I can’t begin to explain what this site was for. Wikipedia says the following…
The Rudloe Site was formerly RAF Rudloe Manor, which was established during the Second World War as a non-flying station for administrative and command & control purposes. It was home to HQ Number 10 Fighter Group, RAF Regional Command, Headquarters RAF Police & Security Services, No 1 Signals Unit, Controller Defence Communications Network and 1001 Signals Unit. By 1998 it had become mostly administrative, housing the RAF Provost and Security Services, which dealt with security and criminal investigation services, the Defence Communication Services Agency, while the detachment of 1001 Signals Unit of the RAF remained. It closed as an operational site in about 2000.
The base has two main buildings – a manor house and a purpose-built operations building. There are several smaller, newer buildings scattered around the site too.
Manor House
The manor house looked lovely from the outside but was sadly inaccessible. It is thought that this was used as accomodation for the officers.
Operations Block
A short distance away from the manor house is the operations block.
The block housed two operations rooms – although one has been turned into a squash court in recent years.
The operations block has deteriorated pretty badly since closure. Wires have been stripped out and windows have been smashed up. In some places, moss is growing in the corridors.
Other buildings
These buildings may be covered on a re-visit. Stay tuned!
derelicte 
I served as a Fighter Plotter in the Ops Room at RAF Box,which was part of RAF Rudloe Manor,although about a mile from the actual Monor House,which in fact was the officers mess and quarters.
We Airmen were billeted at RAF Hawthorn and The Underground Ops room was known as RAF Box.
Our billets were a short walk from the Ops room which was underground and reached through a lift entered through a gaurdroom contained in a hut in the middle of a field.
I have many memories of this place,I was there from March 1952 to demob in Sep 1953.
I kept a diary every day of the time I was there. I f any one is interested I have many details of the ramifications on the underground workings there,as my pals Pete Young and Brian Mac spent hours undergound wandering about. Jerry
Ex SAC 2533201.
I am trying to obtain some records of my service at Rudloe Manor as WRAAF (Auxillary) Plotter from 1950-1952.. Anyone any ideas where I might start.
Thanhs a lot ???
I was at RAF Hawthorn ( I dunno if that was splet with an E or not) And,as I remember, we came out past the guardroom and turned right, putting the Post office on our left, then down the road we turned left up a lane for short distance and into a small brick building on our right. The lifts to the place I worked were in there and down below there was a largish teleprinter room and a teleprinter switchboard room with a W/T position in it. I never saw anything else down there except a small NAAFI and a games room. I never went to Rudloe Manor though it wasn’t far away and, it appears, there was an underground section there also – I didn’t know about it though.
I was only there from autumn 1950 to autumn 1951.
I don’t know if any of that info is any use to you?!? I see you were in the Australian WAAF’s and I live in Western Australia now in a place called Dongara.
Okay?
Okay? Bri
This was a very interesting find. I was in the RAF from 1955-1957, and after a brief tour of duty at the Bletchley signals group north of London, was posted to RAF Box. My home was in Bristol, so Box was very handy to visit home. My stay at Box was again brief, as they needed personal in the middle East and I was shipped to Cyprus. I now live in Atlanta Georgia. U.S.A.
Hi Graham I was also at RAF Box 1955 – 1957 I was a SAC Fighter Plotter but spent most of the last year as an Armourer sorting out all the rifles, pistols and sten guns, as well as amunition. Tha armoury was at the far end of the corridoor that went past the signals room. When I was required to “work” I had the job of telling the French what was coming their way. We could have passed down the long corridoor or in the NAFI
Are there any ladies out there who were plotters at Rudloe Manor Box during 1950-1952.
I was an LAC with the Womens’ Royal Auxilliary Air Force. Would love to hear from you.
At last maybe these pictures will prove all those conspiracy nuts that we are NOT keeping UFOs and aliens there. But of course, they will argue its all a smokescreen… Nice pics mate
I was a plotter at Box 1953-1955 approx.Have many happy memories of life at Hawthorn which I would like to share with anyone who knew me. There were some lovely WAAF’s and NAFFI girls as well as good friends.
