1
25
9
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1997/37473/LAllamAJ657570v1.2.pdf
35afd95ceedc2359f913fb0ce724721e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-03-20
1945-03-23
1945-04-08
1945-05-10
1945-06-25
1945-07-02
1945-07-03
1945-07-05
1945-07-12
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Allam, A J
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-06
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allam, AJ
Description
An account of the resource
33 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Albert John Allam (657570 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, memoir, documents and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 227 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Peter Stuart Allam and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A J Allam - pilots flying log book No 2
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LAllamAJ657570v1
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot's Flying Log Book for A.J. Allam. Covers the period from 11 September 1944 to 16 July 1945 detailing his final training and operational flights. Listed at the back are all the stations he was posted to: RAF Wilmslow, RAF Dalcross, RAF Sywell, RAF Clyffe Pyard, RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Elgin, RAF Acaster Malbis, RAF Langar, RAF Syerston, RAF Balderton, RAF Strubby, RAF Graveley, RAF Little Staughton, RAF Wyton, RAF Bruntingthorpe and RAF Annan. Aircraft flown were Wellington, Tiger Moth, Halifax and Lancaster. With 227 Squadron he flew three night operations. Targets were Bohlen, Wesel and Lutzendorf. An Operation Exodus flight, an operation Post Mortem, and two Cook's Tours flights are also recorded. His pilots on his first operations were Flight Lieutenant Croker and Flying Officer Flying Officer Tate.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium
Germany
Great Britain
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Cheshire
England--Leicestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Northamptonshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
Germany--Bamberg
Germany--Saxony
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Scotland--Elgin
Scotland--Moray
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
1945-03-20
1945-03-23
1945-04-08
1945-05-10
1945-06-25
1945-07-02
1945-07-03
1945-07-05
1945-07-12
1669 HCU
20 OTU
227 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Cook’s tour
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operational Training Unit
pilot
RAF Acaster Malbis
RAF Balderton
RAF Bruntingthorpe
RAF Clyffe Pypard
RAF Dalcross
RAF Graveley
RAF Langar
RAF Little Staughton
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Strubby
RAF Syerston
RAF Sywell
RAF Wilmslow
RAF Wyton
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1939/37264/BBarryCGBarryCGv1.1.pdf
3ad447a1e9fa6577251414f6e7674dec
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Field, Peter L and Cynthia G
Peter L Field
P L Field
Cynthia G Field
C G Field
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-09-19
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Field, PL-CG
Description
An account of the resource
144 items and five photograph albums in sub-collections. The collection concerns Peter L and Cynthia G Field and contains memoirs, correspondence, photographs. Peter Field (b. 1920) served as a wireless operator and Cynthia (b. 1921) served as a WAAF in 2 Group. <br /><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2137">Album One</a> Photographs of various people.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2138">Album Two</a> Photographs of people and places, postcards.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2141">Album Three</a> Photographs of parents house over the years.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2144">Album Four</a> Photographs of family events, places and people.<br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2146">Album Five</a> <span>Photographs of wartime colleagues, Cook's tour aerial photographs of bomb damaged German cities, and family and friends as well as two letters home.</span><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Susan Elizabeth Field and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A memoir of life in the WAAF during the war
Description
An account of the resource
Starts with description of feelings and actions beginning of the war. Mother had tried to persuade her to join land army and mentions brief experience and unsuitability for farming. Decided to join the RAF. Details enlistment and initial training with description of training, facilities and food at West Drayton. Continues with telephonist training at Worcester and subsequent posting to 11 Group at RAF Uxbridge. Describes Uxbridge: accommodation, food, work, manning switchboard and working conditions. Continues with detailed description of actions during Battle of Britain. Goes on with description of bombing of London and living through raids to London and local area. Gives detailed description of living accommodation, colleague, room mate and activities. Mentions tying for commission, turning down re-mustering as wireless operator. Continues with posting to Biggin Hill and describes unit and work. Subsequently sent o HQ 2 Group at RAF Huntingdon. Describes location, work, people and activities at new location. Mentions promotions to corporal and sergeant. Gives detailed description of off-duty activities and entertainment. Continues with very detailed description of her work and activities of Bomber Command and the group including Mosquito operations, friends and colleagues. Mentions thousand bomber raid against Cologne and other highlights. Continues with account of the rest of her time at 2 Group and subsequent move to Norfolk. Finally in early 1944 posted to RAF Leeming. Describes location, facilities, work and NCO s course at RAF Wilmslow as well as resident squadrons, aircrew and other personnel. Gives account of getting to know a whole crew well who subsequently volunteered for Pathfinders and went missing on operations. Continues with account of time at RAF Leeming and RAF Skipton on Swale. At the end 36 photographs of her father, his army units, her mother, friends, herself, WAAF colleagues, family, family home as well as Ian Hay, her NCO course, WAAFs and airmen at Leeming and some post war photographs of bomb damage in Germany.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Sergeant C G Barry
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1940-08
1941-11
1942-05-30
1942-05-31
1944
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Worcestershire
England--Worcester
England--Middlesex
England--Kent
England--Huntingdonshire
England--Huntingdon
England--Yorkshire
England--Cheshire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Fighter Command
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Seventy-six page printed document with text and thirty-six b/w photographs
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Allocated
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BBarryCGBarryCGv1
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
105 Squadron
139 Squadron
2 Group
427 Squadron
429 Squadron
bombing
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
ground personnel
Halifax
Lancaster
military living conditions
military service conditions
Mosquito
RAF Biggin Hill
RAF Leeming
RAF Skipton on Swale
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Wilmslow
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1058/18690/LPackhamG1214349v1.1.jpg
b15c3d4aa225bb719740649340d90bbd
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Packham, Geoff
G Packham
Description
An account of the resource
Nine items. An oral history interview with Pilot Officer Geoff Packham (b. 1922, 161076, 1214349 Royal Air Force), photographs and documents. He flew operations as a pilot with 550 Squadron from RAF North Killingholme and became a prisoner of war after being shot down in June 1944.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Geoff Packham and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-08-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Packham, G
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
RECORD OF SERVICE
UNIT DATES FROM TO
[Unit] REC. CENTRE CARDINGTON [From] 18.1.41 [To] 20.1.41
[Unit] BRIDGNORTH [From] 21.1.41 [To] 4.3.41
[Unit] ACKLINGTON [From] 4.3.41 [To] 31.5.41
[Unit] BABBACOMBE [From] 31.5.41 [To] 14.6.41
[Unit] TORQUAY. 3. I.T.W [From] 14.6.41 [To] 1.8.41
[Unit] WILMSLOW [From] 1.8.41 [To] 20.8.41
[Unit] 31 E.F.T.S. CALGARY [From] 20.8.41 [To] 16.10.41
[Unit] 31 E.F.T.S. DE WINTON [From] 16.10.41 [To] 24.10.41
[Unit] 34 S.F.T.S MEDICINE HAT [From] 24.10.41 [To] 30.1.42
[Unit] NO 1 "Y" DEPÔT. HALIFAX . [From] 10.2.42 [To] 28.2.42
[Unit] BOURNEMOUTH. 3 PRC. [From] 10.3.42 [To] 25.4.42
[Unit] HARROGATE. 3 PRC. [From] 25.4.42 [To] 4.5.42
[Unit] 12 AF.U. GRANTHAM. [From] 4.5.42 [To] 29.6.42
[Unit] [deleted] 297 Squadron. [/deleted] AFU HURN [From] 30/.6/42 [To] 7/8/42
[Unit] HGCU. Brize Norton [From] 7/8/42 [To] 12/8/42
[Unit] LONG NEWTON. GLOS. [From] 12/8/42 [To] 20/9/42
[Unit] HGCU. BRIZE NORTON [From] 21/9/42 [To] 13.10.42
[Unit] C.G.S. SUTTON BRIDGE [From] 13.10.42 [To] 31.10.42
[Unit] 7 AG.S. STORMY DOWN. S.WALES [From] 1/11/42 [To] 20/11/43
[Unit] 18 O.T.U. FINNINGLEY [From] 23/11/43 [To] 26/12/43.
[Unit] RAF. WORKSOP. [From] 26/12/43 [To] 29/3/44.
[Unit] RAF. LINDHOLME. [From] 29/3/44 [To] 8/4/44
[Unit] 1667 CON. SANDTOFT. [From] 8/4/44 [To] 13/5/44
[Unit] L.F.S. RAF. HEMSWELL [From] 13/5/44 [To] 24/5/44
[Unit] 550 Squadron. Killingholme [From] 24/5/44
[Unit] No 61 RESERVE CENTRE DONCASTER [From] 29/10/51
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geoff Packham's Record of Service
Description
An account of the resource
A list, taken from Geoff's logbook, of RAF stations where he served or was trained.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Geoff Packham
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One printed sheet with handwritten annotations
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LPackhamG1214349v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Acklington
England--Torquay
Canada
Alberta--Calgary
Alberta--De Winton
Alberta--Medicine Hat
England--Halifax
England--Grantham
England--Doncaster
Alberta
England--Devon
England--Northumberland
England--Yorkshire
England--Lincolnshire
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Angela Gaffney
1667 HCU
18 OTU
550 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
Air Gunnery School
Flying Training School
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster Finishing School
Operational Training Unit
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Brize Norton
RAF Cardington
RAF Finningley
RAF Hemswell
RAF Hurn
RAF Lindholme
RAF North Killingholme
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Stormy Down
RAF Sutton Bridge
RAF Torquay
RAF Wilmslow
RAF Worksop
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/148/1576/AHaighG150902.1.mp3
4279994cd0836781eab4bc56fe8c1e90
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Haigh, George
G Haigh
Description
An account of the resource
12 items. The collections covers the career of Sergeant George Haigh (1915 - 2019) in the Royal Air Force. It consists of 11 group photographs including two official ones taken at the School of Physical Training in March 1942 and September 1944, and one oral history interview. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by George Haigh and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-09-02
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Haig, G
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: I’m here today, my name is Chris Brockbank and I’m here today with George Haigh accompanied by his daughter Rosemary Herrine and also his grandson Josh and we’re going to talk about his life on the ground in the RAF because he trained people many of whom worked on the ground but many worked in the air, flew in the air and we’re in Middleton Cheney and it Is the 2nd of September 2015. So George could you start please by telling me how you started as a youth, a bit about your family and then what you’ve done in your life, please.
GH: Yeah. Well I was born in Reddish in what is now Greater Manchester and I was there, I lived there until I was about eight years old and then from there my father got a job in Stockport and I went to Stockport and lived in Stockport for quite a number of years. Went to school there, a church school and, and then at fourteen had to get out and do, do some work as you had to do in those days and at fourteen I went to a dyeing and bleaching firm and then lived in, in Stockport at a, at a Working Men’s Club and, from eight years old until I was twenty, twenty three and during that time I went into professional football and signed for Stockport County which I did for three seasons prior to the war and then when war broke out all contracts were cancelled for professional footballers so I was back on the streets. The football wages in those days was ten pound a week and two pound for a draw, two pound for a win rather and a pound for a draw and that was your lot as far as, as far as that was concerned and then the first thing I thought of, being physically fit at that period I decided to join the air force and join up as a physical training instructor. Get into physical training instructing. What now?
