Description
Object description
British fitter served with 3 Air Service Depot in France, 1918; served as fitter at Maude Park airfield, Baghdad, Iraq, ca 1919-1922; served with Royal Navy, 1939-1942; served as warrant officer with Air Training Corps in Romsey area, GB, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Newhaven, GB, 1900-1917: education; father's employment coaling ships; initial employment; employment as messenger boy at Newhaven Docks, 1914-1915; work checking goods for Navy Army Canteen Board in Newhaven Docks, 1915-1917; background to volunteering for Royal Flying Corps, 1917. Recollections of training with Royal Flying Corps at Wendover, GB, 1917-1918: prior movements; reputation of RFC; reception including issue of bed and first meal; daily routine; formation of RAF, 1/4/1918; outbreak of impetigo and scabies. Period training as rigger with RAF at Fort Tregantle, 1918. Volunteering for overseas service at Blandford Camp, 1918. Aspects of period as fitter at 3 A S D ??? in France, ca 6/1918-11/1918: nearby pilot pool; bombsight; opinion of RE8; method of starting aircraft engines; contact with famous pilot; visits to brothels; German bombing raids; hospitalisation after crash landing during flight in Rumpler; reception on return to GB. Hospitalisation and convalescence in Hampstead and Golders Green, London, ca 1918-1919.
REEL 2 Convalescence and medical treatment at Golders Green, ca 1918-1919. Period with 30 Training Sqdn, RAF, Northolt, 1919: learning to drive lorry; duties during railway strike driving lorry carrying milk from Chippenham to London. Voyage aboard Himalaya to Bombay, India, 1919. Movements in India, 1919. Recollections of period at Maude Park airfield, Baghdad, Iraq, ca 1919-1922: success in refusing to board ship in unsanitary state prior to voyage to Basra; journey by riverboat and lorry to Baghdad; composition of RAF force; reception; assembling aircraft in rigging sheds; Sikh perimeter guards; precautions and story of false alarm during guard duties; effects of heat on aircraft; promotion to acting sergeant; method of assembling and rigging aircraft; story of forced landing after losing undercarriage during flight to check airworthiness in DH9; story of accompanying pilot on successful mission to rescue wife of political officer <Mrs Buchannan> captured by Arab Nomads; refusal of decoration and subsequent mention in despatches; evasion of kit inspection during visit from VIP; operational flights; political situation; food rations.
REEL 3 Continues: role of bombing missions; building Sopwith Snipe and test flight; reprimand for mixing with OR on return to GB, 3/1922; uniforms; concert party; question of liaisons with women; visits to archaeological sites; journey by train to Basra; voyage via India back to GB, 3/1922; preparing airfields and fuel dumps in Arabian desert for air mail route from Heliopolis, Egypt to Baghdad, 1921; crash of first air mail DH10 aircraft, 1921. Demobilisation, 1922. Inter-war career: rejection by Imperial Airways; stories of work as steward on cross-Channel voyages from Newhaven to Dieppe, 1922-1939; evacuation of British civilians from France, ca 9/1939. Recollections of period serving with Royal Navy, 1939-1942: role carrying troops in convoys from Southampton to France, ca 1939-1940; lack of escort on return journey; role acting as hospital ship evacuating wounded from Dieppe, ca 1940; sinking of ship during air attack whilst loading wounded at Dieppe, ca 5/1940; drive to St Valery; evacuation to GB; over-crowded state during trip to evacuate troops from Dunkirk, 5/1940; story of being sunk by German bombing off Gravelines during second trip to Dunkirk, ca 5/1940; abandoning ship in lifeboats; being towed by tugboat; story of voyage to evacuate troops from Brest, ca 6/1940.
REEL 4 Continues: story of trip aboard Princess Josephine Charlotte in failed attempt to evacuate troops from Brest, ca 6/1940; story of German air attack while berthed in Southampton, 1940; background to discharge from navy on medical grounds, 1942. Period as warrant officer with Air Training Corps in Romsey area, 1942-1945: prior rejection on medical grounds from call up to RAF, 1942; role preparing pre-entrants for joining RAF. Work as school attendance and youth employment officer. Various aspects of service, 1918-1945: story illustrating lack of experience, 1918; view of infantry moving into base camps, 1918; contacts with various pilots, 1918; war situation, 1940-1944; trip to evacuate troops from Dunkirk, 5/1940; visit to RAF Northolt, ca 1990s; use of foghorn signals in crossing English Channel, ca 1922-1940; work as master of arms on various ships.