Prior to the war, my Dad worked as an Apprentice Electrician. Dad joined the RAF and was stationed as Ground Crew on plane maintenance, which probably kept him away from the firing line, although some of the stories he told about ‘nipping over to France to bodge the planes up enough to fly them home’ was a bit hair-raising!

 

Dad was stationed at several Bases in the UK, one Base was Stony Cross, and I believe he was posted to a Polish Base in Norfolk.  The only memory from his stories of that Base were that he and his fellow airmen just couldn’t eat the raw and pickled fish, demanding ‘proper food!’  

 

He always seemed to be in ‘the wrong place at the right time’. One story he told was when he was posted to Canada. They welcomed him with open arms, saying: ‘At last, a Limey Electrician!’ But Dad, at that time, had never worked on a British plane!! Whilst in Canada, he told the story about walking back to his Billet (in or near Banff?) with a mate one afternoon. Up ahead, came the sound of German voices … they really thought the invasion had come, and dived for cover, only to hear someone say ‘CUT!’ They then realised there was a film being made, with Paul Munie, a film star of the day. He said he’d never felt so relieved!

 

Dad had some narrow squeaks, and was shipped back to England. One story he told was being driven to a hospital in Ely when a German plane came over. The ambulance he was strapped into swerved, went over into a ditch, while he was left hanging upside-down in the back of the vehicle. He said that, as he had Jaundice, he was rather hazy about exactly how long he remained there, but the ‘strapping in webbing’ left bad bruises which took weeks to go. Unfortunately, both the driver and his nurse were killed.

 

Prior to going into hospital, he had arranged to get married to my mother. They had to let him out of the hospital to marry at St Andrews Church, Chelsea, on 23 December 1944. He then had to go straight back to hospital … some honeymoon, Mum!!

 

 

Jewellery with Unique History Goes on Display at Eden Camp Museum, Malton

 

 

Unique pieces of jewellery, crafted during the Second World War by an RAF Crewman, have gone on display. The jewellery, made from Perspex from a salvaged aeroplane windscreen during the war, can now be seen at the Eden Camp Museum, near Malton, in North Yorkshire.

 

LAC Alfred Mansfield, a member of Ground Crew with No. 85 Squadron, made the two pieces – a heart pendant and a necklace of five leaves – for his sweetheart, Margaret ‘Peggy’ Wilkins.

 

He had met Peggy at the age of seven. They married in the Winter of 1944. Peggy wore the heart pendant at their wedding.

 

The Museum came into possession of the pieces after the couple’s daughter, Yvonne Reid, who was born in 1945, sold the jewellery on the Channel 4 television show ‘Four Rooms’, which was filmed a number of years ago, and aired again recently. On the Show, Yvonne said she hoped the pieces would be donated to a Museum, to be cared for and used in a way which would ensure the memory of her parents endured. She said she hoped for £60 for the pieces, but admitted: ‘What is a piece of shattered windscreen worth?’

 

Yvonne shared how her father died of cancer, and her mother died with Dementia. Any money made from the sale would go to charities helping with these two respective diseases.

 

The heart pendant features within it an RAF wing. Yvonne said her father took off one of his RAF buttons, filed it down, and set it into the heart. Dealer, Celia Sawyer, ended up purchasing the pieces for £150. The other three Dealers on the Show, Andrew Lamberty, Gordon Watson, and Jeff Salmon, all made donations to Yvonne’s chosen charities of £100 each.

 

‘It’s been wonderful’, Yvonne said. ‘I didn’t expect this at all.’ She donated the money to the charities, and it was agreed the necklaces be displayed at Eden Camp, fulfilling Yvonne’s wish that her parents’ story lives on.

 

Eden Camp Museum Archivist, Jonny Pye, said that families often approach the Museum requesting they safeguard medals or other special heirlooms. ‘We feel quite honoured in that’, he said, adding that the appeal of pieces like this was the personal, human stories behind them. ‘At the end of the day, we like to concentrate on the individual stories’.

 

The heart pendant and leaf necklace are on display in the Museum alongside a wedding photograph of Alfred and Peggy.

 

by Yvonne & Paul Reed

 

 

This article is from the Spring 2018 issue of Confound and Destroy