CB: Ok. We can stop there for a mo.
[Recording paused]
CB: Right. We’re restarting now and just recapping on those early days. So what happened to the family when you were young?
GH: Well, at, at thirteen I, my mother died and the, the Working Men’s Club had to have a steward and a stewardess so when I, when I was growing up I found myself doing all the work when my mother died that she used to do in the club so I was, I was more or less the stewardess until I was about twenty to twenty two. Something like that. So even when I was a professional footballer I was still working in the, in the club. So that was what was happening early on, you know.
CB: Right. Ok.
GH: Yeah.
CB: So after your father retired then you had to move out of the club.
GH: Yeah. Well, when, when I moved out of the club and went to move in with my in-laws, future in-laws and then I got married and managed to get a house, a rented house and then came the time when I was due to go in the forces and I went –
[Phone ringing. Recording paused]
CB: We can go on now. It’s disrupting isn’t it? Do you want to wait a mo?
GH: Yeah. Wait a minute. Yeah.
[Recording paused]
GH: He went out and went into the police force.
CB: That was [Stanley?]. Yeah.
GH: Yeah and he was still in the reserve so that when war broke out they whipped him in to the Grenadiers again.
CB: Oh right.
GH: And he was, yeah, he had a, he was quite intelligent and they whipped him into India and he became a captain in the Indian army and was training Sikhs and Ghurkhas for the remainder of the war
CB: Oh right.
GH: And then they wanted him to stay to, to look after the police in India.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And he asked, he asked me actually what he should do kind of style you know. I said, there was so much trouble going on in India at the time that I told him, I said, ‘Get out.’
CB: Yeah.
GH: ‘And get back in the police.’
CB: Yeah.
GH: And that’s what he did.
CB: Yeah. So when you joined the RAF what happened? So you joined at Warrington. What, could you just take us through –
GH: That’s right.
CB: The process of what happened.
GH: At Warrington and then I went to –
CB: Bridgnorth.
GH: Bridgnorth. Yes. And then from Bridgenorth I was posted to this place in London for, on a PT course. The PT courses was all done at this headquarters of the RAF training in London. As I say I can’t remember the name of the place but we was, we was there during the actual, the actual bombing of London and we, we was training during the day and at night it was down in the shelters and that made it very difficult but I I joined up with a, with a football international, Scottish International, Jock Dodds, and we, we went through the training situation you know. But there was a centre staircase in the barracks there and there were the barrack rooms on either side of this, the staircase and we got a bed right at the very end of this barrack room, halfway up the building. And when we went in the air raid shelter Jock said to me, he said, ‘We’re not having any more of this. I can’t stand it.’ Getting no sleep at all and yet doing the PT course during the day so he said, ‘You stay with me when the, when the thing goes off, if there’s a raid on,’ so he said, ‘We’ll get under the bed.’ So the orderly sergeant that come up the steps would look in the barrack room and see all the beds were empty and just leave it at that. So we never went in the, in the shelters from then on so but it was, it was very difficult to have these air raids over London you know, all the time, you know while we were doing our training. So, and there was, there was only one bomb dropped on the, on the camp and that was a, a landmine. They were dropping land mines at that time and they dropped it on the, on the WAAF course in the, within the camp, you know but being as it was at the time, you know that we weren’t allowed to speak even to one another about what was happening around us you know. So what happened, whether any WAAFs were killed because of that I don’t know. But er –
CB: The landmine came down by parachute and then when it exploded there was a big blast. What was the –
GH: And that was –
CB: Devastation. How bad was the devastation?
GH: Well it was just the WAAF depot.
CB: Oh just that.
GH: We never saw anything.
CB: Oh right.
GH: It was a big camp.
CB: Yeah.
GH: A great big camp
CB: Right.
GH: So it must be well known. I can’t, I don’t know why I can’t remember the name of the place.
CB: Well we’ll pick it up later George.
GH: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
GH: Yeah.
CB: Ok.
GH: That’s fine.
CB: So how long were you there?
GH: I don’t know whether it was four or five weeks. I can’t remember. But the, the training went on there and I remember we went, we had to pair, the pair of us had to go in, in to a trench on the perimeter of the camp and obviously there was other pairs all around the camp during that period and we, it was like four hours on and two hours off or something like that and the two hours off we were right at the side of the, of the PT gymnasium and the, our barracks was right at the other end of the camp so we decided to go into the gymnasium and and sleep there rather than go to the other end of the camp and I remember it, I don’t know, that was when the land mine was dropped but we was on top of the training mats and we, we took all our gear off and helmet and everything and went, went to sleep there and when this bomb dropped the pair of us jumped up and put our helmets on and then fell back, back to sleep again [laughs]. The next day, ‘Why did we do that?’ You know? Absolutely ridiculous but that’s that was one of the incidents during the, during that period in the physical training and then Jock Dobbs was posted to Blackpool and played for Blackpool for the remainder of the war and I was posted to Morecambe. And then the first game I had with Morecambe was a friendly game against Blackpool. So Jock Dodds were playing at centre half, centre forward for Blackpool and I was playing at centre half for Morecambe so we were up against each other like, you know. It was, it was, that was great fun. It was great fun.
CB: So you were sent from London to Morecambe.
GH: Sent from London to Morecambe. Yes.
CB: And what was your job there?
GH: Well when I got to Morecambe I didn’t realised that we’d got to do the foot training and the rifle training and do everything. All the training that had to be done and I hadn’t had the training for any of this but eventually I read up about everything, you know and eventually got into it and did the job for two and a half years. So it was quite, quite an experience really.
CB: What sort of people were coming in as recruits at that time?
GH: Well they were very mixed. Very mixed. And being in Morecambe they were in, in billets like hotels and boarding houses and that sort of thing. That’s where they were billeted.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And they had a billeting officer. A warrant officer. Warrant Officer Smith. Yeah. And they used to come in on the train. A train load of them you know and he used to split them up into, into thirties and send them off with their instructor and, and, and give them the information as to where they were going to be billeted within Morecambe and sometimes you got, they were able to get into a hotel or a boarding house that was big enough to take the whole thirty. Other than that they used to split them up into, into different billets but you had to have a system of parading outside these billets every morning at a certain time and, and then to take them off to, to the syllabus that was going on. The only thing was as far as PT was concerned I had an hour PT every day to the recruits but other than that it was for other purposes you know. Foot drill first and then later on it got to rifle drill and then to being able to deal with, with your gun. Being able to strip it down and put it back together and all that business and we went, they did five weeks training before they were sent off, posted to wherever they were supposed to be going. And then when the, it was a five weeks course and then later the, it went down to, when they needed more men it went down to four weeks and it finished up three weeks. We’d got to fit the whole training of three weeks, of five weeks training into three weeks and that was a terrible time but it only went on for a couple of courses, you know. A couple of three weeks and then it went back to four and then back to five again and then eventually back to when they don’t want any more.
CB: But how well did the recruits handle the shorter course at three weeks?
GH: Oh it was, it was very difficult for them you know because the, the timing you know. I mean, say you hadn’t got time to do anything. You’d no time to go and have a cup of coffee and a, a coffee and a bun kind of style you know which we was able to do in the five week system you know. We had to just keep working all the time. It was very difficult. Difficult for the instructor. Very difficult for the recruit.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And there was one, I remember the first lot of recruits that came in. I’ve got a picture of them now and they, they’d run out of forage caps [laughs]. They had no forage caps so they had to put their scarf inside out on, on the head you know and that was how they was being trained. The first lot, you know. But that was only one incident that that happened during the, during the training.
CB: And how was everybody fed? Did they have big mess halls?
GH: No. No. They were fed. The people where they were staying fed them. They had the, they had their breakfast in the morning and, and the meal, meal at night and I think they, they were allowed to go in a café or something like that and buy the, the lunch. It was a real, real mixed, mixed effort but it, it worked quite well really.
CB: So your specialty really was physical education.
GH: That’s right. Yeah.
CB: How, physical training, how well did they stand up to that?
GH: Well it was, some of them were, it was very hard. Occasionally you’d have a crew of thirty men to train and they were very difficult but then again you’d get occasional cases where you’d get one that was in the squad that belonged to a military family and you was able to pick, pick one out and make them the senior man kind of style for the, for the squad. That made it a lot easier but generally speaking you know you’ve got to, you’ve got to work very hard in the early stages and you could tell, the recruits, in the early stages, they hated your guts. They hated the instructor you know but towards the end they used to be coming up to you and thanking, thanking me you know for, for what I’d done for them you know. So, yes, it was a very, very good system really.
CB: So what was it that made the PT so difficult for them?
GH: Well, I don’t think they’d had, they’d, some of them hadn’t had any training at all. They were just raw as far as physical training was concerned. Biggest majority of them was absolutely raw.
CB: Yeah. So they were, they’d come straight from school to you.
GH: Well some –
CB: Well not necessarily.
GH: Some of them had come straight from school you know.
CB: Yeah.
GH: But a lot of them had come from working and working families.
CB: Yeah.
GH: You know.
CB: Because the school leaving age in those day was fourteen.
GH: Fourteen. That’s right.
CB: So they’d, most of them would have had jobs unless they’d gone to further education. Is that right?
GH: That’s right. They’d have, they’d have a job for a short while and then and then they’d be whipped into the, into the forces you know.
CB: Yeah. So when they’d finished with you did they know what they were going to do as a trade in the RAF?
GH: They knew what they were going in to and they knew that when the training had finished that that’s where they’d go. They’d go to different camps around the country doing different things to –
CB: Right.
GH: Mechanics. Mechanics were –
CB: How many were air crew that you trained?
GH: Oh I can’t remember.
CB: But there were people who became, were becoming –
GH: There were, there were quite a number that became aircrew you know.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And I look, look back at some of the photographs that I’ve got of the recruits you know and wonder where, where, where they got to you know and –
CB: Yeah.
GH: And whether they survived really because I reckoned a lot of them went as rear gunners and that sort of thing you know.
CB: And did the air crew people stand out in the training any more from the others?
GH: No. No. They were all more or less the same and they all mucked in really you know and, and most of them you know especially towards the end of the training they were very much together in, in the thirty, thirty men kind of style. They were a team and helped each other you know.
CB: Yeah.
GH: They were very very good.
CB: Yeah. So you did that for how long?
GH: Well for the two and a half a years I was at Morecambe. Or the two years I was at Morecambe and then the half year that I was there was when they’d had enough RAF recruits and they went to change over to the WAAF and they asked me to go over to stay with the WAAF you know and train the WAAF and I wasn’t liking it at all. I I fought against it quite a lot but there were two other professional footballers at Morecambe with me who, who had moved over to the WAAF depot and it was then them that decided me to, to have a go at it you know and then I found out when I started training then that they were far easier to train than the men were.
CB: Why was that?
GH: I don’t know.
CB: What was, what was it that made it difficult for you to start training them?
GH: Well they trained.
CB: In the first place.
GH: They weren’t, they weren’t fit for one thing. They’d had no, the biggest majority of them never had any physical training.
CB: Not even at school.
