Bearded Millie winner

[tmmorris]

No doubt there's a really good reason but what is going on here?

https://twitter.com/royalairforce/status/782941719998390276

[MPN11]

There are medical conditions which preclude shaving ... there was bearded pilot on one of the sqns at Tengah in the 60s.

[Dougie M]

Surely the last officially authorised full set in 1935


http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag76/dougiemarsh/60a7f3d4-cb79-4da6-b9ba-9b173aac55a0_zpsxirdnau7.jpg

[MPN11]

Ah, but KG V was also an Admiral of the Fleet, where such adornments were almost mandatory ;)

<shiver> seeing the then POW as an ACM. Gross, but went with the territory of course.

PS ... how/when did KG V earn his wings?

[tmmorris]

MPN11 no doubt, but that looks shaped to me. Maybe that's an illusion. And I thought it was to be kept clipped pretty short (no. 1)

[NutLoose]

We had someone at Odious with one, he was required to shave it off once a year or so, allowing the quack could see if his condition had improved.

[fergineer]

I had a beard for my last 12 years medical condition and also flew with a pilot that had one too. Nothing strange or weird.

[reynoldsno1]

Me too - and there were a couple of others in the kipper fleet (no, not RN exchange either ...)

[57mm]

You can add the Talking Armpit in the F4 force.....

[Basil]

I had one in the MN and again in civil aviation but removed it when, as my wife frequently reminds me, a young lady across the road said that it made me look old :cool:

[Tankertrashnav]

Me too - and there were a couple of others in the kipper fleet

I knew one of them, but only got to know him after he left. Welsh Nimrod pilot - no doubt he is one of those you refer to. No idea what his beard was like when serving, but to quote Blackadder, by the time I knew him it was a beard you could hide a badger in!

[Mick Strigg]

The tame Crab on 705 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Culdrose always grew a full set...........because he could!

[Warmtoast]

MPN11

PS ... how/when did KG V earn his wings?He didn't. Although George V wore the pilots brevet on his uniform he never trained to fly. The Duke of York (later George VI) served in the RAF 1918-1919, gaining his wings in 1919. He was followed by his brothers Edward Prince of Wales (King Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor) in 1929 and Prince George (later Duke of Kent) in 1930.
ISTR Royal flight training at the time took place at Northolt.

[Vortex_Generator]

There are medical conditions which preclude shaving ...

and certain religions, though surely this is discriminatory?

[NutLoose]

There was another Gentleman at Odious in my time that wore a blue hankie on his head, the annoying part was that it was for "religious grounds" and he could also grow his hair, however, the minute he was off duty and out of uniform the hankie was relegate to his pocket and his hair was dropped over his shoulders.
We all were hoping he would be seen and his religious grounds excuse would be removed, but it never was.

[Danny42C]

On the RAF Ski School at Gulmarg (Kashmir) 1945-46, shaving was optional because the intense morning cold in the requisitioned wooden summer hotels made shaving an agony. But when you finished your month's Course, you had to shave the growth off when you rejoined your unit back in India.

As for the permanent Instructional Staff (there was a Wg Cdr O.C.), I suppose they could grow a "full set" - if the unit lasted that long ! I was on the first Course, starting just before Christmas in 1945, finishing end of January, 1946. Don't know when it was disbanded.

It had been set up as a R&R facility before the end of hostlities in August, 1945, but, I suppose , inertia and in the chaos of those first few months, nobody thought to stop it opening as planned.

But there is more - Google gives me:
John Angelo Jackson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Angelo_Jackson)

in which appears:
"Kashmir (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir).

1944 Chief Instructor at the R.A.F. Mountain Training Centre, Kashmir Himalaya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalaya)"

(All this I did not know of till five minutes ago)

It was a pukka RAF unit: there must be an ORB somewhere.

Danny.

[Wander00]

Danny - the depth of your knowledge and skills in research leave me in awe. keep going , dear electronic colleague

[taxydual]

57mm

You can add the Talking Armpit in the F4 force.....

Wow, what a description. So apt. I'm 99.9% certain I know to whom you refer.

D*** E**** perchance?

[Wander00]

TD/57mm - there has to be a story there, but probably not open to re-telling...........

[57mm]

Taxy dual, hole in one....

[Wander00]

Seen one of the Royal Dukes - Kent or Gloucester - in RAF uniform with a set, on the balcony of Buck House recently

[Union Jack]

Much more likely to have been HRH Prince Michael of Kent, I suggest, whose eligibility to wear the wings of all three Services remains clouded in mystery - rather like his chum TCT and her RAF wings....:=

Jack

[Archimedes]

ISTR reading somewhere that PMoK gained his wings at some point in the early 60s, but via a course which involved instruction on a Chipmunk assigned to the Queen's Flight ; I'm sure that there was reference on here some while ago to his doing what was presumably a truncated course of some sort, including the name of his QFI. I suspect the sadly- departed Coffman Starter was the source of the info.

[Wander00]

You have lost me - TCT?

[Haraka]

Wander 00 .True , she probably would get lost all by herself........

[Wander00]

aah, the Boeing, Boeing lady.....

[Warmtoast]

Prince Michael of Kent. Not sure where or when he gained his wings, but here's a photo of him in RAF uniform sporting a pilot's brevet.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Prince%20Michael%20of%20Kent_zps5n84c1ee.jpg