I joined the RAF as apprentice fitter-rigger grade II, to give its full name, usually shortened to fitterII, in January 1934 and passed out in 1937, being posted to 26(Army Cooperation) Squadron at Catterick. We had Audaxes, later Hectors and then Lysanders, which we took to Abbeville in France in October 1939. By this time I was a jumped-up corporal at age 21 (after 7 months - it used to be 7 years).
I left the service in 1946, being by then an engineer officer and having the option of so doing. I took a degree at U.C.London and enjoyed being a civilian engineer until retirement in 1979.
I must admit that I haven't done a stroke of real work since then. I potter about, playing viola in two Bournemouth amateur orchestras, being the web-master and secretary of one of them. I've studied MS Office 2000 Word, Excel and Access, HTML and Dreamweaver. I look after a web site for a church, and an electrician, and I go to Lyndhurst on Thursdays to teach the old folks the elements of computing at an Age Concern/ UKOnline centre.
I have an Alzheimers wife in a home, 4 children, 9 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. I am now 85.
For photograph go to www.bsnuc.co.uk/16593.html
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