Originally Posted by
langleybaston
The mention of Jim Elliott reminds me of his time at HQ 1 Group Bawtry. He turned up from time to time, usually during the UK winter, worked six months, then went back to the Falklands for six months, then came back to Bawtry ........
He complained that he had not seen a rose in bloom for ages.
A fair few Met.men married Islanders ........ Sam Glassey for example, who, if memory serves, finished his career as P Met O Honington.
After the war, I was offered a one-year tour as i/c, accompanied and accommodated. Very unusually, my wife turned it down. It was the only posting that she really did not fancy. Good decision in retrospect.
Looking back on my career through more mature eyes, I wish I had taken the opportunity for a tour of the FI - I did give it consideration once, but in the end the thought of 6 months in the Summer (first tourists Metmen (people) to the FI will only usually get a UK Summer tour) spent in the Falklands to come home to yet another Winter was enough to decide against it. The allure of a UK social life when in my 20s was more appealing! Then I managed to wangle a tour to RAFG and that was that!
Who was it that said youth is wasted on the young?!