RAF Local Residents

Exhibition research by Joan West

The Royal Air Force was formed from the Royal Flying Corps in 1918. Several men who trained in those early days had homes here during WW2, by then high ranking officers.

A full history of each was given at an exhibition by The Local History Group in 2018 giving photographs, details of their lifetime careers, their honours and awards, families and their association here with other details such as the planes they flew.

Clive Adams RAF. Owned 'Summer Hayes', Main Road, Lacey Green in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Background.

Imperial Airlines was formed in 1924 at the request and support of the government by merging 3 airlines.  The brief was to establish flying routes worldwide to transport mail, facilitate settlement, contact and trade around the Empire, being faster than the slow shipping routes then used.  Based at Croydon Airport, south of London, local services were discontinued.   Alan Cobham researched routes to South Africa, Australia and India, for which he was knighted.    It merged with BOAC in 1939.

All airlines were nationalized during WW2, run by RAF.

1939 August, Clive Adams was asked to survey Poole Harbour as a possible wartime base for Imperial Airways.

1942 RAF took over Poole Harbour Airport, renaming it RAF Hamworth

Researcher’s Note  By 1941 the established route to India and the Far East had become unusable because of the war, but bases in India were in urgent need of supplies in the fight against Japan.

1941 Clive Adams was flown out to Salala, Southern Saudi Arabia, in charge of a party to develop a new route.   The terrain was difficult, but in October a tented camp was set up in a coconut grove on the beach.   A kitchen and bathroom was built out of palm leaves and the first radio station was installed in a tent.   The completed route was opened up in 1942.   It was one of the most difficult routes in the world to organize on the ground.

Researcher’s Note.  Throughout WW2, the RAF, TATA,(Indian Airlines) and CNAC, (Chinese Airlines) worked this route.   They were involved in its development, carried the vital supplies and rescued refugees from Burma.   TATA serviced RAF planes and equipment.   After the fall of Burma CNAC based its headquarters in India for the remainder of the war.    NOTE. This Information is taken from “Merchant Airmen”, by the Air Ministry.   Account of British Civil Aviation, 1939-44.

Clive Adams also worked in America for 2 years, letting ‘Summer Hayes’ to a Russian woman and her daughter Natasha, while he was away.

Post WW2

After the war he returned to BOAC, with which Imperial Airways had been merged.  (The government did not want competition between airlines on these worldwide routes).

Wilfred Brown. Lived at The Crown, Church Lane, Lacey Green.

Wilf Brown was called up during WW2 into the RAF. He spent most of the war in India. He was taken ill when his body stopped sweating in the heat. In order to save his life he was sent to high altitude Kashmir to recover. Research Note. Barry Macey told me that Wilf always told what a beautiful place it was and that his recovery time was the best days of his life.

Air Vice Marshall Leslie William Cannon . Retired to 'Cairndale, Main Road, Lacey Green.                                                      

Service Career

1920 Joined RAF, boy mechanic, no 2 Technical Training Cranwell

1932 Engineering Officer, RAF Cranwell

1932 Engineering Officer, HQ RAF India.

1935 Flight Commander, no 60 Squadron

1937 Officer Commanding, no 5 Squadron, Northwest Frontier, India.

1938 Admin/ Personnel Staff. HQ Training Command.

1939 Staff Directorate of Operations (Home).

1940 Wing Commander, Eng. Staff Officer, HQ Bomber Command

1941 Chief Technical Officer, HQ no 21 Group.

1942 Officer Commanding RAF Watton.

1943(Mar) Deputy S.A.S.O. HQ no 83 Composite Group

1943(Nov) Officer Commanding no 138 Wing

1943(Dec) SOA, HQ, no 2 Group

1944 AOA, HQ no 2 Group.

1946 Group Captain, AOC, no 2 Group

1948 Assistant Commandant, RAF Staff College, Andover

1949 Air Commodore, Director of Organisation (Establishment)

1951-55 Acting Air Vice Marshall, Commander-in-chief, Royal Pakistan Air Force (1953 made Air Vice Marshall)

1955 Director-General of Organisation.

He continued to fly on operations as Officer Commanding, Watton and AOA, no 2 Group with both the RAF and USAAF for which he was awarded the US Silver Star.

He represented the RAF in athletics, boxing and pistol shooting.

Retirement

Retiring from the RAF, he returned to the Indian sub-continent as Senior Representative of Rolls Royce Ltd.

Honours and Awards

He was the first apprentice to attain the rank of Air Vice Marshall

1952 made Companion of the Order of the Bath.

1945 made CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire)

Mentioned in despatches, Feb 1938, Sept. 1941, Jan. 1945, Jan 1946

Squadron Leader John Granville "Dixie" Dean 'Dixie' and Edith Dean moved to to 'Griston', Goodacres Lane, Lacey Green in 1976.