GH: And, and then the, I found that the WAAF, when I was training the WAAF, they were, they were more supple than the men were and that made it far easier to train them and I got on well with the, with the WAAF after a time when I got, got over the shock.
CB: What was your wife’s reaction to that?
GH: No. She wasn’t very happy I can tell you although she did, she did come and we lived out for quite a while in Morecambe. My wife got herself a job with some insurance people who had moved out of London in to, in to Morecambe and she was working as a secretary there for quite a while.
CB: And what was the syllabus for the WAAFs? Was it the same as for the ground, the men?
GH: Very similar. Very similar yeah.
CB: Even with the rifles?
GH: Actually, no rifle. No. It was just the, and we didn’t bother with the foot drill. They had their own instructors. The WAAF, the WAAF had their own PT instructors but they needed a man when the, was training in bulk. They hadn’t got the voice to do the training in bulk so they always, they always called on the RAF PTI to do the training in bulk.
CB: So when, here you as a PTI as a specialty.
GH: Yeah.
CB: What were, was the process you went through in training them? What exercises effectively did they do?
GH: Well there was only the exercises. I don’t, I don’t realise really what they were really you know it was just a matter of running on the spot, arm movements, body movements and that sort of thing.
CB: Circuit training? Did you do circuit training with them? So you go around the gym doing different tasks.
GH: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, they had quite a, quite a system and they had a series of games and they topped up the score of each team in each section. It was quite a difficult system, you know.
CB: And did you use wall bars and dumbbells?
GH: That’s right. Yeah.
CB: Press ups.
GH: Dumbbells. Yeah.
CB: All those things.
GH: Wall bars, dumbbells, the horse.
CB: Oh yeah. So jumping the horse.
GH: Jumping the horse.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And that sort of thing within the gym you know. Morecambe we took over a cinema actually to, as a gymnasium. The Alhambra Cinema. [laughs] Took all the seats out and we used it as a gymnasium.
CB: Yeah. So in the winter what was the temperature like?
GH: Terrible. Terrible. At Morecambe especially you know. It was, it was very bleak there you know and there was one, one or two incidents you know when the sea was so rough and coming over on to the Promenade that we couldn’t do any training. You look along the Promenade at Morecambe during the training and you wouldn’t see anything but blue uniforms, you know. Training somewhere or other. Marching. It was, it looked to an outsider a complete mess but it was very very well controlled. Very well.
CB: So after they’d finished their five week course what did they get for PT? Did they get some kind of certificate to show –?
GH: No. No. No. No. They just, they’d been trained and that was that. Just sent off to the next stage of their training. They went, they went on to the, on to the station and on to the train and was taken wherever they were needed to go.
CB: So you trained men mainly but six months were women. The WAAFs.
GH: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Where did you go from Morecambe?
GH: To Wilmslow.
CB: And what did you do there?
GH: RAF Wilmslow. I was training recruits, WAAF recruits, in the same way that I’d been training them at Morecambe.
CB: Right. So that was -
GH: Just, just for mass purposes you know.
CB: Yeah.
GH: They had their own NCO’s you know to deal with them as a squad at a time you know.
CB: Did you also do drill when they were all together?
GH: When they were all together we did drill.
CB: Yeah.
GH: Passing out, passing out parades and that sort of thing.
CB: Right.
GH: Yeah.
CB: So how long were you at Wilmslow?
GH: I was at Wilmslow about two and a half years there.
CB: Ok. And –
GH: And we were right at the side of Ringway at the time and Ringway was one of the main parachute instructor where the parachute, the army was, was being trained there and they had RAF instructors there then at that time.
CB: So when did you get into training parachutists?
GH: Well it was only a short period when, while I was at Wilmslow. I had the opportunity to go across to Ringway and do this training.
CB: So you did the parachute instructor’s course did you?
GH: That’s right. Yeah.
CB: And then what?
GH: Well I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t continue with it you know. I went back to the WAAF depot and –
CB: Right.
GH: Training the WAAF.
CB: Yes. Any incidents in the parachute training that are –?
GH: Yeah. There was, there was one incident there where Molotov was, came over from Russia to see what, what was happening with the, with the parachutists, you know, to take back to Russia. To find out, you know, to deal with the parachute training in Russia. I remember Molotov being there and it was a, the wind was far too fast for, for real flying for the training so there was a half a dozen instructors went up and the, I remember that the pilots weren’t, weren’t going to take them up. They said it’s you know, the wind’s too, too strong for it and anyway the CO said Molotov was there and this had got to be done. But I remember what, what happened to Bert Wooding, I think, was the first one out and they were extending at Ringway, expanding the runway and he was, he was the first one out. We didn’t do the drops at Ringway. We did them at Tatton Park but because Molotov was there it all had got to be done at, at Ringway. So I remember Bert Wooding was the first one out with the drop and he landed on the edge of this where they were building the runway and he broke both his ankles. And then there was another one. There was a warrant officer. An Irish, an Irish guy. I forget his name now but he broke his back during that fall. So it was, it was a dangerous thing to have happened, you know.
CB: Yeah.
GH: Just because Molotov was there.
CB: Yeah.
GH: That was the only incident I remember.
CB: So for the parachute training some of it was from flying aeroplanes. Some of it was from balloons was it?
GH: Yes. You went, you did the training in the gym first, you know. Jumping off the horses and that sort of thing, you know and then you went on, eventually went up on the balloon you know and did the jumps from the balloon. And then, and then they went, and the early ones was in the old Whitley.
CB: Bomber.
GH: Bomber with the hole, hole in the bottom and that’s how they did the jumps first and then of course they get the, managed to get the Dakotas then you know and that was entirely different situation you know.
CB: So in the aircraft they had a static line that was attached –
GH: That’s right.
CB: To a rail.
GH: Used to just stick the ring on the rail you know and they’d all be in a line ready you know and the RAF instructor, you know was at the entrance, and, and the, when it came to the actual jump at Tatton Park they used to get them moving you know. And I remember one of them said to me, you know, that he, he’d had one that chickened out you know and he had to send him to the back of the plane you know to take his ring off and take him to the back of the plane while, while he finished the jump, you know.
CB: And then clipped him on again.
GH: And then clipped him on and pushed him out [laughs]. Yeah. It was very interesting for some of them you know.
CB: What experience or knowledge did you have ‘cause this is early in training so it’s less likely, people with LMF which was the people who were a bit worried about what was going on. Lacking moral fibre.
GH: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Did you experience any of that?
GH: No. No.
CB: See any I mean?
GH: No. The only, the only bad do that I had of that was at Wilmslow. At Morecambe rather when they were in the gas chambers training them with the gas masks training and he, there was one in during my instance there and he came running out on to the main road and was off down the main road. I was a sergeant at the time and I got the corporal to go and fetch him back you know but he had claustrophobia of course. Couldn’t stand the, it was only like a hut, probably about as big as this room and you packed probably about a whole thirty into this, you know and put the masks on and got the smell of the stuff you know and, and then take the masks off and then and then bring in another, another thirty kind of style, you know. But there was only that one incident that I ever knew, you know that –
CB: Ok. Just clarifying that. So they start off with the mask on.
GH: Yeah.
CB: With oxygen.
GH: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Then the mask is taken off.
GH: That’s right. To get –
CB: But there’s smoke –
GH: That was to get –
CB: In the shed.
GH: Yeah.
CB: Ok. And it’s just smoke is it?
GH: Yeah. That’s right. It’s when, when it, the whole thing had settled like you know. There was no danger, no danger to them at all.
CB: No.
GH: But they just, they just got the smell of it before –
CB: Yeah.
GH: Before it was –
CB: Yeah. And how long did they have to have the mask off?
GH: Oh I can’t remember.
CB: Before they put it on again.
GH: I can’t remember [laughs].
CB: Right. Ok.
GH: I can’t remember.
GH: Good.
CB: They had, they had an instructor within the hut, you know.
GH: Yes.
CB: We weren’t. We just took them there and pushed them in the hut kind of style and told them what was going to happen you know and there was an instructor inside there you know to, to deal with all that business.
GH: And throughout the war did everybody carry a gas mask?
CB: Yes. They always had to have their gas mask with them.
GH: Yeah. Ok. We’ll pause there for a mo.
CB: Yeah.
[Recording paused]
GH: The welterweight champion of the world.
CB: So if you could just, I gather that you -
GH: He was the one who –
CB: Met some important people.
GH: That was coming in.
CB: Yeah. Ok. And Peter Kane.
GH: Jack. Jack London.
CB: These are boxers.
GH: Jack London, the heavyweight champion.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And quite a number more but I can’t remember the name of them but -
CB: Ok.
GH: As I say I’d got to get, I managed to get one to get against, against Peter Kane and that was Teddy O’Neill, Scottish bantamweight champion. I got, I got him to fight –
CB: This was a boxing match.
GH: Peter Kane.
CB: Yes.
GH: Yeah and he eventually beat him too. It was only like a three, three round effort like of course to have.
CB: Right.
GH: You know.
CB: These are people from another camp you’re talking about.
GH: From another camp yeah.
CB: Yeah. So there was competition between the camps.
GH: And the top brass for instance were in the front seats around the ring you know and, and I remember Teddy O’Neill knocked Peter Kane out in, in the second round and he finished up in the CO’s lap. [laughs] Oh dear me. Yeah. All good fun.
CB: So the CO was a bit surprised.
GH: He was a bit surprised. Yeah. [laughs]
CB: Yeah. And what about other famous people? In the, when you were doing square bashing.
GH: No. I don’t.
CB: Churchill’s daughter.
GH: Churchill’s daughter. That was the only one that I remember but I often, I often wonder you see whether, I’ve got recruit’s photographs of nearly all the squads that I trained in that, in that box you know and I I will look at them from time to time and think, you know, what happened to him? You know. What happened to him? You know.
CB: Did you ever follow up with anybody?
GH: No. No I didn’t. No.
CB: Right. So you’ve idea what happened to them?
GH: I’ve no idea what happened to any of them but –
CB: Ok. We’ll stop there again.
GH: Yes.
[recording paused]
GH: And I it turned out that there was a goal keeper playing for the prisoner of war. It turned out to be Bert Trautmann and he turned out to be the goal keeper for Manchester City after the war and he played for Manchester City for more or less all his life, you know. All his footballing life.
CB: This was the prisoner of war camp. Where was that?
GH: That was outside Wilmslow somewhere. I don’t know. Altrincham or somewhere very close. I can’t remember exactly where but it was in that area and as I say, you know the, the mostly there was the wardens were playing but, but they had one or two of the prisoners that were any good like, you know would play in the team and Bert Trautmann was one of them. I always remember him very well.
CB: Right.
GH: Because I met him later in the football, in the football when he was at Manchester City and we had chat about it, you know when he, while he was there, a prisoner of war.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
GH: Yeah.
CB: Good. Thank you.
[Recording paused]
CB: So we’re talking about Jack Brymer.
GH: He was at Morecambe actually.
CB: Jack Brymer was.
GH: Jack Brymer was. Yeah.
CB: And what was he?
GH: He was a clarionetist with the London Philharmonic or something like that, I think. And yeah, he –
CB: He was on one of your courses.
