Danny
I have to say... your are a 'wonder'! Plainly, you are 94, otherwise you wouldn't be young enough to have served in WW2. Yet, unlike my father (of similar vintage), you really are on the ball. Arthur would have been flummoxed by the term 'misogyny'... and I, even, at 62, struggle to spell the damn thing! However, am I not right in saying that women are no longer obliged to resign from the Services on becoming pregnant? In other words, giving a woman an expensive training is no longer a waste of tax payers' money if she procreates. Similarly, I can imagine that in the past, women would usually become housewives after marrying (if their husband had enough money to support them both). But now-a-days running a home tends to be a shared activity. So neither marriage nor having a child should now interfere with a woman's Service career.
However, my
Politically Correct credentials fully on display, I will return to the good old days of the all-male RAF! What prompts me is my having scanned a few more photos from Arthur's collection. The date is 1937-9, when he learned to fly in the RAFVR at the 'London Air Park', Hanworth, North London. First, a view of the location. Only Hanworth House (then a hotel) still stands (though it's now sealed-up). The hangar, machine gun range (top right) and concrete apron, installed in 1938, are long gone. The ground where they stood now gets paced by people walking their dogs, on what is now a public amenity area:
The following picture shows Arthur seated, ready to demonstrate his skills for his final Wings test:
Lastly, Arthur about to take-off to practice formation flying:
The latter was with Flt Lt Rowley, the ex-chief pilot with Alan Cobham's Flying Circus, mentioned earlier in the Thread. Some of Arthur's early lessons were with this instructor. On one occasion, he got told to 'Hurry up!' as he walked out to the aircraft, a Blackburn B2. Arthur quickly clambered in, not giving himself time to do up his parachute harness or strap himself in. Rowley started the engine and immediately took-off and then headed west, evidently in some sort of hurry. After a while he started a steep turn and shouted 'There they are!' Arthur replied through the Gosport intercom: 'Yes Sir... who?' They were now flying low over Windsor Great Park and back came the answer: 'The King and Queen, of course!' Sure enough, below was a Landau. In it were King George V and Queen Mary, the open carriage being towed by four white horses. They were on their way from Windsor Castle to Ascot to open the racing season. Going round again, Rowley suddenly closed the throttle and put the aircraft into a steep glide alongside the procession. Then, a moment later, opened up again and pulled the aircraft sharply to the right, behind a row of trees. Afterwards, Arthur had a bit of a story to relate. The aircraft had certainly been identifiable from the lettering on its side... what would be their fate? A couple of months in the Tower? Happily, nothing came of it, so Arthur had no reason to regret this early lesson in just
having a bit of fun! 