I agree there were no strange UFO or the like. We did have some strange very fast plots come up which were not accounted for.
see comment re Royal Arthur. Ame writing history of RAF Rudloe manor, the house from its earliest beginnings.
Eunice,
I have a few anecdotes about Rudloe if you’d care to swap notes ?
Ian
Secretary in Education Office 1951=1953. Friends would gather at Park Hotel in Bletchley and visited Oxford frequently. Anyone familiar with that period of time?
the Manor was NOT accom for officers, but working offices. compulsory purchased by Air Min as owners the Rabens vanished to Denmark 1939-40. Plenty of info at TNA not secret until Turnstile. Ive been down lots of the tunnels when was an RAF station. The then station commander could tell a lot, sadly he’s dead. We held our association reunions there.
Hello, not sure whether your email is still up and running. Saw a blog posting you made back in 2009 about Rudloe Manor. My grand-father was CO at Rudloe Manor. His name was Francis George William Perry. Known as Bill.
Is this the Station Commander you knew and refer to? Would love to hear more.
Sarah Perry
at raf box 1956-57 a flight billeted rudloe block n
I was stationed at RAF Hawthorn in 1951/52 and worked underground as a teleprinter operator. Would be pleased to be in touch with anyone who worked there with me
I was also there over the same period. Cannot remember the watch I was on but left there for Aden in 1951`/52. Was courting girl call Dot Symms at the time. Good to hear from you altho I cannot recall you.
We may have passed ‘like ships in the night’ at RAF Hawthorne. I left there about the middle of 1951 for Ismailia in the Suez Canal area. I mostly worked on the teleprinters too and sometimes on the W/T in the teleprinter switchboard room. The W/T was mostly used for practice as I remember becaause everything passed could also go by teleprinter or by telephone.
Having another recall: there was another WAAF I remember that my mate Alexander had a crush on. I’ve left a couple of other things on this website that might jog your memory too.
Do you remember do any of you RAF lads remember CAD Corsham, I was stationed there 1955-57 with the RAOC I had a couple of friends from RAF Rudloe
I joined No 3507 FCU (RAuxAF) and we spent our weekend duties at RAF Box from 1953 to 1955 when I transferred to No 3604 Sqdn. I remember well marching from the billets to the hole in mid winter!
I was working in Bristol and joined 3507 as a WRAuxAF fighter plotter. We went by coach to Box regularly at weekends, and the unit also had a beautiful Georgian house built across a river in Bath, where we had happy times on special occasions. (I wish I could remember the name of the house).
I think of the queue we made as the coachload waited for turns to go down in the lift. That was a daunting experience until we were used to it – a much longer trip than in a 1950’s block of flats!
Our unit had summer camps for training, too. I remember being in a tent at RAF Coltishall during night-flying nights, and another time at Sandwich.
I joined 3507 during a recruiting drive in Bristol in ’56 I was 17.
I do remember the house in Bath and the canal underneath although we were there only a couple of times. The unit bought a house in Bristol on Redcliff Parade. I went to Box on the coach I think every other weekend. Then things changed we started going to Sopley near Bournemouth to learn how to use a type 64
radar console. I went to RAF Anstruther in Fife and also to RAF Sandwich as you did. I did my National Service in Germany. I have two 3507 unit pics one taken at Redcliff in Bristol and the other at Sandwich if you also have the same pics we can possibly see each other.
I hope you get the chance to reply.
Regards…Mike Ross (SAC 2694721)
I’ve read some crackpot theories about Rudloe. It was just a communications section – albeit, quite a large one for it’s time. I have quite fond memories of the place and surrounding area – particularly Bath. The NAAFI was was a real “period piece” straight out of the 1940’s with the addition of a TV set – that is, TV set singular. It was my first posting after technical training and the mess was a culture shock after Cosford with all that white linen and separate tea pots. Happy days!
Has any one got pictures of the entrance to RAF box where the lifts were and the guardroom.I was a dog handler there in 1953/4 I was posted from there to RAF Folly Roch Haverfordwest
Then to RAF Bawdsey.I had a good time at box I met a Cpl PI Enderby whilst there and she was a good looker JohnT
i served as a fire fighter until may 1998 had a great time there with wiggy jase martin mogs kenny p and taff whiting our crew commander was ‘redgie perrin’
Seems a silly question… but did you ever see the yacht ?
