Matthew ‘Matt’ Trotter
Matthew ‘Matt’ Trotter (1939 – 2021) was born on 14th January 1939 in Washington, County Durham, to Bob and Rosie Trotter. He had five siblings, Joe, Jackie, Bobbie, Billy and Maggie. Matt joined the RAF aged 15, after his father and brothers. He reached the rank of Sergeant in Bomber...
Mervyn Stuart-Smith
Mervyn Stuart-Smith (1927 – 2021) was born on 28th January 1927 to Beatrice and Gilbert Smith in Frenchay, near Bristol and had a younger sister Margaret. Mervyn’s early life was impacted by the Second World War and the death of his mother at the age of fourteen. Following his National...
Michael (Mike) Lewis
Michael (Mike) John Lewis (1950 – 2019) was born to Beryl and Jim Lewis on 1st January 1950. He had a younger sister, Annie. The family moved frequently with his father’s RAF postings, but often returned to his Grandparents’ farm in Kinsley, Yorkshire. Michael started boarding at Pocklington School in...
Michael John Sawbridge
Michael John Sawbridge (1937-2015) was born on 21 October in Brazil where his father had settled after the First World War. After boarding school in England and a brief spell as an accountant, Mike was called up to do his national service. He served in the RAF and later became...
Michael Penny
Michael Penny was born on 28 July 1917 in Taunton. During World War II, he served in the RAF before rejoining the family timber business when the war ended. Michael enjoyed playing sports, particularly tennis, squash, and hockey, and walking trips across the country. He married his wife Jean in...
Michael Tudor
Michael Tudor (1965 – 2019) was born in Liverpool to Cathy. He had two sisters, Tina and Alison. He passed his 11+ and went to Campion grammar school but left without any qualifications. He left home at 16 and did various jobs in Liverpool. He met his life partner, Diane,...
Michael Wagner
Michael Wagner (1917 – 2017)was born in London on 2 November, the second of three children. He joined the army during World War II and, after being captured in North Africa, managed to escape from an Italian Prisoner of War Camp, spending five months hiding in a chapel. After the...
Michael Walmsley
Michael Walmsley was born on 9th September 1960 to Pauline and Roy. He had a younger brother, David, and was close to his maternal grandparents. He grew up in Holywell Green, West Yorkshire. Michael was a lifelong Liverpool FC supporter, travelling all over England to watch them play and sometimes...
Michel Prigent
Michel Pierre William Prigent (1943-2019) was born in Hereford, to Margaret and Pierre. He was the eldest child of four, with brothers Alain, William and sister Jean. The first three years of his life were spent in England and then in Brittany, but the family followed his dad’s postings first...
Mona Stakes
Mona Stakes (1927–2019) was born in Dewsbury, the only child of Leonard and Florrie Spurr. She had an idyllic childhood which came to an end when her dad fell ill and died when she was only ten. Mona grew up very quickly, taking responsibility for many of the household chores....
Neil Faraday
Neil Michael James Faraday (1968-2018) was born Neil Redhead in Cambridgeshire, to Margaret and John. He was the middle child of three, with brothers Martin and Andrew. He went to Dartford Road Infants and Westwood Primary School and then on to Hereward School for his secondary education. Neil’s first job...
Nic Snow
Nic Snow (1963 – 2019) was born in Hammersmith to Betty and Alf. He had three siblings, Malcolm, Elaine and Chris. His parents separated when Nic was nine, and he and Chris spent a year in New Zealand with their father. On return, Nic spent chunks of time with his...
Nicholas John Levine
Nick was born on 21st December 1938 the second child (Catherine was born 1935) of Sydney and Leila. The family were evacuated to Berkhamsted while Sydney stayed mostly in London working at the Ministry of Supply and on air raid duty. After the war the family moved to Highgate where...
Nicholas Price
Nicholas Ernest Price (1939-2018) Nick was born in Stanmore in Middlesex to Ernest and Margaret Price. He had an elder sister, June. Nick’s first job was in avionics with Ultra Electronics in Park Royal. Later he joined the family business making pottery vases. Nick married Frances, ‘the girl next door’,...
Nigel Watson
Nigel Jerome Edwin Watson (1947–2019) was born in Southall, one of seven children, and grew up mainly in Putney and in Wolverhampton. He was a talented guitarist, singer and composer. He collaborated and toured with numerous well-known artists, in particular, Peter Green. Nigel had three children, Josh and Alistair in...
Noel Gibbard
Noel Gibbard (1922 – 2018) was born on 12th December 1922 in Hornsey, London, to May Mallard and William Gibbard. He had an older brother and sister, Roger and Rosalie. His childhood home was in Folkestone but he was evacuated during the war. Noel trained at the officer cadet training...
Olive Elsie Leech
Olive Elsie Leech was born on 7th June 1921 the first child of John and Elsie Dainton. Growing up in North Islington, London, Olive had to take care of her younger siblings, Ken, Albert, Jack and the twins Stanley and Edith as their mother was often unwell. With the start...
Olive Settle
Olive Settle was born on the 29th July 1928, the daughter of a senior nurse and a head gardener, and her childhood, growing up in the gardener’s house in a park, was a lonely one, though one which taught her to love nature. She signed up under age into the...
Olive Smith
Olive Smith (1938-2017) was born and raised in Harrogate, the younger of two children. She met John, her first husband, when she was 20 and lived with him in Singapore whilst he served with the RAF. Upon returning from Asia, she and John lived at various air bases in and...
Oliver Fyson
Oliver Fyson (1953 – 2020) was born in Witney on 31st October 1953 to Richard and Ella. He was the fourth of five children. He was the first member of his family to go to university. He studied engineering at City University in London. Once qualified, Oliver worked on a...
Olivia ‘Livvie’ MacDonald
Olivia ‘Livvie’ MacDonald (1934-2018) grew up in war-time Birmingham and remembers the Lancaster bombers leaving the Longbridge works near her home. She had a sister, Ruth, and a brother, John. Livvie learned guitar and performed locally in a folk band. She joined The Royal Signals as a radio operator in...
Otto Ephrem Carballo
Otto Carballo (1945-2018) was born and raised in Trinidad, the youngest of six. He won a scholarship to a prestigious secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago, and then to the University of the West Indies. He later won a government scholarship to study architecture in England. When he was 23,...
Pam Llewellyn
Pamela Llewellyn (1933 – 2017) was born Pamela Jones in Bromley on 28 September. She studied History at Birmingham University and then went on to obtain a PGCE in London, allowing her to become a teacher. She held a variety of teaching posts, eventually ending up as the Head of...
Pat Berry
Pat Berry (1927 – 2020) was born in Sunderland on 5th May 1927 to Celia and Leonard. She had two siblings, Celia and Len. Pat passed her eleven plus exams and attended Bede grammar school, where she became head-girl. She was only twelve when WWII started. Pat trained at Langham...
