Help further information AIR CHARTER Ltd, LONDON
Thanks for the much appreciated information with regard to AIR CHARTER Ltd, LONDON. My second attached photo shows my Grandfather standing outside one of their planes. I am endeavouring to research his post war flying history. Who or where would you suggest I contact inorder to obtain dates of his employment with Air Charter Ltd?
My Grandfather, Cornelis A Ligtenstein was a Dutchmen who served in the RAF during World War II. He was a pupil pilot when war broke out in Holland in May 1940. At the end of the same month he reached England through Belgium and France. In August 1941 he seems to have joined the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service as a mechanic. This was short lived and in 1942 he was attached to the RAF Volunteer Reserve (RAF VR) as a pupil pilot. He was transferred to Canada to train and he received his RAF wings in April 1943. He returned to England to complete further training and in January 1945 he joined No.33 Squadron as a Warrant Officer. This unit was then equipped with Hawker Tempest and later Spitfire fighter aircraft. In March 1945 he was shot down over Germany, wounded and taken to the prison camp Stalag XIb.
He flew with KLM from March 1947 to September 1947. He devorced my Grandmother in 1954. I understand he had started his own airline business, flying between The Netherlands, Berlin and the Channel islands (charter flights) but ceased by the end of the fifties. In this period he met and married for the second time in Jersey, a woman from Canada. In the early sixties they later emigrated to South Africa and later moved to Zimbabwe (Rhodesie).