A message for Violet Dew, my mother served as a Plotter with the WRAAF around the early 50’s and met my father at Box. Mum was Jessie Sharley and Dad was Thomas (Paddy) O’Donoghue.
I was a WAAF Telephonist at RAF Rudloe from 1946-47 (then Doreen Cartwright). Rudloe Manor was set apart from the entrance to the Op’s block, which was in a field. The only thing that could be seen was a brick building in the field – this was the lift down to the Op’s room. We had to walk down Leafy Lane to get to and from work.
Hi. I too was at Rudoe Manor in 1946-1947,I was in a developement unit called Radio Link situated in a building at the top of the lift shaft, then known as Browns Quarry, The Officer in charge was Squadren Leader F.S Steed,who had invented a system for transmitting PPI images over Mk10 wireless system.
I also helped show films in t2 site hall. The hall was also used for dancing, where many great times were had
I met my wife there on camp ,we were married in Chippeham in1947.We are still together!
I am not a lady, but I was a plotter at RAF Box from December 1950 until October 1952.Lots of memories and made good friends. The NAAFI was a god send after the mess. Anyone out there who remebers me?
An interesting place.I was a Firefighter with the RAAF,1978-93.We had a couple of odd bases with supposed skeletons in cupboards too.
I was posted to Rudloe Manor in 1977 and spent 3 happy years there First living at quarters at RAF colerne and commuting every day then later qtrs on the site.As fire fighters we had to know every tunnel and part of the signals unit by heart, and also two other underground sites neartby underground is vast.
I was at Rudloe Manor SW filter room in the summer of 1946, while I was waiting for my demob after war-time service as a pilot. As I didn’t want to stay in the RAF, I was grounded, asked what I’d like to do while I was waiting my turn for first-in/first-out demob, and chose to find out a bit about how hostile aircraft were intercepted during the war- so I was sent to Bawdsey Manor for an introduction to Radar, (train to Felixtowe, car into the dark, swing a lighted paraffin-lamp to bring a boat across the estuary, then a walk in the dark up a long drive to a spooky doorway and a hallway with an organ playing. inside…) Then posted to Rudloe Manor as a Filter Officer in the filter room, which was still active on a very reduced scale. I slept in in one of a row of huts on the grassy slope at the side of the Manor, with a lovely view across the valley to Colerne airfield. There were a number of people there like me waiting for demob, including one or two of the WAAF officers who had worked there. We did three-hour watches, ten-minutes on, twenty minutes rest, around the clock. Went down into the filter room by a lift inside an innocent-looking hut on the slope. I clearly remember the pleasure of coming out of the lift after a night underground, into a glorious sunny dawn, and imagined what it would have been like for those on duty during the war-time bomber raids.
I served at RAF Rudloe Manor first as an ACW plotter and later as a Filterer Officer in the underground Filter Room and was on duty during the Baedeker Raids on Bath. I have written my story “Not and Ordinary Life” about this time. See my website eyounghusband.com
I was a trainee telephonist at RAF Hawthorne from 1952 and reamined on the switchibf centre there until seconded in 1953 to join the RAF contingent lining the Cornoation route in the Haymarket in 1953 (Some interesting memories of life under canvas in Hyde Park!).
On returning to Hawthorn, I found myself posted to RAF Clee Hills – quite a contrast.
Going underground at Hawthorn was like going down a mineshaft, but once there, it was quite a little city, complete with full catering facilities.
I have a feeling there was also a Post Office (now BT) resaerch unit on the site, experimenting with fibre optics.
Hello Mr Bale.
I hope you don’t mind my email.
I have been searching for someone who served in the RAF at Clee Hill. My Father was there as a NAAFI manager in the mid 50’s and during the long summer holidays I often stayed on the camp with my dad and I have many fond memories of it. I am looking for any photographs of the old camp.
If you could help I would be very grateful.