GH: No. He was, he was stationed in Morecambe with me, you know and I I started the Morecambe and Heysham Rhythm Club and we used to meet in the, on Central Pier every Sunday morning and there was always a lot of musicians coming into Morecambe playing and they always used to come there and Jack Brymer was one of the leaders of, for me anyway, you know of running things in the Morecambe and Heysham Rhythm Club. I don’t know whether it’s still going or not. [laughs]
CB: So how did they keep or you keep the recruits entertained outside training hours?
GH: Well that was one thing you know but there was always somebody doing something or other you know. You know. Running, running a dance, dance something like that you know. A ball, running a ball or something you know and yeah there was always something going on at Morecambe you know because there was, I think there was two or three theatres there.
CB: Yeah.
GH: Where these entertainers used to come to entertain the troops.
CB: But at Altrincham that was all WAAFs and it wasn’t a seaside place. So –
GH: No. No. That was –
CB: What did they do for entertainment there?
GH: No idea really. I left, I didn’t interfere with, with the WAAF after, after training. My wife was living out as well you know.
CB: Right.
GH: I had my own things to deal with you know.
CB: I was thinking -
GH: In the evenings.
CB: I was thinking of some band or orchestra or whatever.
CB: Yeah. Well –
GB: You talked about to entertain them.
GH: There was, there was one that was stationed at Wilmslow for a time and that was a couple of RAF who played the piano. They both played the same piano. I can’t remember who the name was though but they were very well known and they were playing all over the country really, were those two.
CB: Right. Thank you. We’ll stop for a mo.
[Recording paused]
GH: Morecambe and Wilmslow. When we went on courses and one course we went on to was at Cosford and one of the things that we trained there, or learned to train was the dinghies for aircraft. The fighter, the fighter dinghy, the small one and the large Q-Type big one for the aircrews and we had to learn how, how to deal with them for the, those pilots and crew and the worst one was the Q-Type. The big one.
CB: That took seven.
GH: Yeah. And that was automatically inflamed when they were ditched but quite often it was upside down and we had to train, train the crews to, how to right these dinghies. They’d a loop right in the centre underneath and the, the rope that ran around the outside. You used to get your hand in that rope and the loop and you used to bring it upright and get it to a certain level and then you used to have to twist it and throw it.
CB: Yeah. I remember doing that.
GH: Do you?
CB: Yeah.
GH: Well that’s how we were trained to train the aircrews you know whenever we came across the situation you know. Yeah. I remember that well.
CB: We’re now stopping for coffee.
GH: Right.
[recording paused]
CB: And tea.
GH: Yeah. There was -
JH: Do you take milk and sugar yeah.
CB: Just one.
GH: They used to train you how to get them out of the water and how to be able to push them under and then lift them out to get them back into the dinghies and we were doing this in the swimming pool at Cosford and there was one of the officers there in, in, full, full dress. He was going out somewhere and he thought he’d have a bit of a laugh with me like, you know. Get me to the side like, you know and dip me under and keep me under longer that he should have done kind of style, you know. Laughing all the time with the instructors as well like, you know. The instructor’s didn’t like it of course ‘cause I was an instructor of course and I came, came out you know and I, I was so bloody blazing mad like you know that I skimmed the water you know right at him on the side of the pool and in full regalia like, he was absolutely soaked from that. The, the officer couldn’t do anything about it. He’d asked for it and got it kind of style so anyway he had to go back to the billet and change. He was going to meet the CO or something. [laughs] Oh yes that’s one of the funny incidents that happened. When they’d finished the training and we –
CB: In Morecambe?
GH: In Morecambe yeah and we got the squad there to take them to the station to, to away, to take them away to where ever they were going to go and whatever courses they were going to go on and there was one, one lad there. He was a bit, he was an only, an only boy and he was, he was a money man I think you know, of the, of the family.
[Telephone ringtone in background]
GH: You carry on. He was the, the mother came with him to the, to the training and she used to be there at the side like, you know with a fur coat on like you know and seeing how her boy, boy, her only boy was doing kind of style and this, this went on for five weeks like, you know and I couldn’t do very much about it you know. She was staying in a hotel in Morecambe looking after and seeing that her boy was alright and fortunately the lads took to him and looked after him kind of style you know and he, he was and he got, he was a damned sight fitter when I’d finished with him of course and when they were marching away and along the Promenade towards the station I noticed that he’d got something on, on his pack. They were in full pack like, you know. Ready, ready to go away and there was a chamber pot on his, on his gear. I said, ‘What the bloody hell have you got there?’ He said, ‘The landlady charged me for it because it was cracked.’ And he said, ‘I wasn’t going to leave it there and get somebody else caught with this trick like, you know, of having to pay for the chamber pot.’ I said, ‘Well bloody well get it rid of it quick.’ He said, ‘What do I do?’ I said, ‘Get over to the sea,’ where the sea was in there. I said, ‘Sling it over the top and into the sea.’ I said, ‘Get back in to, in to line quick.’ I always remember that.
CB: The significance, I think that’s interesting because the significance of that is that we didn’t have the accommodation that you know nowadays.
GH: No. No. That’s right. Yeah.
CB: So what was the accommodation like? How was it set out?
GH: Well the, it was, it was quite good. Most of it was good but occasionally you found a landlady like, you know that was looking after them who was a bit wrong you know but we used to get in touch with Warrant Officer Smith and he used to deal with it. He used to say, ‘Well you either mend your ways, you know or we’ll take you off the list and you don’t get any more recruits.’
CB: So under each bed there was a chamber pot.
GH: There was a chamber pot. Yeah. [laughs] And that, that was in the local billets you know that –
CB: In the hotels.
GH: The landlady -
CB: Yeah.
GH: In the hotels and that –
CB: Yeah.
GH: Sort of thing.
GH: So in the morning people went and emptied their chamber pots.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And washed them out.
CB: That’s right. Yeah. But this, this was cracked you see and the, and this landlady had charged him for it you know so he said, ‘I’m, I’m taking it with me,’ he said, ‘I’m not, nobody else is going to be caught with this.’ Oh aye, I got, I made him chuck the chamber pot over the wall into the sea [laughs].
RH: Killed a few whales.
CB: In Reddish.
GH: When I lived in Reddish, I lived there ‘till I was eight years old and there was no electricity. It was all gas. There was a little gas mantle and we had to be very careful because they were very fragile you know to get them to work and when I was eight years old we went to this club in Stockport and it was electric lights all over the place and of course at eight years old like I was switching them off all over the place. Yeah. [laughs] Having a real good time with them but and also it had been a well-known house. It was a four, four storey property and it would, it were owned by a well-known doctor, surgeon and he had two daughters, I remember and they had, at the side of the fireplaces there was like a lever that went down into the servant’s quarters like, you know, and when they wanted the servants they just rang this damned bell thing you know. It was all hooked up to that you know.
CB: Yeah. Mod cons of the day.
GH: And the, and the electricity, you know that was, that was something else. At eight years old I thought oh dear me.
CB: So in Reddish -
GH: No gas lights to bother about like. Switch the light on and off.
CB: Yeah. In Reddish what were the heating arrangements?
GH: The heating. Nil. Absolutely nil.
CB: Open fires.
GH: You had a fire, an open fire. Yeah. That was the only heating you had.
CB: And the toilet and washing?
GH: Well the toilet was outside in the, in the shed outside.
CB: Was it a flush toilet or a thunder box?
GH: No. It was a thunder box. [laughs] And er –
CB: Which meant that a horse and cart came around regularly and –
GH: That’s right. Yeah.
CB: And then they –
GH: Dealt with it. You know.
CB: Then the thing was tipped in -
GH: Yeah.
CB: To the cart and put back again.
GH: That’s right. And I remember the doctors for instance you know. I remember my mother paying a penny a week. Hospital fund as she called it. A penny a week you paid. But we had, we had a family doctor that used to come around and deal with things and I suppose he got paid with this penny a week thing you know.
CB: Yeah. Well the NHS didn’t start until 1948.
GH: No, that’s right. Yeah. This was from 1915 to when I was eight. It would be thirteen, 1913 when I left Reddish.
[Recording paused]
CB: Just tell us a bit about “walls have ears” George.
GH: Well you weren’t, you weren’t allowed to talk about anything appertaining to the, to the war. Like where I was you know, in London. These bombs that dropped on the camp where I was. We weren’t allowed to talk about it at all so I never found out what happened to these people that were bombed on the camp. I know it wasn’t me that was bombed but it was on the WAAF depot but there must have been some casualties within that WAAF camp you know to, to have happened to them. Fatal happenings.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And you just, you just weren’t allowed to talk about these things.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And that stuck a lot after the war and that’s why the serviceman didn’t talk to their children or their wife about what happened because that’s how they’d been brought up. Just keep your mouth shut. Walls have ears. [laughs]
CB: Now bearing in mind that aircrew went on operations, normally thirty and then did something else did you get any people who were effectively being rested coming to help out on your training?
GH: No. No. No. I never came across anybody but I remember taking, the recruits sometimes had to be taken in batches to wherever they were going and I remember I had to take about twelve recruits and that meant that a sergeant had to go with them as well as a corporal and we went to a, a big air force place on the east coast of Scotland. Can you think of anywhere there?
CB: Montrose there was one.
GH: No. No.
CB: No.
GH: No. It wasn’t there. And there was a single track railway there and I remember we got –
CB: Leuchars. Leuchars was it?
GH: No.
CB: Ok.
GH: It’s still going. The air force -
CB: Oh Kinloss.
GH: Kinloss.
CB: Yeah.
GH: That’s the one. And they had a single line railway there and we’re off the train and we handed them over to one of these guys with a truck like to take them to the camp and I managed to get him to sign the docket that I had for, for these recruits. Otherwise I would have to wait for the next day to catch a train back. It was a train due to go back and unless we got rid of these recruits to this driver and get him to sign, sign the docket for them you know I’d have to stay the night. And what they used to do when you were taking recruits like that it was when your leave was starting so it was part of your leave that, you know, as far as I was concerned.
CB: Yeah.
GH: So I thought no I’m getting rid of this lot, so anyway I got, I got him to sign the docket for them you know. He said, ‘I’ll get, I’ll get, I’ll get in trouble when I get back,’ he said. In my mind I said, ‘I’ve got to get back to, back home.’ I said, ‘I’m on leave now.’
CB: What rank was he?
GH: He was an LAC.
CB: Right. And that was quite a long journey then.
GH: LAC driver.
CB: Yeah. Leading Air Craft man.
GH: Oh yeah. It was, it was a long way that you know and -
CB: What provisions –
GH: And I’d got to get back to Stockport.
CB: Yeah.
GH: To start my leave.
CB: Yeah. So what provisions did they give you on the, like, the recruits for that journey?
GH: Did you say it was Lossiemouth?
CB: No. Well it could be Lossiemouth. Yeah.
GH: Lossiemouth.
CB: Ok. Well it’s close.
GH: Lossiemouth. It was. Yeah.
CB: Is not far from Kinloss.
GH: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
GH: Lossiemouth.
CB: Right.
GH: That was where we were.
CB: Yeah.
GH: They’re still active aren’t they?
CB: They are. Yeah.
GH: Yeah.