Service Career

1936  Joined RAF Trained as Electronics Engineer at RAF Halton

WW2.  Postings around the Mediterranean

1949 Married Edith at Mansfield.  (Edith was a nurse in London)

1953-55   RAF Base near Newark.

1956-59   RAF Binbrook, (bomber squadrons)

1959-61   RAF Signals Officer, Jever, Germany. Researcher’s Note.  It was at RAF Jever that 'Dixie' met Bob Barcelon, who also retired to Lacey Green.

1961-63  Signals Development Squadron, RAF Watton, Norfolk.

1963-65   RAF Wyton, Cambs. 51 Squadron.    Researcher Note. It was only following the end of the Cold War that the signals intelligence role of the squadron was publicly recognized.

1965-68   RAF Watton, 360 Squadron, Joint Electronic Warfare Trials and Training Force.

1969-73  Strike Command, Walters Ash. Electronic Warfare.    Research Note.  During the years 1963- 73, Dixie’s work was top secret and he and Edith were restricted where they could travel for their own security.   He was awarded the MBE for the work he did at this time.

Post Retirement from the RAF

John 'Dixie' Dean then worked for Trend Communications, High Wycombe

He died in 1984 aged 61.                                                           

---

William Bernard Frederick. Circa 1938/9, he and his wife, Laura Matilda Frederick moved to the newly built house on Main Road in Lacey Green, which they named “Mandara”, a Hindu word meaning “Lantern of Peace”

1939 William Bernard Frederick who had retired from the RAF was granted a Commission in the RAF, Class CC as Flight Lieutenant

He died in 1941 aged 54. His name is on the WW2 War Memorial in St. John's Church, Lacey Green.

Group Captain Donald Osborne Finlay retired in 1959 to 'Chippins' Main Road, Lacey Green.

Research Note. "Don" Finlay was best known to the public as an athlete. An all round athlete competing in long jump, shot put, and javelin, but best remembered as a hurdler. He competed in the Olympic Games in 1932, 1936 and 1948, when he was Captain of the British Team and chosen to take the "Olympic Oath". In 1934 he won gold at the Empire Games and competing in 1950 (aged 41) he still finished 5th.

Service Career

1935 Joined the RAF

1936 School of Aeronautical Engineering

1939 Commanding Officer RAF Hornchurch, (Battle o Britain Spitfires)

Aug 1940 Shot down and wounded. Sept 1940 Officer Commanding 41 Squadron

1941 Promoted Wing Commander, Engineering Officer 11 Group.

1942 Commander no 608 Squadron (Lockheed Hudsons in Middle-East).

Dec 1943 to July 1944 Group Captain, Senior Air Staff Office, 210 Group.

1945 Office Commanding 906 Wing in Burma.

Post War

Senior Technical Training Officer, Halton.

1959 Retired                                                        

Honours and Awards

June 1942 Distinguished Flying Cross. His victory tally flying fighters was 4, with 2 shared, destroyed, 3, with 1 shared, damaged.

Sept 1944  Air Force Cross

Research Note

A Motor Accident in 1966 left Don confined to a wheelchair. He could not accept this new situation. He died in 1970.

Memorials

A stained glass window in RAF Acklington Chapel

A replica Tornado at RAF Coningsby.

A replica Spitfire at Entrance to RAF High Wycombe at Walters Ash (Bomber Command)                                                                                       

The Gymnasium, RAF Halton.

 Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet. Air Chief Marshal.   Stationed at Bomber Command, Walters Ash, WW2.

Researcher’s note.   Born 1892, being inspired by stories of Southern Rhodesia, he ducked out of boarding school aged 17 and in 1910 emigrated to Umtali, South Rhodesia, eventually establishing his own farm.    Being in the bush at the time, he only learned about WW1 a month after it was declared.

Service Career

1914 Harris joined the 1st Rhodesian Army Regiment serving with South African forces in South West Africa, where Germany was inflecting heavy bombing.

1915 sailed for England with 300 South African volunteers.

He applied for the Cavalry and Royal Artillery with no luck but was accepted for the Royal Flying Corps in November 1915. After learning to fly he was a second lieutenant.

1917 Flight Commander on the home front and in France. Nov. 1918. Awarded the Air Force Cross for Distinguished service.

Post WW1

Having married in 1916 to Barbara Money and now with a child, Harris, although he now thought of himself as a Rhodesian, decided to stay in England and remained in the newly formed RAF.

1920 Commander RAF Digby No.3 Flying Training School, followed by North West Frontier troubles in India and bombings and uprisings in Mesopotamia, (under British occupation) and Persia.

May 1922 He offered his resignation, wanting to go back to Rhodesia, but was persuaded to stay.                                                                                  1923.  He helped devise Area Bombing in Iraq

1924.  Air Commanding, first post-war Heavy Bombing Squadron, No 58, developing Night Training.

June 1927  Awarded OBE (order of the British Empire)

July 1927 promoted Wing Commander of a Flying-Boat Squadron, also developing Night Flying Operation Techniques.

