If that was ex-RN (820 Whirlwinds) John (Archie) Yates then he is now living in Norfolk. A mutual ex-RN friend said in an email recently:
Archie was one of the great eccentrics and the two items that immediately come to mind are the huge old open top lagonda type car he drove around smoking a pipe as big as the gear lever and the laughable incident when we were both doing a hover check and we backed into the windsock!