Hector Bolitho, RAFVR – help requested.

I don’t have that one, all I have is a very strange piece of PR he did for the ne’er-do-well King of Romania, “Romania Under King Carol”. I’ll keep an eye out for that volume.

Thanks,

R.

The book is My restless Years – I assume you’ve already encountered this?

Adrian

Sorry, Richard, for some reason I don’t get notifications of PMs, so unless I spot the tiny banner when I log in I don’t notice them!

Apart from a reminiscence about his garden and trousers(!) from my Mum’s cousin, all I’ve found out is from one of Bolitho’s books – which one escapes me at the mo. I suspect you’ve already found it, but I’ll let you know the title when I find which pile it’s in!

Best wishes,

Adrian

Hi,

did you manage to find out any more about your uncle’s trips to Romania with Hector Bolitho? It’s a topic of great interest to me, and I’ve sent you a PM on the subject.

Thanks,

Richard.

Well that name definitely rings a bell! There’s a number of names from “Fighter Pilot” turn up in “Combat Report” though, funnily enough, not Richey’s. I think Bolitho’s role as an Intelligence Officer may have had a lot to do with generating propaganda, where his writing experience would be ideal, and he must have spent a lot of time moving in the same circles.

I sometimes get the impression I’ve read every book that ever named someone. For example, there’s a Group Captain Pope in David Niven’s “The Moons a Balloon” who had in WW1 been shot down flying in his pyjamas, and in “Dawn Patrol” Niven played an airman who had the same happen – later to meet Pope during WW2. Now I see in “Combat Report” a Group Captain Pope at Debden…

Adrian

s/ldr Paul Richey

Thanks, Snapper – another lead! Who was 609’s CO at the time? For some reason, the number rings a bell…

Adrian

I recognised the name.

609 Squadron ORB

1942. Aug. 2 … In the evening some dining in Cambridge takes place, complete with S/Ldr Hector Bolitho, editor of the RAF Journal, whose attempt to catch a train back to London is constantly sabotaged by the CO.

he also wrote (presumably an article) ‘Yanks over England’ which is quoted from in Alex Kershaw’s ‘The Few.

Just bringing this one back to the surface again. I’ve obtained a copy of “Combat Report”, the Simpson biography, recently and to my delight it was once part of the library at the Officer’s Mess, RAF Enstone… well, I drove past Enstone yesterday on the way to do some Christmas shopping at Hook Norton!

Although there’s no further mention of the mysterious Fred, there’s some very interesting reminiscences of people like “Dickie” Lee and Richard Atcherley visiting his house at Hempstead (which still has a Prince of Wales fathers on the wall, labelled “1938 HB”), and in particular an eyewitness account from the garden of the bombing of RAF Debden in August 1940. As my father’s cousin and the village Home Guard captured two German airmen that day, that’s of considerable interest! Again, there’s no mention of Richard Bolitho, but as the book was first published in 1943 that might be an artefact of when it hit the press.

Thank you, nachtjagd and Twin Otter 23!

Adrian

Thank you for taking the time to check! 🙂

No mention of Richard Bolitho anywhere in either of the autobiographical volumes I have found, so I presume there’s no known connection. There were 477 Bolithos in England in 1911 (mostly in Cornwall), so it’s possible they were related, but it’ll take a better man than me to find the connection.

I’ve yet to get the Simpson biography (a recent re-issue makes it harder to get for next to nothing from ABE!) but he writes in My Restless Years about his relationship with various (mostly unnamed, apart from the Atcherley brothers) RAF pilots from Debden when he lived at Hempstead. It has, however, probably solved how great uncle Fred got involved – a quick check of the 1937 directory shows that HB was living at the opposite end of the lane to Fred’s family.

Adrian

Thank you for that initial feedback and any further information would be of interest. 🙂

It is apparently a Cornish surname (though, just to be awkward, Hector was born in Auckland), so probably not a surprise that it’s common round Penzance – along no doubt with Trevaskes and Penberthy. I cannot imagine that the books will not mention a connection with a Dambuster, so I will see when they arrive.

Adrian

A number of people with that surname down here in the Penzance area too.

A slight tangent I know, but with such an unusual surname I wondered whether there was any family connection with the following Nottinghamshire airman, Richard Bolitho as featured in NAM’s Notts Aviation Memorials booklet?

“Adjacent to the war memorial is a bronze plaque that was part funded by the Nottinghamshire County Council under a precursor to the current LIS grant scheme. This plaque commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the famous Dambusters Raid and it is dedicated to local airman Sgt Richard Bolitho (2111045).

Sgt Bolitho lived on James Street in Kimberley and he was a rear gunner with 617 Squadron – ‘The Dambusters’. Sgt Bolitho was killed when his Lancaster aircraft, ED864 ‘B’ for Baker, crashed after hitting power cable near Achling Aarben, North Dorsten, Germany at 12.15 on 17 May 1943 whilst on route to the Möhne Dam in the Ruhr valley.”

Great, thanks – I’d seen the book but would have assumed it was a straight biog of Simpson if you hadn’t told me otherwise

Adrian

If you haven’t already found it, I suggest you read his biography of BoB fighter pilot John Simpson, first published 1943, since re-titled ‘Finest of the Few’. He describes much of his pre-war work and travels which explain his association with various RAF pilots including Simpson. Hope this helps.