大象传媒

I was born in Palmers Green London on 17th September 1938. My parents originating from Ormskirk in Lancashire. My father(know as Jack Dilworth) was a Civil Servant working for the Admiralty in Admiralty Arch at the out break of war. Having won an open scholarship at Ormskirk Grammar School he was recruited into the service and was involved in top secret work during the first months of hostilities. He had to sign the Official Secrets Act. From what I gather many years later his initial work was preparing maps for the Royal and Merchant Navies showing the location of sea mines dropped into the English Channel by Coastal Command Shackletons I think to protect our shipping from German U/E Boat attack.I was told that the planes could carry 3 mines at a time
Due to the Blitz this particular department of the Admiralty relocated to what was thought at that time to be a quieter part of the country. Not only that me being a toddler we had to evacuate London anyhow,so it was ideal to relocate to Bath to be with my father. We moved into rented accomodation (top flat) in Sydney Place directly opposite parkland. My father working at the then "Empire Hotel" with the rest of his collegues.
We saw very little of him for the rest of the war years because of the very nature of his work.
However as you know Bath also took a heavy pounding from the German bombers. I can vividly remember as a child prior to the air raid siren sounding looking out of the bedroom window down the valley towards Bristol and seeing a large red glow on the sky line, Bristol was under attack. This glow grew larger as the bombers flew towards Bath. We had to traverse many flights of steps from the top flat to the communial air raid shelter located close by.We spent many long nights in the shelter to emerge in the morning to see the streets covered in rubble were a bomb had fallen.
These constant air raids meant that my father was again relocated to the naval base at Coombe Down on the outskirks of the city. He was very worried about us so put us on a train with very few belongings to spend the rest of the war with relatives in Ormskirk, this was about late 1944. I remember clearly celebrating V-E day in Ormskirk.
I never did see my father again until 1947 as he was still working long after 1945 at Coombe Down.
All through his life he did not disclose entirely what work he was involved during his war years as he was still under secreacy. I did have some discussions with him on Mulberry and Pluto projects but he went into great detail about the midget submarine development and and its attack on the German Fleet in Norway.
In the past 12 months I have discovered that as a boy I was probably the only youngster in the UK to be given as a birthday present a prototype of the ram jet, a scale model motor launch, obviously the ram jet being developed by some of the "boffins" based at Coombe Down. I did have a set of drawings but they have been mislaid over the years. but its construction is still in my head. It was made out of sheet metal from the wartime dried milk tins.
I have tried several times to find out what did take place at Coombe Down but without any success. It must have been very top secret establishment which has never really received the media attention like others have in recent years. I have tried to find out exactly what my father was involved in. It could be that he was more of an administrator who knows.I know he was very friendly with two Scottish collegues (Mackensie and Campbell I think) working with him and I still have a photograph of the three of them taken during one of their off duty periods.
My enquires have up to now have been very disappointing, all I get is that the naval base was close after the war and any records either lost or transfered elsewhere.
I doubt there will be any personnel still alive today who worked on these secret projects, but if there are sons or daughters
who had family working at Coombe Hill during this wartime period on secret projects perhaps you may like to make contact with me.
Malcolm Dilworth : 5 Swan Close Storrington West Sussex RH20 4DF e-mail malcolmdilworth@aol.com

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.