I hope you are well and thanks.
Ross Clare.
Sorry, Ross! I have many happy memories of Clee Hill (one Good Friday I climed to the top of the beacon) but none of them photographic ones. Actually, photography might have been difficult as most of the time we were enveloped in low cloud!
I have to confess I don’t remember your Dad but I do remember the NAAFI. Getting out of the camp and down to Ludlow in the camp’s all-purpose vehicle was a rare treat, and the NAAFI was the centre of what social life I had (mainly TV watching).
Reading your message I think we may have known each other briefly during the Spring of ’53 when I was with No.81 Group at Rudloe Manor.You had recently been posted to the camp and I came over to talk with you in the cookhouse and later we had a few beers in the NAAFI and you mentioned being chosen to participate in the Coronation. I was in London at the time and managed to see you for a moment in Hyde Park to wish you good luck.
I was attached to Rudlow, 9/3/1959 for training at Bristol Aircraft, Filton on the embyo Bloodhound Mk 1 SAM so only used the place to sleep and mess commuting each day to Filton. Weekends were interesting because of the suroundings and a bus trip around the area which involved a certain district provoked a K.E.Y.N.S.H.A.M. from us all. We thought the place was ‘odd’, new to the RAF we imagined that there MUST be a runway somewhere. The walk of an evening down to the cinema, not sure if it was an ‘Astra’ was entertaining because we met sailors, not sure where from, but a novelty. We were there 8 weeks and although a pain to get home on a 48 nice place to be posted to. Alan (whack)
I served in the RAF at Rudloe Manor roughly between 1974 and 1976 it was then
an underground communications centre and it was accessed via a lift in a field
we knew it as Southwest Switching centre I was a telegraphist and used to do shift work in the relay centre . My father also knew it during world 2 as a munitions dump
which he said then that it was accessed via steps which were considerable the tunnels were dug to facilitate the building of the nearby town of bath Iaggree coming up after a night shift into the daylight was a welcome site since then I have never liked flourescent lighting as the whole comms centre was lit this way
IWAS A TELEPRINTER OPERATOR AT R.A.F BOX (RUDLOE MANOR ) FROM
1952-1954. I HAVE SOME PHOTOS OF MY TIME THERE AND I BELIEVE I ALSO
HAVE A PHOTO OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE LIFT WHERE THE POLICE DOGS
WERE KEPT. I REMEMBER SQDN LDR NASH, AND SGT LESLIE, CPL HURST
R.A.F POLICE, AND CPL HARVEY R.A.F POLICE WHO WERE ALL DOG HANDLERS.AND OF COURSE WING CMDR FORD, AND AIR COMMODORE KEILLY VERY HAPPY TIME. WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM SOME OF YOU WHO WERE THERE AT THAT TIME
Hi, David Tuck. I would be interested in some of those photos of yours, though I left there at around the time that you arrived. However, since Email addresses aren’t published, I don’t know how those photos can be sent
Brian Harper
I also remember with fondness some of my colleagues namely Reg Chedzoy
Tom Berry, Geoff Williams, Don Jones and Terry ( Hank Barefoot ) and of course
Johnny (Sunshine ) Sawbridge .Eleven years ago I started a reunion and the above
mentioned and myself and a few others meet every year in London and talk over old
times. If any of you former Rudloe Manor fellows wish to get in touch with me I would be delighted. I live in North Delta British Columbia Canada.
I was a Plotter at RAF Box between 1951/1952 and remember well going down the lift into the Ops Room and the Guard Room at the top of the lift with the Snowdrops. I would be interested to see the phoyo you have of the top of the lift.It certainly hurt your eyes to come up into the daylight after duty. Would be pleased to hear from you.
Greetings David, I enjoyed your memories. I was at RAF Box 1952-April 1954. I remember well the lads who were in our hut ( Monday night is bull night! Remember ?) I can still list quite a few of them but have never seen or heard about any of them bar Lumley Hughes.
