Good to hear from you Nina. I hope your information will be helpful to the enquirer.
It's also good to see this thread revived. I have a question. My third cousin was Arthur Charles Geary, DFC, RAFVR and I have recently been researching his aviation career. Arthur was born in Edmonton, North London, in 1909, son of a well-known baker. He was a radio engineer and for three years from 1929 was a radio operator on SS Silverlarch. In the 1939 register of the population he is listed as a member of the Civil Air Guard, which was formed in 1938 to subsidise pilot training in the difficult years just pre-war. Suitable volunteers were trained at civilian flying clubs for their pilot’s A licence in exchange for undertaking to serve in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR). Arthur gained his R Ae C certificate dated 18.3.39 at the Herts & Essex Aero Club on the (quote) "D.H.60g, Gipsy,85". (I don't see what the "85" refers to). Indeed the Club did use Gipsy Moths from its early days and there is a picture of a line-up of them at
https://www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/Broxbourne
I wonder if anyone can throw a little more light on the Club and its equipment in 1939, and the fate of its aircraft during the war. I understand some were impressed, but cannot find details.
To complete the story, Arthur indeed joined the RAFVR in 1940 and was posted to 211 Squadron as wireless operator/air gunner on the Blenheim I, first in the Western Desert then in Greece. He was awarded the DFC in March 1941 “For gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations”. Sadly the award was to be posthumous as Arthur died during the infamous Easter Sunday operation in April 1941 when six Blenheims, attacking German troop movements in the Monastir gap, were destroyed by Bf109s.
Thanks to anyone who can help me find out more about the Club at that momentous time.
Laurence