MPN11,
Your:
"....and the Stn Cdr was Gp Capt A F Wallace CBE DFC who I seem to recall was a bit of a Tartar...." You can say that again ! (he was a few years older than I, so by definition is almost certainly dead now and nil nisi bonum applies - but no one who did a tour at Shawbury under his command will ever forget him).
I take it that the residents of the "adjacent island" (wouldn't be Guernsey, by any chance ?), choose French epithets, whereas you Jerseymen, more loyal to the Crown, use English ones ?
(I quote from Wiki):
".....Queen Elizabeth II is often referred to by her traditional and conventional title of Duke of Normandy. However, pursuant to the Treaty of Paris (1259), she governs in her right as The Queen (the "Crown in right of Jersey",[18] and the "Crown in right of the république of the Bailiwick of Guernsey"),[19] and not as the Duke....."
So it would seem that Jersey somehow has the edge: Guernsey feels its nose put out of joint, and retaliates by stressing the French connection ? Just a thought ! ['Ware incoming]
Commander Derrick ("The Admiral") and W/Cdr Elliot, of course ! And I'd quite forgotten that we let you lot into the Tower (Local and Approach ?) to hone your skills on (mostly) Marshalls' pilots, who (to be fair) had already developed a strong sense of self-preservation (vitally necessary when placing your life in the hands of u/t "Talkdowns" at Sleap !) Static model of an airfield ? (what was that ?)
Fine body of men ! Some time ago, I was sent my ('55) Course Photo. All the people were ex-war aircrew, and there was a marked contrast between backgrounds (our tumbledown tarred wooden shed "School of Air Traffic Control" and your gracious Georgian facade of the new building).
Sgt Coombe - that's an interesting one. He must have been one of the very first "admin" ATC Assistants to be put up for a Local Controllers' Course (which would involve immediate promotion to F/Sgt). Otherwise, I'd think he was more or less at a dead end.
As for Harry the Statistician, it would seem that he hit the jackpot and no mistake ! Wing Commanders left, right and centre ! I'm pleased to hear that Bob Warwick made it into that noble body, and very sorry to be told some time ago that he'd died quite young (but I have no details).
Looking back, it seems that the three years I spent "labouring in the vineyard" there produced some very fine vintages (and the instructors did quite well, too). We must have been doing something right !....D.
DFCP,
Leonard Trevallion now 99. Hope for us yet ! By my reckoning he would be Class 42D or E. A measure of the RAF's desperate need for aircrew at that time was that exemption was allowed from otherwise strictly "Reserved Occupations" (ie from call-up - a Metropolitan policeman would certainly be one such), but only for aircrew volunteers. By remarkable coincidence, I had another ex-Metropolitan policeman (Alan Morley) as my room-mate on OTU at Hawarden. Nice chap, never knew what happened to him afterwards....D.
Ian BB,
Yes, it's one of the charms of this Thread that "Small World !" so often crops up. Not only did the RN use the Beechcraft "Expeditor" as their Comm. aircraft (a better bet than the Anson, IMHO), but the small internal "Air India" airline used them on their shorter routes, and I had a trip in one Palam-Rawalpindi in '45. I think they only had 7 seats plus a steward and two pilots !
The Barracuda was not the FAA pilots' dream machine, and they composed a rather ribald song about it, as a parody and to the tune of "As time goes by" (from "Casablanca", a very popular wartime film). Union Jack will almost certainly remember this from riotous nights in the Wardroom, but I trust it didn't come to the ears of your mother !
Nevertheless, the Barra did some good work, notably by dive-bombing (and severely damaging) "Tirpitz" before the Lancasters finished it off.....D.
This has stretched out a bit, but never mind. Goodnight all, Danny.