E.R. 'Ted' Gordon

The Ted Gordon & Vince Gavin story….

Well,

As Julie mentioned, last Thursday I took dad to meet Julie, her husband and 2 sisters & we had a rare old time, just a pity of course that we were ten or so months too late, for Ted & Vince to have met for the first time in 46 years.

That, unfortunately – is life.

It was a great afternoon, my father loved it, the sight of Julie sitting next to this 87 year old former buddy of her father – sharing photographs and stories is something I will remember for a long time. So will dad / Vince Senior (I hope…)

Julie, thanks for the photos you emailed, I’ve printed them & sent them to dad.

Best regards
Vince Gavin (Junior)

After all these years and dad sadly passing away in January of this year tomorrow is f going to be a sad but exciting day.

Vince is bringing Vince senior to visit us after searching for dad for many years.

So althought these 2 veterans can sadly not meet at last, Vince senior and junior will be meeting Teds family and sharing the times that him and dad had together.

I really want to thank Key Publishing Forums as without u guys this would never have taken place..

Thanks so much

Will share all after the visit

Julie Gordon
In memory of E.R Ted Gordon AFC,

HI Vince

Have e mailed you earlier with some basic stuff on dad, just a snippet as there is so much tho. Its such a shame that they never caught up with each other, but i can tell u as much as i know of dads adventures so u can tell your dad.

One good thing is that one of Teds sons is a pilot so the family tradition still lives on, dad was really proud of it too. ( more of that in e mail)

we have a couple of things in pipeline at the moment, in contact wiht handley page Association as they are very interested in us sharing some of dads history with the Victor.

A;so O do beleive that 1 or 2 of the Victors are at Bruntingthorpe that dad flew. Teasing Tina and Lusty Linda, so we are looking into going there at some point ( more in e mail)

Anyway will be in touch shortly

Regards to you and your dad

Julie

Circle squared……..

Hello Julie,

Thanks your reply. Just in, and late, will have a look at the your email tomorrow – and reply. I’ve already sent dad (yesterday) your original post on this thread – by mail, he was pleased that we’ve managed to connect – but very, very sad that Ted has left us.

After we were in Aden, until ’65 – dad was in Norfolk for a year or so, and finished his RAF career “Down the hole” – radar stuff, at Patrington in East Yorkshire. He left the service in December 1967, 26 years to the date that he started – on his birthday in 1941. He lives in Hull, so not so far from you, by the sound of things.

Sad these two old boys – who will have had so much in common, never got together. perhaps one day…………..

I’ll be in touch shortly.

(Wait until you hear about the adventure I mentioned….)

Vince

Awww thanks Paul

I am totally blown away by this all, if i had one wish right now it would be that dad could know. It has made my day, with some tears of sadness but big tears of joy too……… Will keep you posted xx

Kind Regards

Julie

Yup – the forum at its best. Nothing wrong with this old thread…!

This is why I love this forum so much.

Re: Ted Gordon

Hi Vince,

I am so excited that we have found you, your post regarding dad made me cry as he gave so much to the world of aviation and for his family we are so proud of dads achievements in his flying life.

When Courtline folded, dad went on to work out in Libya, he took out the first Lear Jets off the production line to show King Idris of Libya. King Idris purchased some and one of them was registerd with Dads intials in the registration number.

After Libya dad went to Italy and worked in Rome for many years as a commercial pilot. The lastly before he retired he worked for ten years In Sardinia as a senior captain for Alisarda.

Dads was so passionate about his flying years, he could record times , days and dates of many adventures.. dating back as far as .. 1942 and his first ever flight in a Tiger Moth.

This is just a snippet of many many years of history, there is probably a lot more out there that we are not too aware of.

Anyway i have e mailed you and will be in touch over the next few days.

Kind Regards

Julie

Message for Old Crow

Hello Julie,

I was very sorry to hear about the death of your father, 6 years ago I actually found quite a bit of information about Ted, and spoke with a test pilot from the original Concorde, who knew and worked with him. Sadly I never located your dad, and then went off to work in Libya …..

Your father worked for Court Line in the 70’s, but the airline folded (I believe) when our Arab friends quadrupled the price of oil.

Dad last saw him in Aden in about 1964, when my father was based at RAF Khormaksar, on Belvederes, and your father was a test pilot with Handley Page. They also served together in the Berlin Airlift. I went with Dad in 1999 to Berlin for the 50th anniversary, it was a great week.

As a result of looking for Ted, my father and I had a wonderful adventure, though I’d better not put the details on a public forum. You’re right about that old email address, it expired some years ago. When you get the chance, please email me on: [email]bullharrigan@yahoo.co.uk[/email]

Thanks, and very best regards.

Vince (Junior……)

Hi Adlertag and EH, thanks for your posts,

Have been looking through the log books earlier and will caopare them to the regs on the site you posted adler.

As for the photo EH would love a copy if poss, would be great, will keep you posted on any finds etc, but think this si gonna take some itme as there is so much to go through.

Thanks

Julie

Elvington

Hello Again Julie,
Here is “Lust Lindy” from Elvington and I forgot to mention this is where it is permanently based at.My C.Ds where I have transferred my neg film to are in a bit of disarray and I,ll post on a photo of “TeasinTina” from Bruntingthorpe when I locate it. :(:confused: :rolleyes:

Hello Julie,

I’m sorry to hear of the passing of your father, as others have said he seems to have been quite a character and a man with a great career to his name.

