EX-Boy
entrants (1934 – 1940)
Newsletter Christmas 2004
Secretary-: Rev C M H Frere,
LN6
8LZ
Telephone-: 01522 806326.
e-mail-: cmh.frere@ntlworld.com,
Web Site- www.rafbea.org
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Dear Friends, Hopefully
this is going to be with you before Christmas, so here’s wishing you
a Very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
I know its only October as I write this;
but I have been receiving advertising for months, so why shouldn’t I
jump on the bandwagon? In any
case it will be a few weeks yet before this goes in the post. Thank
you for the telephone calls, letters, and e-mails since the Reunion,
it seems that a good many people enjoyed themselves, one way and another
we made the last one a good one. Of
course that does not mean you can’t visit Cranwell as an individual,
or as part of a group of people. As
no doubt you will have noticed from the last newsletter, Johnny Johns
is prepared to organise a get-together. In fact I think he has a number of names already. For
once, I don’t have any new names to add to the list of the departed,
except for one that somehow got missed off at the beginning of the year. That was: 552681 P E Vinicombe. Died May
He Rest in Peace Among a great many other phone
calls, I had one from Jack Bury. He
told me that after some urging by his wife, he had a clear out of the
attic. There he found some old material from the time
when he was secretary, most of which was of the waste paper basket variety,
but including two Association Lapel Badges; seven miniature enamelled
Boy Entrants Wheels, which also have a pin to stick on a lapel, and
about one hundred and twenty coloured plastic ‘stick on ‘ Association
Crests. The sort you peel off a backing and stick on
a windscreen or some such. Anyone
who would like one or other of these; only has to write, they go out
on a first come first served basis.
No cost, just include a first class stamp for postage. Have
you noticed that there has been a great deal of ‘harking back to the
war’ lately? There has been talk
in the press, and on radio and television about the many aspects of
the war. Talk of prison camps
and talks to some of the old POW’s, a great deal of visiting of war
graves, all sorts of 60th anniversary stuff.
There is talk of heroes, and a probing of the memories of a number
of elderly war time people. Browsing
though a newspaper recently I came across an interview with some chap
who had flown Beauforts. It occurred
to me that all this was about us! Most
of the theatres of war, most of the places where things happened, most
of the things that newspapers like to talk about, who was there in the
background quietly getting on with it?
There was one or more of us!
Pounding a morse key, fixing an aircraft, manning a workshop,
operating radar, doing one of the thousands of jobs that had to be done,
in many different parts of the world, there was an ex-boy; just getting
on with it. We really did make
a mark in the world! Of
course we don’t have much to say about it.
Its gone, the water has flowed away
under the mill. In any case,
many of us found it embarrassing to have to talk about it, or even be
reminded about it. I was: Many years ago I took my eight and nine
years old boys to see the film “The Battle
of Britain.” Sitting watching,
I wanted the seat to open up and swallow me, because my younger son
was saying in a loud voice things like – Was that you Daddy?
Did you do that Daddy? Kids! Why do we have ‘em? I think it was George Herbert who said, “Children when they
are little make parents fools; when they are great they make them mad!” I
mentioned before that I was invited to take part in the dedication of
the stone at the National Arboretum along with the Chaplain of the RAFBEA. I have just received their newsletter with photographs
of the occasion; I include one of the stone here. |
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This is a copy, slightly smaller, of the ‘stick on’ Association Crest referred to earlier in this letter. Drop me a line if you would like one to stick on your car window, house window, or just keep as a memento! The colours are quite good, and are very close to the original real thing. Once these and the other items mentioned are gone- There are No More!! |
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Well
that’s it for the moment A
Very Happy Christmas, and a successful New Year to you and your families,
I will be writing again Feb/March 2005 Michael |
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