CB: So what provisions were they given for the journey because it was a long trip?
GH: Well, they had, they had a pack, a food pack made up for them you know but on the camp you know.
CB: Yeah.
GH: And you always –
CB: What would that be?
GH: You always got something enroute you know at a station. You know, where they could get a cup of tea and a bun.
CB: Because you had to change trains.
GH: You changed trains yeah. Yeah.
CB: How long did that journey take, roughly?
GH: I don’t know. About I think it was about six hours or something like that I think.
CB: And when they got to Lossiemouth what were they going to do? Was that where they were to be stationed?
GH: That’s where they were going to be stationed but what they was going to be doing there I just don’t know. I don’t know what the individual was going to do. Whether they were going to be pilots or gunners or whatever I don’t know. Flight mechanics or whatever.
CB: Because at that point -
GH: I don’t know.
CB: They wouldn’t have any trade would they?
GH: No. No. No.
CB: Right.
GH: No they would be just fit [laughs]. As best I could get them anyway.
CB: Amazing. And they were all be good at football after you were doing it.
GH: Oh yeah football was, yeah, I loved that. You see Morecambe had a, we had a team of professional footballers from somewhere or other. Arthur Chester, the goal keeper, he came from Queen’s Palace. He played for Queen’s Palace and QPR and Bill [Byrom?] he played for Blackburn. Arthur Lancaster He was another goalkeeper. He played for Huddersfield. Oh we had, goalkeepers we were alright. We had three, three professional goalkeepers. [laughs]
CB: Completely blocked the goal.
GH: That’s right. Yeah. But we were only, only playing one of course but yes we, and we won quite a lot of trophies during that period with Morecambe, you know. Yeah.
CB: So just going then to Wilmslow. When you finished there was that because of the end of the war or you were posted somewhere different.
GH: No. I was, I left the air force in, it would be ‘45 I think.
CB: What time of the year?
GH: I can’t remember.
CB: And where did you go from there?
GH: I went to Lancaster. I, that was when I had to get myself a job. Being about twenty nine, thirty at the time. I had to get myself a trade. Lancaster City came and wanted to sign me for their team and I said, ‘Well I’ll sign for you if you get, give me a trade,’ so that’s when I went in to engineering and I finished up in engineering all my life.
CB: What type of engineering?
GH: Well it was a craft really. It was metal spinning. We used to spin parts for aircraft and all that sort of thing, you know. Spin, spin on a lathe, you know, Used to give you a block of wood and, and a drawing for what, what you were going to shape it to and then you’d put it on, on the lathe, get it drilled and on the lathe, turn it to the shape that was necessary and then spin it. Spin metal on to that to give you a shape and that’s, that’s what I did for the rest of my life but when I finished when I was sixty five they were starting, they were starting to finish with the spinning and they were doing nearly everything by press. By pressing. They increased the method of dealing with these things. They used to make a press and they used to press it. Everything was pressed and did away with the metal spinning then so I got out at the right time you know when I retired.
CB: So you went to Lancaster City.
GH: That’s right.
CB: And you played with them for how long?
GH: I played for them just for one season and then there was another team of, that came to me you know to play for them and I became an FA coach. I went on an FA coaching course and I became a coach and I became a coach and manager of this team, non-league team. In the same league as what Lancaster City was. So –
CB: Which one was that?
GH: I was with them for three years.
RH: Rossendale
GH: Rossendale. Rossendale United.
[paused
GH: And they –
CB: And you –
GH: Had quite a good team but I got out of it for one reason and that was because money was beginning to talk in the game and I was getting players that I knew to come to play for Rossendale and the directors said, ‘Oh we can’t afford him. Too much. He needs too much money,’ and I wasn’t able to get the players that I needed at the time because they hadn’t got sufficient money so that was that.
CB: So how long did you actually continue as a coach and manager?
GH: About three years. That was, I think I was thirty three -
CB: Because you were juggling -
GH: By that time.
CB: Two things weren’t you? You were -
GH: Oh yeah.
CB: Juggling the sport.
GH: That’s right.
CB: And the trade.
GH: That’s right. And I found that I could, I could make a living, a better living by playing part time football and and working as an engineer so that I got two wages coming in then you know and that, that was well worthwhile then because the amount of money that was being, you see Rochdale when I was playing for them at the end of the, the war they wanted me to play for them but they, they offered me absolute rubbish as a wage you know and that’s where I realised that I’d got to do something about this after, after playing finished.
CB: When did the children come along? During the war?
GH: No. After the war. My son, my son was born just at the end when I, when I finished in the air force. He was born right at the end.
RH: ‘47/48 I think.
GH: Was it?
RH: Yeah. And I’m –
GH: 1947/48 yeah.
RH: I was ’54.
GH: Yeah
GH: 1954.
GH: Yeah.
RH: Tell them about when you were at the conflict you were telling me the other day about when you were playing for Lancaster and doing your metal spinning at the same time and you had an accident.
GH: Yeah. Oh that’s right. Yeah. The, it was a bit, the engineering was a bit on the dangerous side you know. The metal spinning. You get cuts very very easily you know and there was one, it was, we were working Saturday mornings then and I cut the end of my finger off and I went across this room towards the nurses place, you know, at the other end of this room. I was halfway across and I fainted and that’s the only time I’ve ever fainted in my life and I’d lost so much blood that it must have affected me you know. I was only out for a minute or so like you know and then they, they managed to get me up and take me to the hospital in, in Lancaster to get it seen to and we were playing in a Cup tie that day and I said, ‘Well I can’t, can’t play today.’ ‘Oh we can’t do without you. It’s a Cup tie. You’ll have to. You’ll have to play today.’ And we was, we had to go to a team called Bacup in Lancashire to, to play this Cup tie and and they’d strapped it all up you know and bandaged and everything and I played this Cup tie. I had to go off before half time because the ball had hit this. I tried to keep it out of the way and it all started to bleed again so I was covered in blood and the trainer, trainer took me off like, you know and bandaged it all up again you know. The second half I was pushed out again. [laughs]
CB: Never looked back then.
GH: That was my experience.
RH: I mean the –
[Recording paused]
CB: So we’re just going to get a question from grandson Josh
GH: Yeah.
CB: And see what the reaction is. So Josh what’s the question?
JH: So I want to know if you resent the war at all?
GH: No. I don’t, don’t resent it at all. I think what was, what was done had to be done and I hate to think what would have happened if we didn’t win the war. What would have happened then?
JH: But asides from, you know, the war happened, yeah and you had, you did your bit and that’s very honourable the, the politics involved in it. I mean does that, does that make you angry or –
GH: Well the politics –
JH: I mean just the very, the fact of war and the nature of it.
GH: I never went in to politics at all, you know. I just did what I thought was right and and I thought that the war was right. It needed, it needed to be done and that’s what we did and did it successfully.
CB: What do you say was the general public attitude?
GH: The general public attitude didn’t, the, I don’t think they liked the war. I mean to say you get the Londoners who had been in these raids on London all through the war you can’t expect them to say, ‘Well I enjoyed it.’ They, they, they wouldn’t enjoy it. No way. But I think that it was something that had to be done and the forces, whatever they were, navy, army, air force they’ve all done their job and done a good job and the people today should be very thankful for what happened.
CB: Any more? Ok. Thank you. So we’re now winding up at five to one and many thanks to George, to Josh and to Rosemary. We are in Middleton Cheney having been talking with George Haigh.
[Recording paused]
GH: It was two –
CB: Arriving in Morecambe. Yeah.
GH: Two, two physical training instructors like that posted to Morecambe. There was two of us and I was given the travel warrant so I was in charge kind of style and we went through Stockport. The train pulled up at Stockport on its way to Manchester and then on to Morecambe and I I said to this bloke with me, I said, ‘I’ve got the warrant.’ I said, ‘I’m, I’m going home to see my wife.’ So I got off the train there and went and saw and saw my wife. Got back to the station at midnight kind of style you know and we were going off to Morecambe. We eventually arrived in Morecambe at midnight and they didn’t expect us at that time of course and the, one of the police, SP, he, he took me into the headquarters and it was a hotel that they’d taken over in Morecambe and they’d got cells in the basement for any wrong doers and they said, ‘The only thing we can give you is one of these cells.’ I said, ‘Well how do, how do you go on about when you have an air raid like?’ You know. Because coming from London like you know we thought everybody had the air raids. They said, ‘We never have an air raid here at Morecambe. Never.’ Anyway, we got, got to bed in this, in this, in one of the cells and they were going to billet us next morning and the air raid warning went and it was the only time that Morecambe ever had an air raid warning and I went outside and it were like the illuminations. Everybody put their lights on, you know [laughs]. Morecambe was flooded with lights and we found out like, you know, that this, this plane had obviously got lost and was in its way to [Barrow] and -
CB: Across Morecambe Bay.
GH: Across Morecambe Bay.
CB: Right.
GH: And that was the only raid that Morecambe ever had in their, in their life. [laughs]
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Interview with George Haig
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eng
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Sound
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AHaighG150902
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01:20:27 audio recording
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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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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Chris Brockbank
Description
An account of the resource
George Haigh was already a keen footballer when he volunteered for the Royal Air Force and became a physical training instructor. He was posted to RAF Morecambe where he provided basic training to new recruits. He discusses the mixed level of fitness amongst the recruits and how a five week course was sometimes shortened. He also undertook parachute training. After the war, he continued with his love of football while also working in engineering.
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Royal Air Force
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Pending review
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Great Britain
England--Cheshire
England--Lancashire
Date
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2015-09-02
Contributor
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Julie Williams
ground personnel
physical training
RAF Morecambe
RAF Ringway
RAF Wilmslow
sanitation
sport
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1059/11453/PCuthillMSFH1801.2.jpg
73aefd754011e7d7d9bde2ef9005c1ba
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1059/11453/ACuthillMSFH181213.1.mp3
e8017052cfbfd3a7dd30c02d7e8d9844
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Cuthill, Margaret
Margaret Scott Foster Harper Cuthill
M S F H Cuthill
Description
An account of the resource
10 items. An oral history interview with Leading Aircraftswoman Margaret Cuthill (b. 1926, 2151005 Royal Air Force) (nee Logan), a written memoir, her service and release book and seven photographs. She served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force from May 1944 to October 1947 as a teleprinter operator.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Margaret Cuthill and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2018-12-13
Rights
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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
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Cuthill, MSFH
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
BW: This is Brian Wright interviewing LACW Margaret Cuthill at her home in Ainsdale near Southport at 3.30 on Thursday, 13th December 2018. Margaret, I believe you’ve lived here only for a relatively short period and I’d like to start by asking some basic questions. Can you confirm for me your date of birth please?
MC: The 11 7 ’26.
BW: 11th July 1926.
MC: 1926.
BW: And what is your service number or what was your service number?
MC: It should be here [pause] 2151005.
BW: Thank you. And whereabouts were you from originally? Where were you born?
MC: I was born in Broxburn. Broxburn is near Bathgate. It’s in, it’s near Edinburgh a little way. I’m trying to think of the county. Be east I suppose. Broxburn is the name. What does it say in here? Anything? I shouldn’t think so [pause] No. There’s nothing like that.
