SELECT BIOGRAPHIES
ROGER COLEBROOK
A ‘Baby Boomer’ born in 1946. I left school at 16, determined to be an RAF pilot and worked on a farm until I was old enough to join. In 1964 I began an eight-year short-service commission and trained on the Jet Provost (3 FTS 1964-5), Folland Gnat (4 FTS 1965-6), Hawker Hunter (229 OCU 1966), then the Lightning (226 OCU 1966-7).
I joined 56(F) Squadron, Lightning F3, March 1967, based RAF Wattisham, Suffolk, then RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus. In July 1969 I was posted to CFS for QFI training, but requested a further air-defence tour of duty. I flew the Phantom OCU (700[P] Squadron, RNAS Yeovilton, September 1969) then joined 43(F) Squadron, Phantom FG1, November 1969, based at RAF Leuchars, Fife. In 1972 I decided the air force was not the career for me and took my ‘eight-year option’ to leave.
For the next 30 years I worked for a number of charter companies including British Caledonian Airways, Air Europe, Korean Air, Air 2000, and EVA Airways of Taiwan operating, amongst others, Beech 18, Piper Aztec, Britten-Norman Trislander, the DC10-30, Boeing 757 and Fokker 100. My final appointment was on the Thomas Cook B757 fleet before I retired in 2006.
DON BROWN
Born in London 1936, evacuated to Staffordshire during the Blitz where I absorbed an enduring love for open country. I conceived the idea that I would like to be a fighter pilot, while watching wartime news reels of Spitfires shooting down German bombers, thus joined the RAF in 1954 aged 17. I spent the first four years as an air signaller in the Middle East, with 8 Squadron, on the Vickers Valetta. Commenced OTU and pilot training in 1958 and received my wings in 1960.
1961 I flew the Hawker Hunter at Chivenor, then went to 14 Squadron, RAF Germany (NATO) on the Hunter F6 day fighter. 14 Squadron disbanded the following year, and I was posted to 43, Cyprus and later Aden, Middle East Air Force. I returned to UK in 1965 on the Lightning Conversion Course, Coltishall and joined 74 Squadron, Fighter Command, flying the Lightning F Mk 3, QRA, in air defence of the United Kingdom.
In 1966 I retired from the RAF and flew Lightnings/Hunters for Royal Saudi Air Force, as a display pilot. (Operation Magic Carpet.) From 1967 to 1992 I flew with QANTAS Airways in Sydney (Boeing 707, 747, 747 – 400), ultimately as training captain, retiring in 1996 at the flying age limit of 60. From there I took up civilian posts for Cathay and QANTAS and now live in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales where I play with my Classic cars, tend my garden, and watch my offspring’s careers with interest.
ALAN WINKLES
I was born in Torquay, Devon and became a member of the Air Training Corps at school. At 17 I gained my pilot’s licence on Tiger Moths and joined the RAF a year later to become a fighter pilot. My first appointment in 1966 was as a Lightning Air Defence pilot on 5 Squadron at RAF Binbrook. After this three-year tour I transferred to the newly-arrived Phantom and became a qualified weapons instructor serving on 54 Squadron at RAF Coningsby and then on 17 Squadron at RAF Bruggen. In 1973 I became a flight commander on 43 Squadron (Phantoms) at RAF Leuchars. I then commanded the Royal Navy’s Phantom training squadron and spent six months with 892 Naval Air Squadron on HMS Ark Royal.
After a tour on the weapons staff at HQ 38 Group RAF Upavon, I attended Staff College at RAF Bracknell and was posted to army staff duties at the MOD London. Following promotion I took up duties as wing commander training at HQ 11 Group at RAF Bentley Priory. From there I was posted to assume command of 43 Squadron (Phantoms) at RAF Leuchars.
In 1987 I was posted to the Sultan of Oman’s air force but in 1990 I returned to the RAF Staff College as a member of the directing staff. In 1993 I went to HQ US CENTCOM at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida as the first and sole British exchange officer. From here I was posted to the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (now QinetiQ) at Malvern in January 1996, retiring from the RAF in July 2001.
I have flown more than 5,000 hours mainly in fighters. In retirement I became an A2 flying instructor with the Air Training Corps flying Vigilant (Grob 109) motor gliders and sending dozens of 16-year-old cadets solo. I also enjoy conventional gliding.
TERRY DAVIES
Born in the West Country, the son of an RAF warrant officer, I attended schools in Somerset, the Isle of Man, West Germany, Southampton and Wallingford. I joined the RAF as a university cadet whilst studying physics and mathematics at London University. Engineer officer training at RAF College Cranwell was followed by my first tour as junior engineer officer on 29(F) Squadron, RAF Wattisham, equipped with the Lightning F Mk 3. Further command and staff appointments followed including Lightning tours at RAF Wattisham as OC Electrical Engineering Squadron and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as the electrical engineering specialist with the first MOD Team. Following Staff College I was posted to RAF Finningley as OC Engineering Wing and then to Washington DC as the F4 Phantom liaison officer with the United States Navy. On returning to the UK I attended the Air Warfare Course at Cranwell followed by Ministry of Defence appointments in London and NATO posts in Munich on the Tornado.
