RAE Memoirs

Thanks largely to the researches of my brother Richard from 1994 onwards; we have now become reasonably well informed on some aspects of our family ancestry. At the change of the millennium this work is still in progress, and will be summarized separately. My main...

Time being a distinctly questionable aspect of creation, I have anticipated a little in my ramble through antecedents, but in principle, these were the circles into which I was inducted on 14 August 1920 and my brother Richard on 2 July 1922. I had seven happy settled...

My father was promoted to the position of Headmaster in 1927. This promotion was preceded by more than one effort, each of which involved several sets of interviews - first for preparation of a short-list and then for final selection. My father was never exactly...

In August 1929 I was moved from Applecroft Primary School to Hertford Grammar School. The fees were £5 per term. I believe this was a little less than the fees at Hitchin Grammar School, but only half of the £10 charged by St Albans Grammar School. As there was no...

By the early thirties, my parents had abandoned the Workers' Travel Association, purchased two white ridge tents, and become pioneer car-borne campers.  For a number of years, our regular summer run was to Pendower Beach on the south Cornish coast, via Honiton,...

In October 1938 I went up to University College London, travelling daily from Welwyn Garden City to Kings Cross, and then walking to Gower Street.  I had a useful but minor County grant, but the bulk of my expenses were shouldered by my parents. Living at home and...

As I have indicated, I tend to think of the start of the World War 2 period as being the 26th September 1938, and I have included in Chapter 4 a few diary notes I made at the time.   I worked very hard at college and during my early army days, and I simply had no...

When I first became aware of radar, then referred to as "radiolocation", I was aged 20 and approaching the end of a degree course in geology at University College, London, which was at the time (1941) evacuated to Aberystwyth on account of the College having been bomb...

14 Dec 1943 Arrived EAEME Depot, Karen, near Nairobi. 24 Dec.1943 Moved to 41 AA Workshop Co, EAEME, Mombasa, then Likoni. 7 Feb 1944 Moved to Diego Suarez The diary notes of 6 December 1943, written aboard the Salween, turned out to be my last produced during the war...

My move from Mombasa to Diego Suarez was on the 7 of February 1944 and I was accompanied by Major Eaton, the head of 41 AA Workshop Coy. This trip - by BOAC Sunderland flying boat - was my first experience of air travel. I was to relieve Capt Bevan, in charge of a...

In my letters I referred only briefly to the journey back from Diego to Mombasa on Wednesday 7th March.  It was again by BOAC flying boat.  This was a plane which flew fairly low, and the part of the trip I found interesting was that up the East African coast – “Vast...

Réunion is a tropical volcanic island at the southern end of the Mascarene Ridge in the Indian Ocean.  Slightly larger than neighbouring Mauritius, 100miles farther east, it is oval in shape and around 30 miles from NE to SW, 45 miles from NW to SE.  The island is...

The formative reason behind my decision to study geology at university was my determination to go for a career as far as possible in the open air, a determination nurtured by natural history interests during my later school years and reinforced by my army experience...

Prelude I like to think my offshore interests lasted most of my life, but it is true to say that owing to force of circumstances my really active activities in marine matters peaked in the two decades spanning the late 1960's to early 1980's.  I grew up, however, in...

Although we had quite frequent holiday visits to France and Spain during post-war years I had very limited overseas professional contact.  There were visits to meetings of the International Carboniferous Congress in Aachen and Paris and one brief visit to the Ruhr...

Here are a few diary dates: 1975 Feb 27 to 1 March.  Visiting Norway (Stavanger) and Denmark (Copenhagen) re co-operation in North Sea mapping. April 2.  Visit of delegation from Chinese Oceanological Society. July 21.  Paper Board for my replacement as District...

After I had been retired from IGS (or BGS as it has mercifully now become) for around a year, and we were feeling semi- settled at Whirlow in Ottery St Mary’s West Hill, I was surprised to receive an invitation to take a two-year post-retirement contract in Fiji.  The...

Ever since my teens I have attached a great deal of importance to writing.  Leaving aside technical work, I have, however, rarely sought to get anything into print, pleading that my interest has been in writing for its own sake, not in suffering the humiliations of...

The adventures to be detailed in the pages which follow may read almost like an attempted history of the companies concerned.  That is not my idea, rather, I am putting forward a resumé of my personal contacts with them.  There may well be errors; there are certainly...

“Well?” I hear you say, and it is an interesting question.  What is it all about? I intend to approach this broad question with a broad brush, starting from the position that reasoned theories, however tentative, are the only credible basis of knowledge. From this...