BW: You said Roxburn near Bathgate.
MC: Broxburn. B.
BW: Broxburn.
MC: Yeah. Near Bathgate.
BW: And that’s near Edinburgh as you say.
MC: Yes. Well, it’s relatively near you know but I don’t know how near.
BW: Ok. And apart from your mum and dad how many other people were there in your family? Did you have any brothers and sisters?
MC: Complete I’ve one brother. One sister. But there’s quite a gap. There’s ten years between my brother and me and sixteen years between my sister and me so —
BW: So you were right — you were the middle child are you? From those three.
MC: No. I was the eldest. So, we didn’t really grow up sort of as a family. Rather a gap. But life. My father was, my father worked on the farm in his early, in the early years until I was about twelve and then he went in to the shale mine. And then on to coal mine. Meantime I’m nearly just leaving at school at fourteen and I, I was interested in wanting to become nursing but that couldn’t happen. So I was in a, working in a shop for some time.
BW: What —
MC: And then when I was about sixteen, seventeen [pause] no sixteen, I moved from home in to a doctor’s house to care for the children and help with other things. And from there when I was seventeen and a half or more I asked my parents about joining the WAAF and they agreed. So I went along there when I was seventeen, eight — well nearly eighteen. Just under eighteen years old when I joined the WAAF. Volunteered. And I did want to do, become a nursing orderly but they said no. You had to be eighteen. So then they offered me, they offered me radar or teleprinter or kitchen. So I went with the teleprinter operator.
BW: So it was really a choice.
MC: Yeah.
BW: Not a lesser of two evils as such.
MC: Yes.
BW: But a choice of what was available.
MC: Yes.
BW: Actually to be taken.
MC: That’s right. But radar I really didn’t know anything about radar and so teleprinter was sort of a stab. Certainly didn’t want to go into the kitchen.
BW: Where did you join up? Was it, was it in Edinburgh where you went along to the —
MC: Yeah. Edinburgh. George Street.
BW: Recruitment office.
MC: That’s where I went along to volunteer.
BW: So this would be right in the centre of the city was it?
MC: Yes. Just off, off Princes Street.
BW: And what did they tell you to do then? You presumably had an interview at the recruiting office.
MC: Yeah.
BW: Did you then have to wait for a request to go to be trained or selected for training?
MC: Yes. I think it was just a couple of months probably. Something. Not more than that I waited. And then I had the letter and the train ticket to go to — I was going to Carlisle. To number 14 MU.
BW: And this would have been early 1944.
MC: Yes. May. In the May. And I do remember I hadn’t really travelled much before that so I was on the train. Of course it was quite you know really crowded with service people and all that then, and I was on the train. A very long train. We got to Carlisle and the train was very long so it couldn’t pull right all the way in to the platforms. And I was in the last couple of carriages and I found I couldn’t, well we went off and I got, I didn’t get off and of course I was in a bit of a state. Plenty of people of there, ‘Don’t worry. You’ll be alright. Get off at the next stop. York. And then come all the way back again.’ And then the, what do you call them? The police, the RAF police are on the station usually. And I went there and there was transport and they took me to 14 MU. And there was the staff sergeant who, in charge of people arriving and of course he was quite, you know. Not very pleasant because I was late. And they called, his nickname was Spam. I remember that. And then from there on I was taken to start being entered on the station and gradually having to go around all the different places for uniforms and, and you know entering in to different sections and things. And it was quite a big place, 14 MU. And the signals section was quite big. I can’t remember how many we were there. But in the hut there we were all people, all girls that were on shift work so we all, we were all on the same shift. Then there we didn’t have transport. We walked to work. And it was shift work so that was quite good. Three shifts. And of course [pause] No. I’ve jumped. I’ve jumped a bit. I haven’t done the elementary training. I shouldn’t be there now.
BW: Ok that’s —
MC: I should be at Wilmslow.
BW: That’s right. Ok. So from the recruiting office then in Edinburgh.
MC: Yeah.
BW: You were sent not to Carlisle immediately. You were sent for training at Wilmslow.
MC: That’s right.
BW: Right.
MC: But that actually, that part did happen when I had to go back again. Yes. It was Wilmslow. And we were there for about five or six weeks and that was just the elementary training. Being in the WAAF and uniforms. And ranks. Getting to know the ranks and saluting and how to salute. And we weren’t then allowed out of the camp for these weeks at all and I can imagine some girls it didn’t suit them because they wanted to get out. But on the whole it wasn’t so bad. You just got used to it.
BW: And were you in a barrack with seven others did you say? Or —
MC: Oh more.
MC: Eight.
MC: More than seven. Usually there was about ten in a hut. And you had those wrought iron beds and you had what they called biscuits but they were big sort of square cushion things. Really hard. And then you had rough blankets and a sheet. Yes. I think we had a sheet. Yes. And a bolster pillow which was a bit hard and rough and rolled. A round one. And you had to, in the mornings you had to make your bed up and that all had to be tidy as you left it. That sort of thing. And we did have to do some PE in the mornings. Early. And then you’d do your — go for your meal. And then you went, we continued doing, having schools to teach you about the ranks and the rules and everything. And it was amazing how these weeks were taken up just doing that. And not being out of camp.
BW: How did you find your induction then to service life? Did you find it was something you took to quite easily? Did you enjoy it?
MC: Yes.
BW: Or was it very different from being at home?
MC: No. I didn’t find it hard. Well obviously I did miss home at the beginning with not very much. But my life had been [pause] where we lived when my father was the farm and that we were always well out in the country and we didn’t, there wasn’t much in the way of other children around and, except when I went to school. And so it was from then on really. My life was — I seemed to manage quite well by myself if you know what I mean. Friends were fine but then I was always moving on somewhere else so I didn’t keep friends for long. But all my life’s been like that really. Up until now. Moving on. Even in the RAF, with moving on.
BW: And do you recall any of the others that you were friends with on, on the training course?
MC: Yes. They were, we all seemed to get on well. You know. They did have their moments. And I had, I think — no I didn’t have my twenty first there. That was somewhere else. Yes. The girls. We seemed to get on well enough, you know. You had our different groups coming in each week and it was the time of year when it was, the weather was quite good in the summer months. Wilmslow. I think we were taken out twice but we were taken out in groups to a W, we called them YWCA canteens in Wilmslow. Yes. Because something funnily enough after all these years when we’ve been travelling my husband and I we passed by little some this part that was on a slope. And I recognised this and I thought golly. That’s where we used to be. And it was a garden. You know, a garden. So it’s amazing.
BW: And did —
MC: Wilmslow seemed, it was a rather nice little town then. What we saw of it anyway.
BW: And did you manage to spend any time socialising in Wilmslow at all? Were you allowed?
MC: No.
BW: Time off at all. Not for those six weeks.
MC: No. Never. No. We weren’t allowed out at all. I can’t remember what else we did as an evening. I don’t know. We had exercises and lots of writing to do, to do with the rules and saluting and all the different ranks. There was quite a lot to it really.
BW: And from there was when you were posted off to the Maintenance Unit. Is that right?
MC: To 14 MU yes. From there. Yeah. And that’s when I got, you know myself with the train problem. Yeah.
BW: And were you given any sort of trade training let’s say before you left for the MU or did you do that more through learning on the job?
MC: I’ve jumped again. From Wilmslow I went to Cranwell and that’s where I did my training for a teleprinter operator. Yeah. I’ve forgotten that. Yes. That was ten weeks there and I really did enjoy that. It was very nice. And we lived in married quarters and one room would be, there would three to a room. We were a bit squashed but anyway. So the house was, I can’t remember how many in the house but we had a sergeant. No. She was more than a sergeant.
[pause]
BW: Would she have been an officer?
MC: No. This woman that shared the room, the house with us she was when you had the band she was the leader in this band. She was a something sergeant. But she was the one up front and she was really nice. Very attractive, tall, well-built woman. She was very nice to all of us. Yeah. I remember that. And there then when we went for our, to our, to do the course we would walk from our quarters to the centre where we’d be trained and we were trained to do the teleprinter work to music. And so that was quite nice to do that. And so we had to walk there and walk back a fair way every day. But it was quite a big camp. Lots of things going on. It wasn’t just, it wasn’t just signals section. They had cadets there. I can’t remember what they were supposed to be doing but they were there. Quite a lot of them. And I do remember they had, they always held a dance on Saturday so we were all able to go to this place, this hall wherever it was on camp. To their dance. And they’re signature tune was, “You take the A train.” I don’t know if you know that one. “You take the A train.” Yeah. That was their signature tune. And yes it was very nice. I enjoyed my time there. I did make friends with one of the cadets. His father was in the RAF as well. And [pause] yeah he gave me [pause] they had a wheel. That was, I think they had that one on their forage cap. A wheel badge. So he gave me one of that and I put in my bag but I lost that. And so that was the end of that. That was ten weeks. It was very nice. And summer months. And these houses backed the airfield. It was not a very big airfield. They just had light aircraft there. It was very pleasant.
BW: And married quarters backed on to what they call North Airfield. And the A15 I think it is runs through the camp.
MC: Does it?
BW: Or the camp is either side of that road.
MC: Yeah.
BW: And what is now the main runway is to the south of that.
MC: Yes. Sleaford village wasn’t far. Just of out there and we seemed to walk there sometimes. But it was very pleasant all around there. It was very nice. And we had a final, final parade and there was all the different bands there. Not just, it wasn’t just for us it was other it was for other occasions and this Lady Walsh she was the person who took the salute at this big parade that was taken in front of that college that we have a picture of.
BW: The main officer’s mess.
MC: Yes.
BW: The main Cranwell College building .
MC: Yes. Yes. I think it’s officers now. It’s an officer’s college now, isn’t it?
BW: Correct.
MC: Yeah. So that, yes it was nice there. And then it was from there then went on leave and then to 14 MU. So, by then I was really getting quite used to being in the WAAF. 14 MU. Even, even being able to bear up to this flight sergeant telling me off.
BW: What sort of things were they telling you off for ? Was it to do with uniform or — ?
MC: For being —
BW: For making mistakes.
MC: No. For being, no just being late because that was—
BW: I see.
MC: Something that was really frowned upon, you know. People went on leave or didn’t come back on time you know were quite liable to be put on a charge or something. But it’s just that I suppose they have to listen to so many different stories that your story is nothing to them so —
BW: So this would be coming into autumn, early winter 1944 now when you’re at 14 MU.
MC: Yes. Yes. It was.
BW: And how long were you based there for?
MC: I think I was there [pause] I think about two years. You know. It wouldn’t be more. It seemed a long time but I think it would be about two years. So that brings me up to what? ‘44, ’45.
BW: ’46.
