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Interview with Neil Harris
Neil Harris wanted to join the RAF because he was looking for an exciting life experience and an opportunity for further education. He started as a flight mechanic before training as a pilot. Remembers being trained in different locations across the…
Interview with Margaret Cuthill
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…
Interview with Audrey Teasdale
Audrey Teasdale worked in admin and retail before the war. She was conscripted in 1942 and after training, served as a WAAF at RAF Waddington.
Ferimet Plain forms
Forms produced by the British and Canadian Meteorological Offices for reporting inflight weather.
Interview with Bill Thomas
Bill Thomas flew operations as a bomb aimer with 166 Squadron at RAF Kirmington and 153 Squadron at RAF Scampton. He describes his training in Canada and the Atlantic crossing on board the Queen Elizabeth.
Letter from C G Barry to her mother
Letter mounted on four pages of album. Writes of her activities at RAF Leeming and catches up with family news. Gives reasons for not coming home on leave for Christmas. Describes shirt and pillow cases she had just bought. Writes about several…
Letter from C G Barry to her mother and photographs
Letter mounted over seven album pages with envelope with last page of letter on seventh album page. Next page has four b/w photographs. Letter gives excuses for not having written. Catches up with family news. Explains they could not get off camp…
Letter from Cynthia Barry to Angela Duwell
Comments on recent rheumatism and that she was currently writing while on duty. Continues with news that WAAF watchkeepers were now allowed to fly on cross country flights over the continent. Recently this was done on the quiet. Mentions two routes…
Memoir on the life of Jean Spears by her friend Cynthia Field
Describes meeting and becoming friends at RAF Huntingdon in late 1941. Writes of their work, common interests and activities including listening to classical music. Mentions promotions and change of job restricting meetings and subsequent postings.…
Meteorology for pilots and navigators
Official (Canadian) booklet on meteorology. Covers and table of contents only.
1st image: Front cover. Annotated by hand: 'Sgt GL Royall' and 'Sgt Hardy JC. R103813'
2nd image: Title page.
3rd image: Table of contents.
4th image: Back cover…
1st image: Front cover. Annotated by hand: 'Sgt GL Royall' and 'Sgt Hardy JC. R103813'
2nd image: Title page.
3rd image: Table of contents.
4th image: Back cover…
Harold E Whittingham's speech
Chief Medical Officer, Air Marshall Sir Harold E Whittingham standing and six airmen seated at the top table of a formal dinner. On the table flowers and a candelabra and on the wall a Royal Air Force ensign. Captioned 'HQ1534', On the reverse…
Weather Observations by Aircraft Crew
Observed weather during a cross country flight (training?).
Aston Down 1941 MT Section
21 RAF ground personnel arranged in two rows in front of a lorry. On the left and right two men are seated on motorcycles. On the reverse 'Aston Down 1941 MT Section' and '[indecipherable] School Rd 10 B153 Miniature Hair Fair Eyes Eight Blue Comp…
Interview with Jean Culkin
Jean Culkin grew up in Sunderland and worked as a tea girl and then a typist in a reserved occupation. She discusses her life and her wedding to her husband, John George Mackel Culkin. He was an apprentice at RAF Halton before becoming a fitter…
Interview with Joy Joy. One
Joy Joy was evacuated from Hull at the start of the war. She returned home for Christmas. She was again evacuated as the bombings began. She took responsibility for her younger sister although she was only six years old herself and she says that from…
Letter from Charles Turner to his mother and family
In the letter he complains that his mother hasn't written to him, he misses mild beer, tripe and black pudding. He describes going out for drinks with a WAAF and meeting South African air force pilots and more girls, then they all went for dinner and…
Interview with George Haig
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…
Interview with Desmond O'Connell
Desmond O’Connell was born in London in 1919. He followed in his brother’s footsteps by joining the Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve in 1939. He went to Cambridge to commence pilot training but half the contingent were transferred to become…
Interview with Elizabeth Eady
Elizabeth Eady grew up in Leicestershire and worked in a factory manufacturing parachutes before she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. After her training, she served as a telephonist at RAF Skellingthorpe and RAF Waddington. She was discharged…
Interview with Frances Anne Cooper
Frances Cooper spent her early life in Uganda before settling with her parents in England for her schooling, then joining the WAAF. She speaks about the small village she lived in during the war, the arrival of Americans and prisoners of war, as well…
Interview with Harry James
Harry James grew up in Berkshire and after school began training as a plumber. He joined the RAF and carried out thirty three operations as a rear gunner with 166 squadron. He discusses his crew, who were of different nationalities, of how the…
Interview with Peter Jones
Peter William Arthur Jones (b. 1954) speaks about his father Thomas John Jones DFC (b. 1921, 1640434 and 184141 Royal Air Force). Peter Jones discovered a memoir written by his father, Thomas Jones, a flight engineer, just after he passed away. Peter…
Interview with Alan Payne
Alan Payne was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire. He volunteered for aircrew with the Royal Air Force and after initial training was sent to South Africa where he trained as an observer. When he returned to the UK, he was allocated the role of bomb…
Interview with Charles and Margaret Ward
In 1940 when Charles was twenty he received papers to join the Royal Artillery and went into the Royal London Rifles. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was accepted but instead of joining the RAF he was ordered up to Scotland to join a…
Interview with Rusty Waughman. Two
Russell (Rusty) Waughman was born in Shotley Bridge, County Durham. Due to serious poor health as a child his education was interrupted. He describes his training with the Empire Training School in Canada. He was posted to 101 Squadron which was a…