalling his father's anecdotes. Mike Peel was a Lancaster pilot and served on two squadrons before becoming a prisoner of war late in…
Interview with Robert Andrew Percival
Robert Percival was the son of a Second World War pilot and so grew up with an interest in aviation. His application to join the RAF as aircrew was not successful so he chose the engineering / technician route in to the service. He was seconded to…
Interview with Susanne Pescott
Susanne Pescott talks about her father, Flight Lieutenant Harold Arthur Lawson DFC, who worked as an engineer before joining the RAF in 1941, where he served as a navigator. After completing his training, he was posted to RAF Rufforth and from there…
Interview with Carolyn Pritchard
Carolyn's father, Arthur, joined the Royal Air Force on his 18th birthday. Following his training as a flight engineer, was posted to RAF Winthorpe. He was allocated to a crew consisting entirely of Australians. In February 1944 the crew were posted…
Interview with Jeremy Reade
Jeremy Reade recounts the memories of his father, Charles Sturrock Reade, who was born in Belfast and grew up in Portrush. On leaving school, Charles spent a short time working at a solicitor's office, before joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary as…
Interview with Gerald Rich
Gerald’s father, Wilfred, joined the Royal Air Force in January 1920 and stayed until around 1927, training as an aircraft fitter. He re-joined in June 1940 at RAF Cardington. In 1944, upon completion of training, he went to No. 1 Air Gunnery…
Interview with Timothy Sindall
Timothy Sindall is the son of James Herbert Sindall DSO, whose career as a pilot in the Royal Air Force started in the mid-1930s. Following the discovery of all of James logbooks, personal letters and newspaper cutting, Timothy has put together a…
Interview with Eddy Smythe. One
Eddy Smythe’s father, Johnny Smythe, was a navigator on a Lancaster. He was originally from Sierra Leonne. On one operation he was injured when anti-aircraft fire damaged their aircraft but they continued to target. One engine had been damaged and…
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…
Interview with Peter Steward
Peter Steward was born in 1933 and talks of not seeing his father during the war due to his father's service in the RAF. His uncles and cousins also served. After leaving school at 15, Peter worked at the Woolwich Arsenal factory and joined the RAF…
Interview with Penny Turner
Penny Turner’s father, Flight Sergeant Albin John Turner, pilot of a Wellington bomber, was killed in action during the first bombing operation on the 4 September 1939. Years later, when she was five years old, her mother told her that her father…
Interview with Elizabeth Anne Tyler
Elizabeth Anne Tyler talks about her family’s farmland, its history and when it was purchased by the Air Force for the construction of RAF North Luffenham. She mentions various episodes of wartime life around Edith Weston, as reported by family…
Interview with Stephen Walker
Stephen’s father, Ronald Cecil Walker, was born in Southampton in 1923. On leaving school he worked as a junior clerk with an accountancy firm. In 1941 he joined the Air Training Corps, 424 Squadron, in Southampton and, in December, the Royal Air…
Interview with Robert Whymark
Robert Whymark’s father, John ‘Jack’ Whymark, took part in three tours of operations. Initially, Jack was trained as a mechanic and was posted to 17 Squadron at RAF Debden and RAF Martlesham Heath. He then volunteered for aircrew and trained as…