You mention Wing Commander Dudley Ford. A big, friendly gentleman. He played in our Rudloe Manor Rugby team. Caught sight of the deep scars on his back once when he was changing. Later learned he had a glass eye. All picked up as a pilot during the war. It was a good rugby team. Fl Lt Fry and WC Gardener flew us over to Guernsey in some Oxfords on a couple of occasions to play their rugby club. Often wonder if this counts as an overseas posting !
Really want to explore this site. Are you allowed to access this site? Is it patrolled by MOD or Police?
stationed at hawthorn 1957/8.met and married cpl elsie watts,cook at rudloe.later settled in colchester home town of elsie.
I was at RAF Box 1952-1954 and enjoyed my ‘time’ in the GSM and Fixer Rooms. In recent times I have been fortunate enough to have visited the site three times. It was sad to see the filter room and the GSM room entirely derelict no furniture or balconies just a black empty space the same goes for the room I took my SAC ‘exam’. The main street was much the same as at the time of the visit BT were still inoperation with a large ‘switchroom’. The visit to CAD Corsham was an experience as it was always a ‘mystery’. Now the vast storage areas the ‘railway station’ conveyor belts, escalator. engine room and the lakeare all deserted and again sad to see. ‘Burlington’ or whatever it was called was an uplifting experience touring the site in a golf buggy. A great shame that the whole area cannot be preserved for future generations.
John,
How do you get to go down to Box, I thought it was a restricted area. I would love to see the old GSM Room and the Fixer Room as I spent many hours there during 1950/52.
Roy,
It was way back in 2005 when I ‘ pestered’ the then Commanding Officer of the JSUC, Corsham for a visit. The visit was initially to CAD Corsham, but the link between SW signals and Box was available, and I was able to go into Box. As I understand everything at Box is now above ground the position regarding underground is not clear.Hopefully the site is still ‘open’ and could be preserved for the future.
Regards, John
Remember your name but have the images of Tasker and Tysoe mixed up I believe.
I was called back to Box in 1956 for two weeks as a reservest. I have never heard of anyone else being recalled. (???) I was a student at the time and the money sure helped.
John
Thanks for comments. I visited JSUC at Rudloe this year and talked to the MOD Police on the gate who said if i wrote to the Sergeant Major, he might allow me in to look around. This would not include the undergroung site at Bax I presume. Maybe I will get in touch with the CO and see what I can get from him.
Regards
Roy
Roy, Be interested to hear how you get on.
Regards, John
Hi Roy, I was at Hawthorn, clerking in the orderly room at SWSC about 1954; when I revisited the area a number of years ago much of it seemed unrecognisable. Would greatly appreciate it if you would keep me in the picture as to possible visit – Jim
I was an Sac Telegraphist at South West Signals Centre RAF Hawthorn from late 1951 to 1954 and have photographs of the Tape Relay centre, telephone switchboard and radio room. I enjoyed my time there and recall we were accommodated on the main site near the Post Office. With a decent walk down leafy lane to get to the HQ’s Site for administration and medical services. The bus to Corsham and Chippenham in one direction and Bath in the other direction stopped at the PO sorting office outside the accommodation site gate. I played football for the station team and recall being injured in a match at Yatesbury. There was a displaced persons hostel, in what I believe was previously HMS Arthur or Royal Arthur. A favourite drinking place was the British Legion Club, which served a mean Scruppy.
Hi Dereck Good to see you still keeping in touch. See you at the 2011 BEA annual get together if I am fit enough.
Very found memories of South West
Rgds Den
Hi Derek,
I was at SWSC from late 1953 until March 1955 then posted to Malta. Was on WO Bradley’s watch, do you remember him. Remember the old Post Office and the phone box outside where I use to ring my wife, then girlfriend from a couple of times a week. Do you remember CPL Ron Foster and Brian Cheetham he had a motor bike?
I’d love to see your photo’s of the old SWSC if possible as I worked in all those rooms
John and Jim,
I have written to the CO of the JSU Corsham about a possible visit and am waiting for a reply. Will keep you in the picture when I know anything
Hey guys!
Just to let you know, this place is open and you can get in to it. However, you are not meant too. We were greeted by a guard who informed us we could stay as long as nothing was taken and that we stayed out the building, as they are unsafe. We did have a look round some of the buildings; The manor itself looked too unsafe.
