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Interview with Carolyn Pritchard
Carolyns 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 recalls the memories of his father, Charles Sturrock Reade. Charles 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…
Interview with Arthur Baxter Reid
Arthur Baxter Reid from Edinburgh was in the Home Guard before he joined the RAF. He trained as a wireless operator. While training he flew on a test flight with a pilot. The plane crashed and caught fire. The pilot leapt out of his window leaving…
Interview with Laurie Richardson
Laurie lived at 31 Buckingham Street, Hull, before being bombed. Laurie, then nearly three, and his mother went to stay with distant relatives at Talbot Farm, Bassingham Fen. There were a lot of Land Girls working at the farms in the area.…
Interview with Sidney James Richards
Sydney James Richards was born in Greenwich, London and was working in a drawing office in the Arsenal before joining the Royal Air Force. He was originally intending to join the Navy but changed his mind as he decided he preferred aircrew. He did…
Interview with Millie Roberts
Millie Roberts has lived her life in and around Lincoln. Her early memories include watching an airship fly overhead from the school playground at Reepham, getting locked in a cowshed and knitting baby clothes from wool collected from hedgerows. …
Interview with Ronald Roffey
Ronald was born in Charlton, south-east London. He went to Charlton Junior School and was nine when war was declared. He remembered being fitted for a gas mask at his school. His aunt who lived in Torquay found a private billet for him and his mother…
Interview with Lawrence Clark Rogers
Lawrence Rogers joined the Royal Air Force aged 17 and trained to become a wireless operator. He served with 218 Squadron at RAF Woolfox Lodge and then with 75 Squadron, flying in both Ansons and Lancasters. He eventually completed 32 operations with…
Interview with Hayden Philip Rose
Hayden Philip Rose was born on the 27th of July 1924. After leaving school he worked in the Simmonds factory office before joining the RAF in 1943, training as an engineer. His brothers also joined, becoming a pilot and a navigator. Upon meeting his…
Interview with Harry Rossiter
Harry Rossiter grew up in East London but his family moved to Essex, which gave Harry a “ringside view” of the Battle of Britain. He volunteered as a bicycle messenger and tried to join the Royal Navy as a telegraphist. He was encouraged to join…
Interview with Geoff Rushton
Geoff Rushton worked as a bank clerk before he volunteered for the Air Force. He trained as a navigator in Canada and after crewing up flew 20 operations with 15 Squadron from RAF Mildenhall. He and his crew were then posted to 186 Squadron at RAF…
Malcolm Staves Diary
Copy of a day by day diary kept by Malcolm Staves from 26th April 1943 to 6th January 1945. Covers training, lectures, gardening and cleaning tasks. Also covers his social life and home leave.
Interview with James Sampson
James Sampson volunteered for the RAF, trained as a navigator and became a specialist on H2S. He survived three write-offs of his aircraft, including once when the wheels had been shot away. His bomb aimer had a very near miss when shrapnel hit the…
Interview with Honor Saunders
Honor Saunders lived through the London Blitz. She was initially evacuated but returned to London. Her father was a fire watcher and on one occasion took her to the road bridge near her home to watch London burning. Their own home was damaged by a…
Interview with Roy Saunders
Roy Saunders was a schoolboy in London when the war started. He witnessed the bombing of London and was amazed when he saw the smoke from the docks area when he emerged from a shelter. His school friend and family died in the bombing. Roy was…
Interview with Jill Saunders
Jill Saunders’s father Frank Simon was born in Salford in 1917. He served an apprenticeship as a fitter before joining A.V. Roe. He had joined the RAF volunteer reserve but as he was in a reserved occupation, he was only called up in 1944. He…
Interview with Ron Saunders
Ron Saunders joined the RAF as a wireless operator rear gunner and served on 114 Squadron during the war. Remembers, as a little boy, seeing the airship R 101 and the Hindenburg flying in the distance. Describes his training in England and in Egypt…
Interview with Tim Schneider
Tim Schneider lived at Westcott before, during and after the construction and occupation of RAF Westcott as 11 Operational Training Unit. He tells of feeding the rabbits when he was four years old; leaving school at fourteen to help working on the…
Interview with Seymour Owen Scott
Seymour Owen Scott (usually referred to as Owen) served as a Lancaster pilot during the war. He mentions always having a passion for flying since he was a little boy. Owen remembers training, in Canada and the United States, to become a flying boat…
Interview with Rex Searle. Two
While Rex Searle was an air frame fitter with 601 Squadron he was evacuated from France at the start of the war. He returned home for a short leave but didn’t want to wake the family so waited patiently from 4am until 6am when his mum started her…
Interview with Frances Elizabeth Secker
Frances Elizabeth Secker is a lifelong resident of Feltwell. She was still at school when RAF Feltwell opened in 1937, and she remembers the Harrow being the first aircraft to arrive, followed by Wellingtons.
Elizabeth has clear memories of…
Elizabeth has clear memories of…
Interview with Francis Neville Selwood
Francis Neville Selwood of Invercargill, New Zealand was fascinated with aeroplanes in his youth and lived near an airfield where he could go and watch the aircraft. He was keen to volunteer as a pilot but an early rugby injury made that impossible.…
Interview with Bob Sharrock
Bob Sharrock was the son of a miner. He worked as a milkman delivering milk via a hand cart until he was given the privilege of a pony and trap. Bob then went to work as a lab technician for a gas company before he volunteered for the RAF. He trained…
Interview with Jack Edward Simmonds
Jack Simmonds was the son of an RAF serviceman. As a result, his childhood was spent moving around a great deal, including spending a few years in Egypt. He joined the RAF and began training as a pilot and then he joined 51 Squadron as a Whitley…
Letter from Ian Wynn to his wife
![EWynnIAWynnK[Date]-050001.jpg](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/1018/11627/EWynnIAWynnK[Date]-050001.jpg "EWynnIAWynnK[Date]-050001.jpg")
Thanks her for photographs and catches up with family and friends. No news of postings. Has obtained chocolate and will send some to his boys. Mentions he watched a convoy being bombed.