Being Twenty Again

No, sadly we never went there – in fact I’ve never been myself for some strange reason.

I’m sure I have a photograph of him sat next to Wing Commander Ken Wallis. I’ll see if I can find it and post it.

Mark, you’ve remembered him well, as he was and always will be. You have a talent for that.

Regards,

kev35

1173410 LAC George Ford. Fitter / Armourer. Enlisted 9th July 1940 aged 20, Demobbed August 1946. Trained at Morecambe (Square Bashing) then Melksham, Wiltshire.

Posted to 149 Squadron at RAF Mildenhall working on Wellingtons, George was posted in July 1941 to 27 Squadron in Northern Malaya, flying Blenheim Mk1’s. From there he went to Ceylon where 160 Squadron were equipped with B24 Liberators before transferring again to 320 Maintenance Unit on which he worked on various aircraft including Thunderbolts.

During his time in the Royal Air Force, George travelled from the UK to Northern Malaya, through Singapore and the Dutch East Indies to Ceylon and India over the course of 4 years, all the while with Far East Command. He now lives in a quiet village in Norfolk where he spent his working life as a farm labourer.

Here’s a link to his first grand day out:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=28403&highlight=george+ford

Though I never met George, what a wonderful character he must have been to those who did!!! To aknowledge an unsung stalwart in this way has made me sad at his loss, smile with gratitude for his conribution – but thankful that we had people of his mettle when we needed them most. Blue skies Chap.

Quite the most moving and sincere remembrance of someone on any forum I have seen in a long long time. Understated, no “slow hand salutes”, no wittering about “the greatest generation” etc., no histrionic insincere platitudes – perfect. 🙂

Thank you Graham.

That day, back in July 2004, George, 84 at the time, became 20 again. He’d never been to Duxford and people from this site who I’d come to know over the years were all a part of his day out. He had a good few days like that. George was our VIP – he signed books at Brooklands, ate ham egg and chips at Whittlesford, sat on the flightline at Cambridge and saw everything there was to see at Duxford.

George was always humble. He served, all his life he served. He served our village very well as caretaker of the village hall, collector for the lottery and poppy appeal and raffles and everything else. He worked on the land until retirement, a farm labourer and a month ago, when I visited him, he apologised in case he’d said anything bad while I was there. Our George, our VIP, was a true gentleman.

George was an LAC. george, who sat next to W/C Ken Wallis to sign books was aghast – he couldn’t posisbly sit next to the brass! I assured him he wouldn’t tarnish the WingCo and guess who was the one that people chatted to most? You got it…the queue came through with ‘Hi George’, ‘Hello George’ one after another.

After we’d dragged him around a few places he decided to ask for his medals. He had never bothered before and never wore them. He asked for them for his grandchildren. He was proud to wear his veterans badge though…”But we don’t think of George as a veteran” as my mum said once…”I don’t think he’s ever been out of the village” as my wife said when we were talking about our honeymoon in Thailand…he’d been there, and Burma, India, Java…”what? when?” she asked. “In the war” I replied.

…and what a war. Unremarkable in the most remarkable of ways for any twenty year old.

You know, George was splendid.

Please don’t get me wrong here – but the start of this thread is the nicest way I have seen in a long time of announcing someone’s passing.

RIP

Sad indeed

Blue skies George.

Moggy

🙁

Sorry to hear that Mark.
RIP George.