The 81st Entry
RAF Halton Aircraft Apprentices
Sept 1955 - July 1958

ISSUE No. 2 - FEBRUARY 2005
81st ENTRY NEWSLETTER
Editor: Mike Stanley

'From the Latest to the Greatest' by Brian Spurway

I wonder if anyone other than myself from our Entry can say that within a year of leaving Halton he had worked on the latest aircraft to enter RAF service and also on the oldest one still in RAF service.

Initially my posting from Halton had been to 2nd TAF, perfect as I wanted to go overseas, but accelerated promotion to corporal changed all that and a bit miffed I joined 229 OCU at Chivenor. My arrival there coincided, almost to the day, with the arrival of our first Hunter T7s….OK not all brand new in that some (but certainly not all) were converted Mk4s…the latest edition to the RAF's inventory. Getting over being a 19 year old corporal took some time, as I'm sure all faced with the same problem would agree, maybe well trained (which really only meant examinations passed!!) but actually bl**dy useless when it came down to being an NCO fitter expected to carry his weight in a hangar full of sceptics. It all worked out OK though and within 6 months, with sympathetic guidance from a sergeant full of knowledge about the Hunter and old enough to be my dad, I was allowed to be a real NCO capable of both doing the job and supervising others. I started to enjoy Chivenor, the work (especially first-line servicing), and the fact that winter meant the local girls were desperate and summer brought the holidaymakers…equally desperate!! Added to which by local standards an RAF corporal was rich beyond compare, £8 and 10 shillings a week in hand, cor blimey mate, no competition!!

Life was good, BUT really I still wanted to go overseas and, as luck would have it, a situation arose and my wish came true. Put on PWR (but with very little of the W) I was to go to the Far East…. Singapore…. "Valhalla" indeed. Not so fast though, a message from on high had me in front of the Sqn CO, one Sqn Ldr Crabb (to be personally blamed for my entire life from then on) and he had a small problem, could I help him out? Careful Brian, three years at Halton taught you never to volunteer for anything, didn't it? It seemed another corporal rigger on the Sqn, married with a young wife (sob!sob!) and two small kids (more sobs!) had been posted to do a year's unaccompanied tour at Christmas Island (now where the Hell was that??!!) and I could help out immensely by exchanging postings with him. Now there was this young thing that was making my life a bit difficult so, what the Hell, why not? Go for it mate and see what happens.

So, less than a year after leaving Halton I was off to Christmas Island to join a 1325 Flight, some thought this was a "Cranberry" thing, flying through the A/H bomb mushroom clouds taking radiation samples.Not quite as it was really a flight of three very venerable Dakota Mk5s, built before the War, used extensively during the conflict, mothballed and then dragged out of well-deserved retirement and sent to the Island as "maids of all work". To cut a long story short, I never made the Island as the tests had been discontinued a short time previously and 1325 Flight had been detached to RAF Changi indefinitely, and there I was to stay for a year working happily on the RAF's oldest operational aircraft (unless, of course, you know otherwise).

Thanks to the previously mentioned "Buster" Crabb I had a wonderful tour, a year with the Daks, flying as crew chief all over the Far East (including the Gan situation), a very near (too near) thing with a bit of high ground on the Mekong river in Laos, a week's "holiday" in Delhi whilst our passengers slowly serviced a U/S Javelin and others………the memories flood back. A year after I joined it, 1325 disbanded and I extended my FEAF tour by joining Changi's ASF as deputy, and then later NCO i/c, the Mod Bay. I met and married my wife at Changi staying free of impregnation until the night of January 4th 1962 when having returned to the UK my parents double bed ……..etc. etc. And there's more...............................

Brian Spurway