You might find the following link of interest, it’s a great site that gives details of all the surviving Victors including both complete aircraft and cockpit sections/simulators.

http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/victor/survivors.php

I hope it’s of some interest and use. 🙂

Victor

Hello Again Julie,
It was nice hear back from you and am glad that you liked the photo.If you like you can have this particular print from me as I can think of no one better to give it too,its not in brilliant condition but its a genuine print from the time.
Thanks for also adding me on your list and I will also do the same.Some things I do on the computer I do alright on but will have to go back and study on how to do that bit again,Ha,Ha:):confused: its an age thing.I,ll look out for some Victor photos to send on ,maybe today if I get the time.Take care and most importantly I forgot to mention that I cant make out the reg marks.
Take care….JohnB.:)

Hi Peppermint

Thanks for your kind post xx I am currently waiting for IWM in London to contact me about the log books and photos etc. As the Phtots have copyright stamped on them i dare not post them until i find out how i can get pas t this without getting in trouble. lo,l there are a few Victor pics and also some excelent pics when dad was in the Canberra Display Team, these are absolutley amazing pics, some of him with crew by the Canberra and some in flight formation and solo Canberra pics that are out of this world.

I will hopefully be able to share them all if i can find out that i may do so, nut not sure how to go about it !

Julie

Hi EH

Thanks for this, brought a tear to my eye lol. do you know the regs of the Victors in the pic, so i may look them up and poss the daye this pic was taken as we have every flight that dad ever did in his flying career and the info on what each flight was for etc in his logbooks.

I do know that Teasin Tina and Lusty Linsy are both Victors that he flew and theat they are at Bruntingthorpe.

We are hping to go to the open day ther on May 30th to see the Victor taxying runs ( ya never know it may even take off again lol). Think i will need some tissues for that day lol,

dad was a very humble man who really should have shared his awesome aviation history more openly than he did as there is so much history within these log books that museums would love to have copies of them.

But we have decided that we will endeavour to share dads history and knowledge so that his memory will live on forever.

Cheers for your help xx
Julie

Julie.

Thanks for the insight into your Father’s past! I for one would be interested in seeing any of the photos you had!

My condolencies on losing you Dad, he sounds like a great man.

Rob.

Victor

Hello Julie,
Your post grabbed my emotions this morning and sorry to hear about your dad who sounded like quite a charachter.Any way I was saving this B/W photo which came my way courtesy of the Air historical Branch,RAF some years ago.(I had dreams of putting a book together) it makes me laugh now.

The plane which pictured at the top of the photo could well have been one your father may have flown and it may not be unlikely be he could be at the controls of that very aircraft as it comes from his period of test flying .I hope you are able to find out more about his flying career so good luck.:)

E R Ted Gordon

Hello

I am the youngest saughter of Ted Gordon and i recently came across this site and post when looking up information on my dad. I have tried to contact vincegavin on the e mail he had put in his post but it was returned, so obvioulsy it does not exist anymore.

My father is indeed ER Ted Gordon AFC and was born in Saskatoon Canada. He joined the RAF and was based at several locations in the Uk where he learned to fly in 1943.

Ted then went on to fly 258 sorties in the Berlin Airlift and eventually went on to be Bomber Command Liason Officer.

He joined Handley Page and became a Test Pilot for the Victor Bomber mk 1 and mk2.

Dad was presented with the AFC in 1960, for the year 1959.

Dad flew many planes ( i will list them later) in his time and was also part fo the Canberra Display Team and flew at many airshows including Farborough.

He eventually went of to commercial airlines for many years before retiring.

More recently dad had bowel cancer at the age of 85, but as he was a strong as an ox he managed to pull through, howeve at the tnd of last year he became ill again and was taken into hospitlal on Dec 30th 2009.

Dad rapidly lost wieght and was very poorly indeed and eventually passed away on January 27th of this year.

Dad had his marbles right up to the end and often in his last weeks talked about his baby ( Victor Bomber) as he called her and could recollect times, days , sorties and much more.

We are currentley looking through his flying log books which start in 1943 and go right through til his last flight as a pilot in 1981.

I do know that some of the Victors he flew are still around, Lusty Lindy and Teasin Tina i believe are at Bruntingthorpe as well as one of the Canberras he flew.

We are currnelty waiting for a reply form The Imperial War Museum and are hoping we can shre copies of some of dads log books and Victor/ Canberra/Hampden/Dakota which are just a tip of the iceberg of the planes he flew, as well as many origional photos of Victor and canberra etc. Am hoping for this info to be displayed at Duxford if we can as we live in Cambridgeshire.

Anyway sorry to waffle on but if anyone van get in contact with vincegavin who started this post please can you let me know as we so want dads memories and awesome achievments to live on.

One of the special things is tho that his son is a pilot and has carried on from where dad left off. Of which dad was so proud.

Hope i have not bored you all too much, i will post info on the site as i can.

Kind Regards

OLDCROW

Julie Gordon, Teds Daughter

Thanks JK, will try the forum. And, apologies, you are of course right, I will endeavour to use the R in front of CAF!

Thanks, and very best regards.
Vince Gavin

Hi Vince,
Try the WIX forum, lots of Canadians there (as well as a few here)
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/index.php
And a minor correction to help your searching – it (was) the Royal Canadian Air Force / RCAF, not Canadian Air Force / CAF.
Best of luck!