大象传媒

I was a Saturday afternoon air man and I joined the local squadron at Hooton Park Aerodrome in January 1938, I had to wait till I was 17 before they would accept me. My eyesight wasn鈥檛 much good, so I had to go as ground staff. I waited and joined, passed the education test, failed the eyesight test. They trained me as a fitter on the engines. We were one of the early ones to get Spitfires, and immediately when war was declared we went down to Biggin Hill in Kent. We had lost six or seven pilots and we had to be withdrawn, it was great squadron and a great time to be alive.
After the Battle of Britain, I got promoted and went to West Kirkby to get kitted out and go abroad, there was a fleet waiting. There was a change of plan and so they dragged the kitters and briggers back and we ended up creeping into Gibraltar where they had 16 Spitfires in crates. We had to uncrate them in Jib, because the Spanish were on the same side as the Germans and were watching everything. We put them on an air craft carrier called the Eagle which was destined for Malta. We flew to Malta in a Wellington Bomber, I served there for months, then went to India, then Burma and back again; I did 3 years abroad.
When I came back I went into the sign writing business with my father, making signs for pubs and so on; I did heraldic signs for over ninety. I鈥檇 go through it all again, to meet those lads.

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