Wee Weasley Welshman
11th Nov 2017, 08:23
Impressive obituary in The Times today. Anybody here any insight on the chap?
In 1957 Peter Bairsto won an Air Force Cross for a near-impossible “dead-stick” landing in which he saved his aircraft, a Hawker Hunter. Over the next quarter-century he notched up more than 5,000 flying hours and gained a reputation so high in the esteem of his fellow commanders that late in his career — when he was expecting to retire to Scotland — he would be “plucked, promoted, knighted, and sent south” to be the deputy commander of RAF Strike Command on the eve of the 1982 Falklands war.
It was Bairsto who would deliver urgently needed extra firepower in the shape of ten GR1 and GR3 Harriers in a complex logistics operation involving flights to Ascension Island using air-to-air refuelling. The aircraft later carried out decisive ground-attack operations against Argentine positions as British forces made perilous amphibious landings at San Carlos.
Bairsto was sought out for the job by Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Williamson, the commander-in-chief of RAF Strike Command, with whom he had worked before. Bairsto had gained a reputation as a forceful station commander at RAF Honington in Suffolk, where he was nicknamed “the Bear”.
As a boy he had dreamt of becoming a pilot. He volunteered to fly in 1944 as soon as he reached 18 and was one of those who braved a high accident rate among those pilots flying early jet fighter aircraft, such as the Gloster Meteor. “Places like [the training establishment at] Driffield were a Meteor bloodbath,” he noted. “At Worksop, where I instructed, we counted on one fatality a month . . . when 43 Squadron converted to the first Hunters we had six serious crashes, including fatalities, in the first six months.”
He was lucky to survive. While flying far out over the North Sea on a day of thick cloud in 1956, Bairsto heard the engine on his Hawker Hunter cut out at 42,000ft. Instead of bailing out he made a circling approach and managed to glide the aircraft safely to a landing at RAF Leuchars.
It was an era when flying prowess was used for Cold War propaganda. Bairsto commanded the “Fighting Cocks” formation team of 43 Squadron, which several times won the competition to be the RAF’s official display team. However, he came to deplore what he called “the British propensity to produce magnificent flying machines with excellent engine/airframe combinations that were totally inadequate as integrated weapons systems”. He said the American F86 Sabre jet fighter was “the finest aircraft” he flew.
Peter Edward Bairsto was born in Liverpool in 1926, the son of Arthur Bairsto — who ran the family business, Bairsto Dairy, supplying milk to passenger liners — and his wife, Beatrice. The family moved out of the city to live in north Wales, where Peter attended Rhyl Grammar School and learnt to speak Welsh. After training with the Fleet Air Arm in Canada, he transferred to the RAF.
While serving in Palestine after the war, he was wounded in a terrorist attack on an armoured car, which left shrapnel in his leg for the rest of his life. He met his future wife, Kathleen Clarbour — always known as Kathie — at a beach party on Christmas Day in 1946. The couple were married the next year in Jerusalem. They had a daughter, Helen, who became an investment banker, as well as gaining her pilot’s licence, and two sons, Nigel and Clive, who joined the RAF and became air vice-marshals. The family remember joining Bairsto on a posting to Cyprus, where he took them all for a flight in a four-engined Handley Page Hastings transport aircraft that was based at RAF Nicosia.
In 1979 he was made Commander, HQ Northern Maritime Air Region/AOC Scotland & Northern Ireland, and he joined Strike Command in 1981. He remained a man of forceful opinion.
His daughter learnt to fly and his sons became air vice-marshals
Bairsto grew fond of Scotland and he and Kathie made their home at St Andrews. He played golf, enjoyed fishing on the Spey and was a good shot. When he retired in 1984 he became an adviser to Ferranti and worked part-time for the Lord Chancellor’s Office on planning inquiries.
Kathie died in 2008. Two years later Bairsto married Pamela Braid (née Gibson), a long-time family friend. She survives him, with his daughter and sons.
Bairsto was a great admirer of the Americans. An acquaintance remembers a conversation about Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire Dr Strangelove, with its portrayals by George C Scott and Sterling Hayden of characters said to be based on the US air force chief General Curtis LeMay and his deputy, General Thomas Power. Asked about Power, Bairsto is said to have replied that he was “an unequalled air force logistician”. When his friend commented that many people thought Power was “off the wall”, Bairsto replied: “Well, no one’s perfect!”