June 1933 promoted to Group Captain

1934-1937  Deputy Director of Plans in the Air Ministry, with postings to Middle-East Command, Egypt as Senior Staff Officer.

Also in 1936, he helped Southern Rhodesia set up its own Air Force.

July 1937  Promoted to Air Commodore.

1938 Air Commanding no.4 Bomber Group.  He went on a purchasing mission in the USA. Then Officer Commanding the RAF in Palestine and Trans-Jourdan

July 1939 Promoted to Air Vice Marshall and with others pressured for Large Strategic Bombers             

WW2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Sept 1939  Command No 5 Group

Nov 1940 Deputy Chief Air of Staff                                                                                                                                                            Feb 1942   Appointed Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command

JUNE 1942 Appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

1942  The War Cabinet passed "The Area Bombing Directive" which advocated the area bombing of German cities.

Harris was directed to carry out this task. It became an important part of the total war waged against Germany

Maybe because it was not wholly endorsed by all in Government, including Churchill, who considered the policy distasteful, it appears that the general public were not told the full extent of the targets and official statements maintained they were only industrial and economic with civilian casualties being unintentional but unavoidable.  Harris urged the Government to be more honest with the public, although he himself did believe in the area bombing policy.

Aug 1944  Promoted to Air Chief Marshall

Awards 

Feb 1944  Awarded the Russian Order of Surorov, First Class

Jan 1945 Awarded the American Legion of Merit

Jun 1945  Awarded the Polish Order of Polonia Restituta, First Class

Jun 1945 Advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath  

Nov 1945 Appointed Knight Grand Cross, Southern Cross of Brazil

Jun 1946 Awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the USA

Retired September 1946              

Bomber Command's crews were eligible for the Air Crew Europe Star, France Star and German Star, but because the late bombing of Dresden was considered by many to have been unnecessary, they were denied a separate Campaign Medal.

Harris refused a peerage in 1946 in protest to this snub to his men.

He was the sole Commander-in-Chief not to become a peer.

Post WW2

1948 Harris moved to South Africa to manage the South African Marine Corporation from 1946 to 1953.  In 1953 He returned to live in England.

Feb 1953  Winston Churchill, once again Prime Minister, insisted that Arthur Harris accept a Baronetcy

Ivor William Kelloway, RAF. by Ian Kelloway, his son. Ivor and Joan Kelloway Lived at “The Haven”, Main Road, Lacey Green, post WW2

Ivor Kelloway decided the RAF was the career for him, when aged 4, on holiday near the prime naval port of Portland, he witnessed an air battle when some Swordfish took on some German bombers.

1941, aged 16, he joined the Air Training Corps.   A keen sportsman, he played cricket for Somerset and football for Yeovil, albeit because many of the first teams had been called up.

Military Career

Sept1943 Called up, (being a member of ATC).   Ironically to report to Lords (the home of cricket in London.   Training followed in a number of venues.   One in East Anglia using F.I.D.O. in which fuel was set alight alongside the runways to disperse the fog.   More training at 617 Squadron, (of dam busters fame), at that time hunting the German battleship “Tirpitz”.

Cranwell followed where he trained to be a navigator in Mosquitoes.   One training flight ended up overshooting the runway and his back was hurt. It was the day of the RAF football cup, he was patched up and declared fit, but while heading in the winning goal the goalie knocked him flying.   He came round in hospital, where he was kept for six weeks.

Back to Cranwell, where he was obliged to start again from scratch on a different course, this time for signalling.   Next, Blackpool for a course on movement control.      

Late 1944.  Posted to Bomber Command, Walters Ash, Ivor Kelloway was responsible for physical education and organizing fixtures for all types of sports and looking after the personal fixtures of all Bomber command aircrews.

Summer 1946.  Spent flying to airfields that were closing down, removing any equipment worth keeping and playing cricket for the RAF at King George V docks, Glasgow, to keep control of RAF equipment and also the kit of deceased airmen.                                                                                 After V.E. Day.   The RAF allowed the youths like Ivor to go one day a week to try out a civilian workplace.   Having a friend at Mill End School, High Wycombe, Ivor went there.

March 1947.  Posted to Swindon as R.T.O. (rail transport officer) to assist service personnel travelling by rail.

Ivor had applied for a place at St. Lukes College, Exeter for a two year course for teachers.   The RAF agreed to his discharge and also agreed sponsorship for him.

Personal History

Spring 1945.  Frank Chilton, stalwart of Lacey Green Sports Club, hearing there was a good cricketer at Bomber Command, cycled over to the base to invite him to come and play.  February 1947 (a winter of record snow) Ivor Kelloway, from Somerset, married Joan, the daughter of Frank and Elsie Chilton, of Lacey Green.       Ivor never lost his enthusiasm for sport and was for many years a school headmaster in High Wycombe.

