大象传媒

My father Robert Levy MBE LLM (29.9.1909-5.9.1993) served in the RAF and rose to the rank of Wing Commander. In 1942 only one week after his marriage he was sent to India where he travelled by ship via South Africa. He remained in India and then Ceylon for over three years during which time he was responsible for deploying air crews across South East Asia.

This was very difficult for his new wife in London and especially for his parents who were then in their seventies and not in the best of health. Their only other child was their daughter who was living in Marseille, France and from whom they had no news for eighteen months as she was in hiding in the mountains. As a jew of British origin living in occupied France she was constantly in fear of being picked up either by the Gestapo, or their Vichy France equivalent, the Milice.

As a Jew my father was proud to serve his country. His service in the RAF meant a great deal to him and after his return for the remainder of his life he regularly took part in the remembrance Sunday parades.

His wife, Rita Levy (nee Lipton) worked in the civil service for the Ministry of Aircraft Production during the war, experiencing the Blitz and successive waves of bombing in London.

I still have my parents' moving correspondence from those war years

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