Air Marshal Sir Peter Bairsto, KBE, RAF officer, was born on August 3, 1926. He died on October 24, 2017, aged 91
WWW
In 1957 Peter Bairsto won an Air Force Cross for a near-impossible “dead-stick” landing in which he saved his aircraft, a Hawker Hunter. Over the next quarter-century he notched up more than 5,000 flying hours and gained a reputation so high in the esteem of his fellow commanders that late in his career — when he was expecting to retire to Scotland — he would be “plucked, promoted, knighted, and sent south” to be the deputy commander of RAF Strike Command on the eve of the 1982 Falklands war.
It was Bairsto who would deliver urgently needed extra firepower in the shape of ten GR1 and GR3 Harriers in a complex logistics operation involving flights to Ascension Island using air-to-air refuelling. The aircraft later carried out decisive ground-attack operations against Argentine positions as British forces made perilous amphibious landings at San Carlos.
Bairsto was sought out for the job by Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Williamson, the commander-in-chief of RAF Strike Command, with whom he had worked before. Bairsto had gained a reputation as a forceful station commander at RAF Honington in Suffolk, where he was nicknamed “the Bear”.
As a boy he had dreamt of becoming a pilot. He volunteered to fly in 1944 as soon as he reached 18 and was one of those who braved a high accident rate among those pilots flying early jet fighter aircraft, such as the Gloster Meteor. “Places like [the training establishment at] Driffield were a Meteor bloodbath,” he noted. “At Worksop, where I instructed, we counted on one fatality a month . . . when 43 Squadron converted to the first Hunters we had six serious crashes, including fatalities, in the first six months.”
He was lucky to survive. While flying far out over the North Sea on a day of thick cloud in 1956, Bairsto heard the engine on his Hawker Hunter cut out at 42,000ft. Instead of bailing out he made a circling approach and managed to glide the aircraft safely to a landing at RAF Leuchars.
It was an era when flying prowess was used for Cold War propaganda. Bairsto commanded the “Fighting Cocks” formation team of 43 Squadron, which several times won the competition to be the RAF’s official display team. However, he came to deplore what he called “the British propensity to produce magnificent flying machines with excellent engine/airframe combinations that were totally inadequate as integrated weapons systems”. He said the American F86 Sabre jet fighter was “the finest aircraft” he flew.
Peter Edward Bairsto was born in Liverpool in 1926, the son of Arthur Bairsto — who ran the family business, Bairsto Dairy, supplying milk to passenger liners — and his wife, Beatrice. The family moved out of the city to live in north Wales, where Peter attended Rhyl Grammar School and learnt to speak Welsh. After training with the Fleet Air Arm in Canada, he transferred to the RAF.
While serving in Palestine after the war, he was wounded in a terrorist attack on an armoured car, which left shrapnel in his leg for the rest of his life. He met his future wife, Kathleen Clarbour — always known as Kathie — at a beach party on Christmas Day in 1946. The couple were married the next year in Jerusalem. They had a daughter, Helen, who became an investment banker, as well as gaining her pilot’s licence, and two sons, Nigel and Clive, who joined the RAF and became air vice-marshals. The family remember joining Bairsto on a posting to Cyprus, where he took them all for a flight in a four-engined Handley Page Hastings transport aircraft that was based at RAF Nicosia.
In 1979 he was made Commander, HQ Northern Maritime Air Region/AOC Scotland & Northern Ireland, and he joined Strike Command in 1981. He remained a man of forceful opinion.
His daughter learnt to fly and his sons became air vice-marshals
Bairsto grew fond of Scotland and he and Kathie made their home at St Andrews. He played golf, enjoyed fishing on the Spey and was a good shot. When he retired in 1984 he became an adviser to Ferranti and worked part-time for the Lord Chancellor’s Office on planning inquiries.
Kathie died in 2008. Two years later Bairsto married Pamela Braid (née Gibson), a long-time family friend. She survives him, with his daughter and sons.
Bairsto was a great admirer of the Americans. An acquaintance remembers a conversation about Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire Dr Strangelove, with its portrayals by George C Scott and Sterling Hayden of characters said to be based on the US air force chief General Curtis LeMay and his deputy, General Thomas Power. Asked about Power, Bairsto is said to have replied that he was “an unequalled air force logistician”. When his friend commented that many people thought Power was “off the wall”, Bairsto replied: “Well, no one’s perfect!”
Air Marshal Sir Peter Bairsto, KBE, RAF officer, was born on August 3, 1926. He died on October 24, 2017, aged 91
WWW