Just back from a fascinating day at County Hall, which saw some interesting items brought in for the ‘experts’ to look at; including some items from a forumite! 🙂
A couple of RFC related items saw me co-opted in to try and assist the owners with some research suggestions.
The second of these, was the last set of items to be brought in to the event (very late in the day) and they were of particular interest to me – mainly because I Knew the person that they items belonged to! Whilst I knew that one of his grandfathers’ was heavily involved in engine and airframe testing at Rolls-Royce – I knew nothing of his other grandfather’s time in the RFC / early RAF.
His grandfather went to RAF Cranwell in summer 1918 and he had kept all of his flying logs, diaries, service photographs and a host of family related items – an absolutely wonderful collection that tells the story of a young man from Nottingham who learnt to fly just over the county border in Lincolnshire.
Amongst the items were a wealth of local references including: overflying Newark, Nottingham, Spittlegate and the aerodrome at Leadenham.; a forced landing at Metheringham; going back to Metheringham the following day to collect the aircraft; being “bored” at waiting for the weather to clear so they could fly again, etc. etc. – a stunning personal story of an 18 year-old flyer!!
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