I went with my sister to do my photography coursework and i found it a very interesting place. We found, old trunks and such in the RAF buildings, one of my favorite places to go!
Has anyone got any information about the house its self or about who lived there before the RAF? It would also be interesting to know why the whole site is abandoned.
Thanks!
I have a lot on the house at Rudloe Manor, read the rest of the comments for me name. Glad to exchange help EW
I have a lot on the house at Rudloe Manor, read the rest of the comments for my name. Glad to exchange help A Countess Raben lived there, see Raben-Levetzau on line, disappeared during war probably to Irend, house sold to RAF. see files at Natinal Archive, Kew. Was 10 Gp HQ, I founded 247 Squadron Association, recently disbanded, we held our reunions there. I knew it well though did not serve there. All closed and bought privately now. A long of pictures on line. EW
I have only just come across this web site and it brings back memories in that I was
one of a detachment of 10 or 12 fighter plotters who were sent from RAF Neatishead in Norfolk to RAF Box/Rudloe Manor in I think it was summer of 1951 or early spring 1952 for two weeks whilst a very large Air Exercise took place. We were very surprised to find ourselves dropped outside a large metal door and transported by lift down to a complete underground operations room, which, as we were from 12 Group we had never previously known of it’s existence. Who was our C.O. for this exercise ?
Group Captain Townsend – later of Princess Margaret fame.
HI John and Jim,
I have received a reply from JSUC now, but they say due to construction work and Health and Safety they cannot allow indivduals to enter the underground complex.
It was worth atry though.
Regards Roy
please contact, I’d like to know more and swop ideas. EW
Hi Eunice,
I was a Fighter Plotter at RAF BOX from Dec 1950 until October 1952. Box was underground then just down the road from RAF Rudloe Manor 2 site, the entrance being through a hut in the middle of a field which contained a guardroom and lift. i site is abandoned now I believe and the underground site is no longer operational. This was the part I wanted to see, as it would have brought back a lot of memeories.
Regards
Roy
I recently obtained my late mother’s war record. She joined the WAAF in 1942 at part of the contingent of British ex pat girls who came by ship from Brazil. She was always amazingly secretive about her work with the WAAF and was steadfast in never discussing anything. It was only after her death that I learnt that she was involved in the “insertion and extraction of British Agents in enemy occupied Europe”. She spoke fluent French and Portugese. On her service record is an entry C.T.U Rudloe Manor 25/2/45. Her name was Dorothy (Daffy) Kenyon. If anybody can shed any light on her work or maybe there is somebody still alive who can recall her I would be most interested. Prior to Rudloe Manor (for which there are a number of travel by rail warrents) she was Morecombe, Honiley, Biggin Hill, Fairlight. All correspondence to her was sent to River Plate House, Finsbury Circus, London.
Further to the above post. One recollection I have of my mother and the few discussions we had concerning the WAAF, is her mentioning a WAAF colleague from Brazil who was parachuted into France and was capatured and executed. I believe this to be Lilian Rolfe, who was probably flown from Rudloe Manor. I would welcome any comments or information.
Following my comments above, I found from a letter from the Air Historical Branch at Northolt, that my mother had a posting to RAF Innsworth prior to going to Rudloe Manor in February 1945 where she was based until her discharge in April 1946. As I say my mother was intensely secretive about her work with the WAAF towards the end of her service. The fact I know she was involved in the insertion and extraction of British agents in enemy occupied Europe came from the last surviving if her colleagues from Brazil, Peggy Stevens (nee Beebe) who lives in Sao Paulo Brazil and did not feel and any secrecy was now necessary. Indeed I believe the statute expired in 1993. Perhaps there are devotees to the history of this highly secret base who can help me and my family. Even the recods at Northold are sketchy and various people I have spoken to say that just about everything associated with the WAAF and Rudloe Manor is so secret it was never put in writing!
I will add Peggy Stevens (nee Beebe) did not work at Rudloe Manor and only had very brief details of my mother’s work involving Britsh agents.