MC: ’46. Going to run out of time [pause] because I’ve got a piece of paper somewhere telling me [pause] After. Was there another little piece of [pause] So then I was posted to 90 Group. Egginton Hall. And that is near Derby. I can’t remember the other places that were near to it. It’s a rather small market town. They did [pause] it’s quite well known for its pottery but I can’t remember what it’s called. So I was there for, I don’t know if I was there a year but we were there and it was, it was just a big old house where we, everyone worked in all the different rooms of an old house. And the signals room was, it was just a little room like the ground floor. Like a scullery or a maid’s room or something. And they had the big windows there. It was what you call sash windows that you could push up. And yes it was quite good there. You were just facing out in to the courtyard. And they had Italian people you know. Prisoners wandering around doing some, supposed to be doing some work you know and always ready for a chat. And then there they had a river running through the grounds of the hall. And it was very much out in the woods sort of thing. I always had to get back. It was difficult to get leave in the place because you had to walk to get a bus and they didn’t run transport there. But they had other things that went on that you could amuse yourself in the evenings. Table tennis and different things they had there. But there it didn’t have, not a lot of people. Not a lot of service people there. They didn’t have the work for them there. And they had a rather a woody area and they used to say there was a white lady there scaring people, you know. Walking toward us, white lady.
BW: A ghost in the woods.
MC: Yes. But and then from there I moved on to 60 MU Handforth and that was [pause] do you know if I keep feeling I’ve lost something somewhere. 60 MU, Handforth. Stafford, I think. I don’t know. I haven’t got anything else. I don’t, I don’t know.
BW: And was it all the same sort of work that you were doing. Were you?
MC: Oh yes. That’s what I was trained.
BW: Typing out signals or messages or, or what?
MC: Well, you would type out signals that were given to you by the staff or you’d be receiving as well. And at, they were all small stations but at 14 MU it was quite big so you were dealing with different RAF stations that would send in signals for some reason or other and probably because 14 MU was a place for, where they did parts. You know. Repair parts and all sorts of things like that. So the signals came in and then from different, quite a lot of we had a big board up and it had the call signs on this board and the call signs would be three letters like, Stafford would be STA or something like that. You know, Eggington hall — EGG. Just a brief call sign. So that when I wanted to send out to another station I would have to put my call sign up so they would know. And then they did deal with telegrams as well from Carlisle Post Office. They had, they dealt with some people. Was it cables? I can’t remember. So it was quite busy there and we usually had a lot of staff on every shift. But sometimes a supervisor at night she would say well you know, a few just three or four could rest while the others at the machines. Things like that. And of course we always walked to work there because it was within walking distance. But we did have bikes if we wanted to use them, you know. To get about.
BW: Presumably at this stage of the war your weren’t on the receiving end of any enemy raids or anything were you?
MC: No. No. Nothing like that. No. Because —
BW: It would be fairly quiet operationally, I suppose.
MC: Yes. It was. Yes. It was — what was it? Was it ’45? D-Day.
BW: ’44.
MC: ’44. Well, I was there because that’s where we celebrated. At Carlisle. That was another thing. While I was there and we were celebrating and they wanted to celebrate through Carlisle. So they had some, one or two of these big long trailers like we have today for car transporting lots of cars. Well they were long trailers. What they called the Queen Mary. And of course a lot of us including me we had to go on these things and parade through Carlisle [laughs] Oh dear.
BW: So there’d be you and your colleagues all uniform on the back of a trailer.
MC: Yes. Yes.
BW: Being towed around Carlisle.
MC: Yes. Fortunately the weather was not so bad at that time. But we did have parades and that’s one thing I must say I did like. I did like parades. I did like marching. Somehow or other. I quite liked the music I suppose.
BW: And you mentioned before that your husband had been a pilot in Bomber Command.
MC: Yeah.
BW: How did you meet him? Were you at a Maintenance? Were you at one of the Maintenance Units when —?
MC: I didn’t meet him in the RAF.
BW: Ok.
MC: No. I was, that was 1949 I met him. So I was well out of the WAAF then. And he was still, you know, RAF. But I was not, you know anywhere near him in when it was in the wartime. I didn’t know him then.
BW: And so during your time you’d be at Carlisle at the Maintenance Unit until about 1946 I think you said.
MC: Yes.
BW: And where did you go from there?
MC: To Egginton Hall.
BW: Egginton.
MC: Yes. Egginton Hall came next. I think. Yeah.
BW: And was that your final posting before being demobbed?
MC: Handforth. Handforth is an MU. Handforth is I where I finished. It’s something [pause] It says this place called Kirkham. But that must have been the demob centre. Kirkham.
BW: Yeah. There was a —
MC: Oh yes.
BW: Reception Centre there.
MC: Unit group 61 MU Handforth. 9 of the 10 ’47. Yeah.
[pause]
BW: And so you finished your RAF service in 1947.
MC: Yeah.
BW: And did you go, you say to Kirkham to be demobbed.
MC: No.
BW: Oh, that was at Handforth.
MC: Didn’t go anywhere. They just did all this work —
BW: Ok.
MC: On the station you were on. Yeah.
BW: Were you offered or did you want the opportunity to stay in or did you feel that was the right time?
MC: No. I didn’t think —
BW: No.
MC: I didn’t think of carrying on. No. It wasn’t mentioned and I didn’t even think about it. Yeah.
BW: So you’d have just turned twenty one when you came out.
MC: Yes.
BW: The air force.
MC: I was. Yes.
BW: And what happened in the years after the war then? What? What course did your life take after that?
MC: After that I went to, I wanted to try and continue teleprinter work and I was trying with the Post Office and that didn’t work. And then, so then I found a job as typing and other things in a shop in Princes Street in Edinburgh. Doing typing and work that they wanted typing and things like for their firm in Boston. So it was just doing letters and getting some things together that, because they wanted, it was a shop that dealt with all the tartans and different things in Edinburgh. So they were all interested in that. And I was there just about a year and, maybe not and then I found a place for teleprinter work. It was Bruce Peebles. They were an engineering firm but it wasn’t teleprinter that they really wanted. They wanted a Dictaphone typist. So I did that. Dictaphone typist for some months there and then, then I, where did I go now? Dictaphone typist. Then I went to Prestwick. Prestwick. They had a signals section there. And that was in a very large old house near the, it was nearer the airfield. There was a, it wasn’t new but it hadn’t been going I suppose many, many years. Prestwick. It was a big airfield for transatlantic aircraft but I don’t know when that would have started because I don’t know if it had been going. Well, it had been going a bit but not anyway that was very busy there and we our living quarters were just over the other side of this runway. So it was a bit noisy at times. Also they had workshops. And anyway it was alright. And it was from there that I got married.
BW: So did you meet your husband while you were working in Prestwick?
MC: No. I, I while I was at Prestwick yes. Because I went home maybe most weeks. Something like that. And I would go into Edinburgh sometimes to the cinema or a dance. And that’s where I met him. He was on leave at his father’s and step mother’s home in Edinburgh.
BW: So your husband was on a posting from Edinburgh.
MC: No. He was at, he was at Dishforth in Yorkshire. At that time on a course doing heavy aircraft. I can’t remember. It wasn’t, not the Lancaster. It was another heavy aircraft that he was training for long distance. He would, eventually he would fly from say Dishforth or Topcliffe something like that to Singapore. And stop off at different, different places enroute with parts or picking up things. Parts of aeroplanes or something enroute these different places. Ceylon was one place. I can’t remember. I used to know them all but, and then he’d be away for a week at a time every now and again.
BW: Do you know which squadron he was with in the war? Was it —
MC: 149.
BW: Based at Methwold.
MC: He was at Methwold. Yes.
BW: And did he tell you much about his service at all? Say, any notable raids that he’d participated in or —
MC: No. He never talked about it. Never. But the strange thing was that after he’d finished doing the training on these aircraft and things having his after that we were at Topcliffe then. But then we had a posting to Methwold. And though he still didn’t talk about anything except when we got there because it was all, you know just a few big, big, what do you call them? Hangars and things and a few bits around the place and we did walk down by where was the control tower area. And he just went in there and had a look. And then he came out and said, ‘No. There’s not any. Not any maps there.’ And he never, never went in anymore. Never talked about it ever to me. Until you know perhaps odd things in later years.
BW: Did he mention any crew mates at all?
MC: Yes. We, we did meet up one or two of them after some years when we were at [pause] at our, where we had finally lived. At [unclear] in Wiltshire. And he did, yes he did meet his navigator once in London. And we met that, Paddy they called him. I can’t remember. We did meet him. And we visited him and his family. In fact we have kept in touch with them some of the time. Always on the 12th of December which was a very bad raid for him. That’s when he got, he got a bullet across his shoulder. Here.
BW: Was that Paddy or your —
MC: My husband.
BW: Husband was, he received a wound to the top of his right shoulder.
MC: Yeah. Yeah. No. Not the top. At the back of his shoulder.
BW: The back.
MC: Yeah. And then he had the DFC.
[pause]
BW: But he never said where that raid was.
MC: No. I, I just understood that the, they always went for industry rather than towns. But that was a bad one.
BW: Do you recall Paddy’s last name at all?
MC: I have got it somewhere. Yeah. I can get it for you because I’ve got it in my book.
[recording paused]
BW: Paddy Fowles.
MC: Yes. F O W L E S. And they lived at Port Talbot.
BW: And you mentioned one of the other crew men was Australian.
MC: Yes. We did, we had initially contact with them but that’s not happened for a long time. I don’t know.
BW: And there were no other names that you recall from his crew or that you were able to keep in touch with.
MC: No.
BW: Did he say what Paddy actually did as, what his role was as aircrew? Was he a gunner or a wireless operator or something?
MC: He was, he wasn’t a gunner. He was an electrician.
BW: Flight engineer.
MC: Flight engineer probably. Yes. Because, yes he was quite. Yeah. I think that was probably his piece. He was, he seemed to be quite close to Paddy and kept in touch with him. At least every year on the 12th. But he died. His wife is still around and you know I’ve been in touch with her.
BW: Well, where the flight engineer sits its right next to the pilot in a Lancaster so —
MC: Yes.
BW: Perhaps natural that they kept in touch.
MC: Yes. I think that was it. Yes. Yeah.
BW: So they would have worked quite closely together on, on their tours.
MC: They would. And the navigator does as well doesn’t he?
BW: Yeah. He sits slightly further, further back.
MC: Yeah.
BW: But yeah, still sat fairly close to the pilot.
MC: But he did say about how they, when they were going to choose the crews you know they would all have to go in to some big hangar and be in groups. And then the pilot would choose or ask who would like to be this, that or the other. And it just seemed that this little man was left. And this little man was the Australian navigator. And Charles always said he was really a very, very good bloke. I think he did say once there was one, I don’t know which one it was but he, he got cold feet so they couldn’t go. One of the crew. He wouldn’t go so that tour was, for them was cancelled that night. So it was pretty tough on himself really.
BW: He never said what happened to him?
MC: No. He didn’t say.
BW: Did he see him again after that particular incident?
MC: No. I think he would have been probably removed. People like that are removed to, well away from whatever. If they do it once they are probably going to do it again.
BW: You mentioned earlier that you’d been or your son and grandson had been to Lincoln to see the Bomber Command Memorial.
MC: Yes. They had.
BW: What do they think of the efforts now to commemorate veterans of Bomber Command?
MC: Oh they were over the moon with everything they really were very, absolutely. Matthew he’s got no end of stuff you know. Writings and things he’s done. He’s really, and of course he’s still, I don’t know what it is — some correspondence going on to do with this dog.
BW: Which was a mascot for the crew.
