I was born in August 1929 so at the start of the war in September 1939 I was ten years of age. I spent the first year of the war "evacuated" from my home in Ealing, Middlesex, to stay with my grandfather in Newport Monmouthshire. I returned to my home in Ealing in August 1940. I then went to school at Latymer Upper in Hammersmith for the remainder of the war. Subsequently, I entered the aircraft industry in 1947, following up my interest in aviation matters that developed during the war.