Worked with Norman Whitelock at Hack Green in the 60's.


Neil Broadbent (EX RN/FAA.) Bob Drinkwater ex Lanc rear gunner and
?Chadwick (he was an ADC to the Duke of Kent who was killed in the Sunderland crash.......all at ATC Manchester at the time.

TR Newton was at EGBB ATCO i/c ex RAF (NON aircrew).
George Russell ex RAF Upper gunner Lancs ..was at AIS EGPK and then i/c AIS EGBB


Few more but the memory is not what it was!! (retired in 1986 after 27 yrs

Harry and Hugh (Q) McGrath
 

Q is well covered elsewhere. He was a legend at Aldergrove though he had left/retired before I got there in 1969. Harry was I think someone quite different. Harry ran the Aerodrome FTU at Aberdeen at which I was a student in 1967. Harry did indeed have a limp; plus thumbstick, deerstalker and plus fours too. I don't think Harry was air crew. The story was that he served under Fritzroy Maclean (Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean) in Yugoslavia, working with Tito's partisans. Exactly what Harry's military status was remained a bit obscure - possibly SOE though Maclean had served with the SAS in Africa.

Ex RAF in ATC
 

Pete Dinham ( ATC at EGKK in the 70's) was in the RAF and was an "extra" in the Dambuster film when it was being filmed at Hemswell......
Iman

How about Basil Friendship, ATCO.

A real character at Stansted when I was there in the late 70's. Sergeant Friendship, DFM and bar (the non-com equivalent of the DFC, and much rarer...). Posted to France with No 3 Sqn (Hurricanes) on 10th May 1940. Started with 2 HS126s on the 12th, 2 Me109s and a Ju87 on the 14th, an Me109 and a Heinkel 111 damaged on the 15th, He111 on the 17th, Ju87 on the 18th, shared a He111 on the 19th and finished with an Hs126 on the 20th....

Totally irreverent with managers and one-time publisher of "Transmit".

Top bloke.

Bob Cheyne, lastly at IANS in Luxembourg. If he wasn't ex-mil. his moustache certainly was

FLTLT Tom Currie DFM, ex WW2 SIG and instructor at Shawbury on the GCA courses at Sleap in the mid 60s. A real gent!

Levesley. I thought you may have mentioned Bill Eames who ended up as Chief Officer at Aldergrove. He had left before I arrived there in 1985 but he can still be found in the mess on occasion.

D-Day at 70: War hero Bill Eames on his part in the Normandy landings - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Bill Eames
 

I don't ever remember anyone at EGAA ever mentioning his service. He took over as Chief Officer well before I left in 76 but I don't ever remember any discussion about him or with him that even hinted at his war service. Bill's office was in an adjoining building so he wasn't ever an everpresent in the tower so contact was more fleeting than with the watch keeping staff.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned Larry Curry, ex-SATCO Leavesden. He was badly burned in the war but I know nothing else.

Sadly, Basil Friendship passed away in 2001.

I just remembered - good friend of mine, with whom I have long lost contact - was Trevor Devine St John-Murphy - "Spud" to his mates. I believe Spud flew Mossies. Typical ex-RAF aircrew Spud had a huge handlebar moustache and he was as mad as a hatter. Doing outbound radar at SATCC one day a Comet asked to stop climb with a pressurisation problem. Spud, recently having had a fam flight on a Comet, told him it was probably the pressure dome at the back of the aircraft. Minutes later the Comet asked to continue climb and asked how Spud had known the cause. "It's this new radar; very sensitive you know!"

Mention of Spud Murphy who I met at LATCC c1971 reminds me of assistant Arthur Bramall who like Spud, hard a large amount of face fungus.
Arthur once told us that during his flying training, he was given a check ride by another instructor who told him to do a steep turn. He omitted to say 'one' steep turn and they did 13 before the instructor told him to stop!!

Spud Murphy
 

Does anyone herein remember Spud's biscuit-tin? IIRC - and it's nearly 40 years ago mind - a local-to-him bakery had a run of biscuit tins made with a scene out of Lowry gracing the lid and sides. Unfortunately, they'd not checked the artwork before placing the order, and the first batch were released into the shops with a scene more out of one of Ron Jeremy 's movies. Spud managed to get one of these before the shelves were cleared.

Was that the one with the cricket game on the lid? I had one, sold it at auction a couple of years ago for 400 quid,

BOB?? Was Bob Drinkwater. Rode to work occasionally at the old tower in Manchester on a big hunter!

I knew George to at Brize from 1980, he left sometime prior to 1983 to Cosford (he lived in Wolverhampton) from where he retired so definitely not Stanislaw Lapka.

I worked with George Lapka also at Brize I was there 1980 to 1983 he left before I did to go to Cosford ATC prior to retiring he lived in Wolverhampton.
He told me he flew Hurricanes at the start of the war supposedly during the Battle of Britain period before moving on to Spitfires and eventually Mustangs which he told me he was flying on D-Day staffing the beaches for the invasion and air support there after. However I have searched many sites and found no mention of him as a Battle of Britain pilot nor anything to confirm what I was told is true but he definitely was a Master Pilot so did fly as Sgt or Master aircrew in that period. There where also two Master Navigators at Brize at that time one in ATC George Elland interesting guy who explained the fine art of astral navigation to me on one nights shift then there was a Master Nav in charge of Flight Planning too he was Master Nav Edwards (first name escapes me) he lived in Witney and retired during my time at Brize I believe.

Master Navigator "Ness" Edwards was in the flight planning department at Brize whilst there was another Master Signaller/Air Electronics Officer who worked in the navigation department who, I was told served on Lancasters with the very secret 101 Squadron based at Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire during World War II and for some reason was known as "Harry Chunkers" There was also Master Pilot Jack Meakin in the ATC tower at Brize who was a post war Meteor and Javelin pilot and instructor.

Tony Boo
 

I have a copy of Kenneth G Wynn's book 'Men of The Battle of Britain'. There is a Lapka mentioned, Stanislaw not George. After service with the Polish Air Force he joined 302 Sqn when it formed on 13/7/40 flying Hurricanes. He survived the war, settled in England and died in 1978.

I met Larry Curry back in the early 80s. Didn't know him at all well but I'm pleased to say he was instrumental in the early days of my career during a rather sticky patch. Also believe that Vic Jackson worked at an ATCO around that time - previously on Vampires and the King's Flight, I was told.

Have trawled through previous posts but couldn’t find mention of these two. John Halloway, Heathrow and LATCC, previously Spitfire and Hurricane in the far east and Reg Hussey, LATCC ATCO 1 crew chief Lancaster pilot with, at least two tours, unfortunately, they bit him some 30 years later but he came through it. Great blokes to work with for a young sprog like I was. I was, and I remain, greatly honoured to have considered them friends. Unfortunately, I lost touch with Reg but met regularly with John and his wife Val (also in ATC at Heathrow and LATCC) until their demise in November last year. Greatly missed.