I arrived at SWSC RAF Hawthorne in the autumn of 1950 after returning from Habbaniya Iraq. I left for Ismailia in the Suez Canal Zone in the following summer.
My particular mate there was named Alexander (Alec) and we had a great time at Hawthorne (best place I was ever stationed) but we lost touch not long after, and too many years have passed since those days. I am 82 years old now and living in Western Australia. Best regards to all of you.
When I was at SWSC the only ‘Box’ I remember was at the top of the hill and all around there was bunch of prefabs which housed ‘Displaced Persons’ (DP’s). I worked underground as a wireless operator/teleprinter operator and I still have a couple of photographs of the teleprinter room and the teleprinter switchboard. I don’t remember any RAF Box, and Rudloe Manor was a fair step away from there. Sadly, the names of others – other than Alexander – are lost in the mists of time; though I seem to remember an ex boy entrant named Denis Bookham whom I came across again at RAF Ismailia in Egypt. Wait a minute I remember a Flt/Sgt Bradley as well because he turned up at Ismailia too but got shipped to England because of stomach ulcers. I wonder if he became the WO Bradley someone mentioned?
Just remembered F/Sgt Peter Heap whom I met again at RAF Ismailia as W/O Heap.
He told me he had married a WAAF from SWSC whom I remembered as well – I think she was a corporal telephonist. I’m not sure but I think her name was Stella and she had a great sense of humour. Some of you should remember both of them.
The F/Sgt Peter Heap you mentioned in your message went on to
become Warrant Officer. He was my DSO at Rudloe Manor in the
early 1970’s. He retired from the RAF, and settled in the local area.
He became an Honorary Member of the Sgt’s Mess.
Thank-you Mike Skidmore. Glad to hear that Peter Heap went through to full retirement okay. He was one of a kind. And I knew he had become Warrant Office for I met him again at RAF Ismailia in the Canal Zone a year or so after I left RAF Hawthorn. Did you know F/Sgt Bradley also? He came out to Ismailia as well but was invalided back to England. Thanks again
Harpo
I was Rudloe Manor 1979/80 and served with 6 signals unit down the hole. In any info I have read about Rudloe, 6 signals has never been mentioned. Why I wonder? I was involved with RAFAN and did a stint or two in the routing cell. It was a good wee station and I enjoyed my time there. I remember the Flamingo night club just down the road, many a good night I had in there. Does anyone remember 6 signals?
I spent 4 very happy years (1948-1952) with 3507 FCU at RAF Box as an auxiiary telephonist, travelling from Bristol on Wednesday evenings and alternate week-ends. The C.O. was W/C Farnes & the Adjutant was F/Lt Tasney. Paddy Knox was the M.T. Sgt. I also remember Sgt Chris Brinsdon & his wife who was a corporal. I recall going to Coltishall & Middle Wallop to annual camp and also to Sandwich (Kent) & Exminster (Devon). Would love to hear from anyone who may remember me.
Mary Nicholson (ex Corporal Jefferis).
Elisabeth Smith must have been at Box at the same time as me. I travelled from Temple Meads Station to Norwich for annual camp arriving at Coltishall after dark & in pouring
rain – the truck which met us at Norwich had to stop in front of the tent with its lights on
so that we could see to unpack! Also remember Flt. Officer Bagley, F/Officers Beaumont & Wickham, W/Officer Perry & Sgt. Ken Collier. Am afraid I can’t recall your
name but would love to know if you knew any of the above or others.
THIS MESSAGE IS FOR BRIAN HARPER WHO SAYS HE HAS PHOTOS OF THE TELEPRINTER SECTION AT R A F RUDLOE MANOR. I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO HAVE A COPY OF THEM FOR MY SCRAP BOOD SO HOW CAN I GET IN TOUCH WITH HIM/
FOR BRIAN HARPER.. BRIAN I WAS A TELEPRINTER OPERATOR AT RUDLOE MANOR AND WOULD APPRECIATE YOU SENDING ME SOME PHOTOS OF THE TELEPRINTER SECTION MY ADDRESS IS:
DAVID TUCK 7220 – 112 th street. North Delta British Columbia Canada v4c 4v5