MC: Yes. And that dog it was, it was just nothing really. It was up in the attic room and it was sort of shovelled from one shelf to another from time to time and nobody sort of, you know thought much about it but by the end it was beginning to look bedraggled. A bit. Coming apart a little bit. I said to Matthew I really should get something done about it. He said, ‘No. Let me have it and I’ll have something done.’ But he never did and he just took it like it was. And they said they wanted it like that. They didn’t want anything done to it so [pause] And it was made by a WAAF. A WAAF. One of the girls that did the [pause] took the crews out to their aircraft. Something like that, you know. And she made that. She was Irish. And in fact after many years when we were married and we were visiting my daughter somewhere quite, not too far away from where this WAAF, now married, lived. Irish and married an Irishman. And so we went there and visited her. We visited them twice. So —
BW: And it was just like a little toy. Little cuddly dog.
MC: Oh yes. It was about, it wasn’t tiny it was just, you know normal. Sort of. And it had a white collar. A black dog and a white collar. And “Charlie” on the dog’s collar. That was it.
BW: So it was only about nine inches long by six inches tall. This little toy, then presumably. It was only little cuddly toy.
MC: Yes. Yes.
BW: Very good. I have no further questions for you Margaret. Is there anything that you’ve thought of since that you would like to add to the interview recording?
MC: No. I can’t think of anything at the moment really.
BW: OK. By all means if you do have any further information you wish to pass on you can let your grandson Matt know or you can contact me.
MC: Yes.
BW: And forward that on. So that’s fine.
MC: I can do that. Yes.
BW: So, thank you very much for your time.
MC: That’s alright.
BW: Thank you.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Margaret Cuthill
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brian Wright
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-12-13
Rights
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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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ACuthillMSFH181213, PCuthilMSFH1801
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:53:48 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
Margaret Cuthill volunteered for the WAAF in Edinburgh. She went for her basic training at Wilmslow before completing her training as a teleprinter operator at RAF Cranwell. She was then posted initially to 14 Maintenance Unit. After the war she married a pilot who had been based at 149 Squadron. Her husband never talked about his experiences during the war but the crew would be in touch on the anniversary of an operation on the 12th of December which affected them all.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cheshire
England--Lincolnshire
Scotland--Edinburgh
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
ground personnel
military living conditions
RAF Cranwell
RAF Wilmslow
superstition
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2216/40631/BDixonMDixonMv1.1.pdf
0e155ee83b563115a56feaece34b9c11
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Dixon, M
Dixon, Margaret
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. The collection concerns Leading Aircraftwoman Margaret Dixon (b. 1926, 2137383 Royal Air Force) and contains a memoir and photographs. She served in the WAAF and was stationed at RAF Hospital Matlock and RAF Coningsby.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Heather Raad and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022-08-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Dixon, M
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Margaret Dixon's account of her early life and service in the Women's' Auxiliary Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
13 handwritten pages, Margaret describes in some detail her early life and service in the WAAF as a nurse.
This item was sent to the IBCC Digital Archive already in digital form. No better quality copies are available.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Margaret Dixon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1926-09-26
1945
1946-09-26
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cheshire
England--Derbyshire
England--Devon
England--Lincolnshire
England--Staffordshire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
13 handwritten pages
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BDixonMDixonMv1
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
bombing
childhood in wartime
entertainment
evacuation
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
ground personnel
home front
military living conditions
military service conditions
prisoner of war
RAF Coningsby
RAF Halton
RAF Hednesford
RAF hospital Matlock
RAF Metheringham
RAF Wilmslow
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1628/25554/PSaundersEJ20010108.2.jpg
01f292a940dbe4be289be589ff7d74af
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Saunders, Ernest John. Album 2
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-02-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Saunders, EJ
Description
An account of the resource
Album containing photographs of his training and service in North Africa and with Bomber Command.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Senior NCOs Admin Course F. Flight
Description
An account of the resource
32 WAAFs arranged in three rows. There is a handwritten annotation 'Senior NCOs Admin Course. F. Flight. RAF. Wilmslow April. 1944.'
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSaundersEJ20010108
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1941-04
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cheshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-04
ground personnel
RAF Wilmslow
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1846/39175/PThornhillEB1718.2.jpg
1cc8b26bed4b6e16222bcc681e28f5c7
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1846/39175/PThornhillEB1719.2.jpg
b25472fbc29e1674bea78a4dfbb90c84
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Thornhill, Ted
E B Thornhill
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-05-15
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Thornhill, EB
Description
An account of the resource
38 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Ted Thornhill (b. 1921, 1426742 Royal Air Force) and Corporal Constance Thornhill (2049455 Royal Air Force). It contains documents, items, correspondence and photographs. Ted Thornhill flew operations as a wireless operator / air gunner but was shot down and became a prisoner of war. Connie Thornhill served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pauline Foster and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
WAAF NCO Admin School March 29 to April 19 1944
Description
An account of the resource
42 Airwomen arranged in four rows in front of a wooden hut. It is annotated 'NCO Admin School Wilmslow March 29th to April 19th 1944'. On the reverse many of the WAAFs have signed their names.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-04
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cheshire
England--Wilmslow
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PThornhillEB1718, PThornhillEB1719
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-04
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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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.
ground personnel
RAF Wilmslow
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2146/37067/PFieldPL19080003.1.jpg
1f26c4e39d0f0ea76a1dfa16b2ff0c79
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Field, Peter L and Cynthia G. Photograph album 5
Description
An account of the resource
13 items. Photographs of wartime colleagues, Cook's tour aerial photographs of bomb damaged German cities, and family and friends as well as two letters home.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-09-19
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Field, PL-CG
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[photograph]
SENIOR NCOs ADMIN. COURSE
RAF WILMSLOW March 1944
[underlined] SENIOR NCOs ADMINISTRATIVE COURSE RAF WILMSLOW [/underlined]
MARCH 1944
[underlined] Back Row [/underlined]
(Left to Right)
Sgt. Patterson (“Pat”)
Sgt. Carter
Sgt. [indecipherable name]
Sgt. Link
Sgt. Jones
Sgt. Bulman
Sgt. Boyle (“Jock”)
Sgt. Elaine Rose
Sgt. Jeanne Thompson
Sgt. Philips
Sgt. Marie Dressler
[underlined] 2nd Row [/underlined] {Left to Right)
F/S Saunders
Sgt. Stevens (“Steve”)
F/O Williams
Sgt. [indecipherable name] Owen
Sgt. Halford
Sgt. June Radcliffe
Sgt. Me [inserted][indecipherable words][/inserted]
Sgt. Betty Charmer
F/S Suffolk
Sgt. Hazel Pettey
Sgt. Macdonald (“Mac”)
Sgt. June King
Sgt. Eileen Page
[underlined] FRONT ROW [/underlined] (L to R)
Sgt. Openshaw
Sgt. Audrey Thomas (“Dessy”)
Sgt. Woods-Halle
Sgt. Taylor
Sgt. Margaret Edger
[underlined] S/O Warren [/underlined]
[underlined] F/S Lauren [/underlined] [inserted][indecipherable words][/inserted]
Sgt. Murray
Sgt. Katie Stephenson
Sgt. Pam [indecipherable name]
Sgt. Vicki Margies [indecipherable name]
F/S Holwell
[underlined] SEATED ON MAT [/underlined]
Sgt. Molly Parrish [inserted][indecipherable words][/inserted]
Sgt. Jones
[page break]
[photograph]
WRCAF Officers at Leeming
[photograph]
LEEMING WEDDING
L. Arleen R Betty
Centre: Sid Hewsby
[photograph]
Wedding at Leeming church – probably Summer 1944.
[photograph]
Cynthia in civies
Leeming
Sept. 1944
[photograph]
LEEMING WEDDING:
L. French Canadian Observer
Centre. F/O [indecipherable words] R. Sid Hewsby
LAST 2 are English.
[photograph]
LEEMING WEDDING
L. Arleen (Canadian)
Centre ESTHER, organiser of the 'Y' V. popular (Canadian)
R. Betty Lennon {English)
[photograph]
Joey with Al & Betty's family
[photograph]
Alex, Serious Canadian who married Arleen at the end of the war
[photograph]
2 other Canadians in Al's crew, with Mrs Lennon. At Leeming the crew were [underlined] 'our' [/unerlined] crew' – all of us devastated when ‘went’ with PFF.
[photograph]
Al at L. on a visit to Betty Lennon (2nd. L) With her sister and mother.
Al first at Leeming then he & crew volunteered for PFF – they all died. Summer 1944
[photograph]
LEEMING: L. CYNTHIA BARRY
C. CONNIE WAHLSTRAND. R. SYLVIA.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Women's Auxiliary Air Force, RAF and RCAF people.
Description
An account of the resource
left page:
Top - course photograph with a large group of members of Women's Auxiliary Air Force sitting and standing in three rows with wooden hut in the background. Captioned 'Senior NCOs Admin Course, RAF Wilmslow, March 1944'.
Bottom - document with the names of all members of the senior NCOs administrative course at RAF Wilmslow in photograph above.
Right page:
Top left - two member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in uniform standing in front of a road. Captioned 'WRCAF Officers at Leeming'.
Top centre - an airman wearing tunic with half brevet and peaked cap standing between two member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in uniform with stone wall behind. Captioned 'Leeming wedding, L Arleen R Betty, centre: Sid Heusby'.
Top right - blurred photograph of people coming out of church. Captioned 'Wedding at Leeming church, probably summer 1944'.
Second row left - a woman in civilian dress standing leaning on a wooden gate. Captioned 'Cynthia in civvies, Leeming Sept 1944'.
Second row centre - several RAF/RCAF officers standing outside a church. Captioned 'Leeming wedding, l French Canadian observer, centre F/O Fogg (Foggy) R Sid [....], last two are [....]'.
Second row right - four members of Women's Auxiliary Air Force standing in front of a stone wall. Captioned 'Leeming wedding, L Arleen (Canadians), centre Esther organiser of the "Y", v popular (Canadian), R Betty Lennon (English)'.
Third row centre - a man and three women in civilian clothes sitting on a swinging bench seat. Captioned 'Joey with Al & Betty's family'.
Third row right - an airman sitting at a desk between beds with picture on wall above. Captioned 'Alex, serious Canadian who married Arleen at the end of the war'.
Bottom left - two airmen wearing tunics standing either side of a woman wearing civilian clothes. Captioned '2 other Canadians in Al's crew with Mrs Lennon at Leeming. the crew were "our crew" - all of us devastated when they "went" with PFF'.
Bottom centre - photograph of same group as in photograph above. Captioned 'Al at L on a visit to Betty Lennon (2cd left) with her sister and mother. At first at Leeming then the crew volunteered for PFF - they all died summer 1944'.
Bottom right - blurred photograph of four people in uniform, two sitting and two standing either side. Captioned 'Leeming: L Cynthia Barry. Connie [.....], R Sylvia'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-09
1944-03
1944
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-09
1944-03
1944
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cheshire
England--Yorkshire
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Twelve b/w photographs and one handwritten document all mounted on two album pages
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFieldPL19080003
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
aircrew
ground personnel
killed in action
military living conditions
Pathfinders
RAF Leeming
RAF Wilmslow
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force