After two-and-a-half years as a first-tour Lightning engineer, everything that followed seemed easy!
ROGER BEAZLEY
I only flew the one tour on the Lightning, based at RAF Gütersloh in Germany with 19(F) Squadron; fondly remembered now as a most agreeable and formative three years. Following a further three years flying Phantoms with 43(F) Squadron at RAF Leuchars in Scotland I attended the Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) at Boscombe Down. The majority of my RAF career was then spent in the flight test and flight research business retiring from the service in 1996. I subsequently completed 12 years civilian employment as a full-time consultant and aerospace adviser in flight test and associated activities. I was awarded an AFC in 1978 and appointed CBE in 1996. Now fully retired, I am very much involved in the flying supervision of a number of air displays both in the UK and overseas, and continue to fly light aircraft.
SIMON MORRIS
I was brought up in Tanzania, formerly Tanganyika, East Africa and joined the RAF in 1970. After training on the Hunter aircraft I was posted to the Lightning in May 1973. I served on 92 Squadron based at RAF Gütersloh in West Germany from August ’73 until the Lightnings were disbanded in April 1977. During my time on 92 Squadron I wrote the squadron history using the diaries and official records. This can be seen online at http://www.92squadron.com.
After the RAF I served in Singapore and Saudi Arabia before joining British Airways, retiring as a captain on the Boeing 777. I now live in Northern Thailand.
DR RICHARD MARSH
I was born in 1944 and educated in my home town of Cambridge and then London. Today I am a chartered engineer, a fellow of Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and a Doctor of Technology.
At the age of 22 my career began as a graduate apprentice and then a mechanical and aeronautical engineer on the Concorde design team with The British Aircraft Corporation in Bristol. It took twelve years to complete and get sixteen aircraft into service. I then transferred within the company to the Guided Weapons Division where we created one of the world’s first remotely-operated submarines. This brought me to Aberdeen where I established my first company in 1979, and my second in 1991. Both companies specialised in the design production and international marketing of high technology subsea electronic and robotic products. The second, Tritech International Ltd., became the most highly-decorated company in the North Sea oil industry winning Queens Awards and several other significant industry accolades. Both companies were sold to UK PLCs and I now work from home helping young engineers start their own company.
MARCUS WILLS
I graduated from Cranwell in July 1964 having flown the Chipmunk and Jet Provost, before moving on to Valley, Chivenor and Coltishall to fly the Gnat, Hunter and Lightning. I joined 111 Squadron in January 1966 and sadly completed only one two-and-a-half-year tour before being posted as ADC to the air officer commanding-in-chief Air Support Command – a tour which gave me my first taste of the worldwide and excitingly varied role of the transport fleet. I joined 10 Squadron in 1971 to fly VC10s, first as a co-pilot before promotion to captain, flight commander and finally, after the requisite dose of Staff College and ground tour, commanded the squadron. Some 4,000 flying hours on the VC10 included flights with HM The Queen, other members of the royal family and four successive prime ministers from Heath to Thatcher – tasks which continued when I became station commander at Benson and deputy captain of The Queen’s Flight in 1984. There are many stories from these latter tours that may one day be told, but for the time being – and I am sure that many other contributors to this book will agree – our adventures on the Lightning take some beating!
SIR JOSEPH GILBERT KCB CBE
I learned to fly with my University Air Squadron and within a year had joined 1 Squadron flying Meteors at Tangmere in 1953. My flying career encompassed commands of a flight, a squadron, a group and I finished as deputy commander Allied Forces Central Europe. Between flying tours, I served in policy staff posts in Whitehall and NATO.
After leaving the service, I have been president of the RAF Association, trustee of the Imperial War Museum and chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I’m now deep in retirement but guide in Salisbury Cathedral. My favourite aircraft is unsurprisingly the Lightning!
ALASTAIR (ALI) MCKAY
I have had a varied career in both the military and retail. I joined the RAF in 1964 as a cadet at the RAF College Cranwell and retired as a group captain in 1989. During that time I flew the Lightning and Phantom aircraft. I commanded 56(F) Squadron at RAF Wattisham from 1984 to 1986 and was station commander RAF Wildenrath in Germany from 1987 to 1989.
I joined the John Lewis Partnership in January 1990 as a senior management trainee and spent my first year in various appointments within the Department Store Division. In January 1991 I joined the Board of Waitrose as director of Retail Operations and was responsible for the development, trading activity and management of all the Waitrose shops. In 2000 I joined the main Partnership Board in the post of Partners’ Counsellor (Ombudsman) and in 2003 became director of Corporate Responsibility where tasks included CSR, intelligence, business continuity and all aspects of corporate Governance. For my last two years in the Partnership, I was deputy chairman. I retired from the Partnership in February 2007 and now involved in trustee work associated with two charities in small business development.