For more links in Ivor history above for Ian Kelloway click Ian & Sue Kelloway , for

Sir Hugh Pughe LLoyd, Air Chief Marshall. Family home in WW2 'The Thatched House' Church Lane, Lacey Green

1915  Royal Engineer Sapper

1917 Royal Flying Corps (became Royal Air Force in 1918)

Jan 1918 Pilot no.52 Squadron. Reconnaissance / attack over France.

Sept 1918 Flight Commander no 52 Squadron

1924 Flight Commander no 16 Squadron

1939 Group Captain, Officer Commanding RAF Marham

WW2

1940  Senior Air Staff Officer, HQ no 2 Group                                                                                                                                                       1941 Air Officer Commanding RAF Mediterranean/ Air HQ Malta   

Jul 1942 Air Officer Commanding (Naval Co-Operation Group and Senior Air Staff Officer HQ Middle-East Command

Mar 1943 Air Officer Commanding North-west African Coastal Air.

Dec 1943 Air Officer Commanding, Mediterranean Allied Coastal                                                                                                                           Nov 1945  Commander Designate, Tiger Force (Heavy bombers against Japan). Force never implemented after atomic bomb on Hiroshima ended war.

Post WW2

Dec 1945  Senior instructor, Imperial Defence College.

1949 Commander in Chief, Air Command Far East Air Force.

1950 Air Officer Commander in chief, Bomber Command, Walters Ash.                           

Retired 1953                                                           .

Honours and Award

June 1918 Military Cross

Sept 1918 Croix De Guerre

Feb 1919 Distinguished Flying Cross

May 1936 Mentioned in Despatches

Sept 1941 made Commander of the British Empire (CBE)

Jan 1942   made Companion of the order of the Bath.

July 1942  made Knight of the British Empire (KBE)

1944  French Legion d'Honeur

1944  Legion of Merit, USA

June 1951 Upgraded to Knight Commander of the Bath

June 1953 Upgraded to Grand Knight Cross Order of the British Empire

Researcher’s notes.  It was reported that “Hugh Pughe did not “abide by the book, and proved extremely successful during his tenure as AOC, Malta. He seemed to have an eye for selecting the right people.  At one point he commissioned a Sergeant Pilot, who rose to become Air Marshall. He believed in improvisation and would support his subordinates to the hilt”.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Vic Southon. Lived at Beggar's Roost, Foundry Lane, Loosley Row.

Vic joined the RAF in 1949. After basic training he trained as a radio technician.

1851 Officer training as a pilot at Cranwell, then posted to Egypt, flying fighter Gloster Meteors.

Several postings followed in the Cold War. UK postings flying Javelins, which had replaced the Meteor in 1956. He was posted to Bomber Squadron flying Vulcans, but his heart remained in Fighter Command.

Training on Bloodhound Missiles at RAF Scampton, may have decided Vic to leave the RAF in order to be able to continue "hands-on" flying - his great love.

POST RAF. In 1967 having obtained his Airline Transport Pilots' License he joined British Airways, flying Boeing 707s, VC10s and 747s worldwide. Having to retire at 55 he then became one of Richard Branson's original pilots for Virgin Atlantic, until his retirement.

Vic died in December 2017 aged 88

John Timothy "Timmy" Tempest.   Lived at Virginia Cottage, Main Road, Lacey Green.

Timmy joined the RAF Volentry Reserve. After basic training he became a flying officer. In WW2 he was a navigator in bombers over France.

In 1943 WW2. Based Nr. Misrata, North-West Libya (recently taken from the Italians).   Timmy was Navigator in a crew of seven, under Pilot Micky Vertigan when an accident occurred - - -  

Rearcher’s Notes from the book ‘Down in the Drink’.  On a night bombing mission to cut off roads converging on Tunis in, order to finally push the German Afrika Korps out of Africa, they took off from Misrata, in a Halifax.    A “freakishly” hot air temperature, caused the 4 engines to fail, one by one.   They put down in the Mediterranean, where they escaped into their dinghy, Timmy Tempest only able to estimate their position. They drifted ashore on the eleventh morning onto a desolate coast, weak from lack of water and food and very sunburnt. They were rescued by local, (friendly) Arabs.

Timmy awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross)

Douglas Tilbury. Lived at Parslows Hillock Cottages no 2

1952 - 1954 National Servce in the RAF.

Served on 56 Squadron Fighter Command, fitting. refuelling and servicing the engines on the Meteor Mk 8. The Gloster Meteor was the first operational jet fighter. It went on to become a Fighter Bomber and Reconnaissance Fighter.

click Doug Tilbury for Doug's life story