Edward Robson

I was born, christened and baptised Edward Robson. I was known as Edward by my family and friends, at school it became Pop Robson, as Eddie by my soul mate for 60 years and during my early and mid-life, then for some reason Ted after leaving Consett in 1970. Born at No.8, Sixth Street, later named Fell Side, Delves Lane, Consett, County Durham. I can only remember living at No.12, Cross Street, later renamed Broadway, Delves Lane. My family moved to Cross Street in the same year that I was born. 

I attended Delves Lane Primary School, built at the top of the hill overlooking the village, and on a clear day one could see Durham City on the horizon, eleven miles south. At eleven years of age, I attended Consett Secondary School for boys. I was not gifted academically, good at art, sang in the school choir at many venues, conducted by a competent and well-respected choirmaster Mr. Brown.

I left school on the Friday at the age of 14, started work on the Saturday morning at 8.30 am until 9.30pm. Until I was nineteen years old, I was employed as an articled pupil to the business of the pharmaceutical chemist at Timothy Whites and Taylors, at 15, Shakespeare St. Consett, following nine months as an errand boy. I was trained in retail management and dispensing. I continued in paid employment through my working life, never being unemployed.

As a teenage boy during 1940 I listened eagerly to the nine o'clock news nightly on the wireless, to the news of the gallant few in the RAF as they battled against the German Luftwaffe. I volunteered for the Royal Air Force in September 1941, called up and entered the Royal Air Force in the following April 1942, reporting first to RAF Padgate, near Warrington south-west of Manchester. Received my basic training at Blackpool and was trained as a Wireless Operator at Compton Bassett.

My first posting was to the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment at Sherbourn-in-Elmet near York. Air duties were required on many different aircraft, towing gliders, the dropping of live parachutists and container dropping of equipment. Conversion training followed to become a W.O.M. (Wireless Operator Mechanic) at RAF Cranwell. I had at that time completed 12 months training in the RAF within my first 16 months service. On completion of my training as a technician I was posted to Little Rissington, Oxfordshire, an Advanced Flying Training Station for pilots, where I maintained the wireless equipment installed in Anson and Oxford aircraft.

I was then posted at the beginning of January 1944 to the newly formed 512 Squadron at RAF Hendon in London. As one of the advance-party I flew in a newly delivered Dakota aircraft to RAF Broadwell near Whitney in Oxfordshire, an airfield at that time still under construction. We shared the airfield with 575 Squadron also equipped with Dakota aircraft. These two squadrons were deployed with airborne forces preparing for the invasion of Europe, towing Horsa gliders and parachute dropping. The squadron was involved in D-Day operations, parachute dropping the night before, and glider towing on D-Day, thereafter on re-supply operations, returning with wounded soldiers from the front line. The Squadron was also involved in the Arnhem operations, glider towing and resupply.

My next posting was to the newly resurrected 238 Squadron at Merryfield, Somerset in January 1945 the first RAF mobile squadron to fly out to the Far East. We flew from RAF St. Mawgan, Cornwall, in February 1945, servicing our aircraft on route in transit, to enable the squadron to commence our tour of operations on arrival. Our first leg of the journey was to Istres, near Marseille in the south of France, to Castel Benito in Libya, North Africa, to Tobruk, then Lydda in Palestine, to Shaibah in south of Iraq, in the Persian Gulf, down to Jar Jah, in Arabia, across the Indian Ocean to Karachi in India, then to Raipur in the Central Provinces, on to our operations base at Camilla in Bengal, east of the Brahmaputra, SEAC (South East Asia Command), taking nine flying days over a period of 19 days in transit. The squadron carried out its first operation on the second day after our arrival, flying Indian army reinforcements to the battle for Mandalay, returning with wounded soldiers from the battle. The squadron operated supplying the 14th Army, fighting the Japanese, landing on air strips close to the front line, as they raced to capture Rangoon before the Monsoon season broke, expected in May. Ten days after our arrival I served on a squadron detachment with eight other technicians at an airstrip in the jungle on Ramree Island in Burma, salvaging the wireless installation from one of 238 Squadron’s aircraft that had crashed as it landed on the end of the airstrip, from which a squadron of Spitfires were operating against the Japanese. I was able to salvage the entire wireless installation including the circuit wiring intact, which was my specific task on the detachment. This equipment was reassembled on my return and used as a test bench for wireless equipment at the Signals Section at RAF Camilla. Unserviceable aircraft were cannibalized as spare equipment was non-existent in the Far East at the time.

After the fall of Rangoon and the re-conquest of Burma the squadron equipped with 30 new Dakota aircraft flew out to Australia via Ratmalana, Colombo, in Ceylon, then to the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, to Learmouth in the Northern Territories, Australia, to Perth, Western Australia, then to our new operational station at Parafield, Adelaide, South Australia, taking seven days in transit. We were made extremely welcome and showered with hospitality from families who had emigrated pre-war to Australia from Britain. I also enjoyed lots of cricket, tennis, golf and swimming. The squadron was engaged supplying the British Royal Navy Fleet after it joined the American Pacific Fleet, supporting the American Army forces landings on islands in the Pacific, as they prepared for the invasion of Japan. The two atom bombs were dropped in Japan as we were preparing to move to the Philippines. I was one of the eighteen members of the RAF squad that marched in the Victory Parade through Adelaide at the end of the Second World War and attended the Freedom of the City celebrations bestowed upon the squadron. 238 Squadron was disbanded at the end of the year 1945, having flown 156hrs 22 min, as a ground crew member of the RAF.

I boarded the Durban Castle liner at Sydney early in February 1946, and sailed around the south and west coasts of Australia to Freemantle, West Australia, into the Indian Ocean, up through the Sunda Straits passing Java and the east coast of Sumatra into Singapore to serve in the reoccupation force, restoring wireless communications at RAF Changi, and whilst there I attended the hearings at the Kempeitai War Crimes trials in Singapore. Because of the nature of my trade and the technological developments during the war, newly trained technicians for the peace time RAF were required, which delayed my demob from the RAF until February 1947. I supervised the construction of the aerial systems and installation of the wireless equipment at RAF Changi before leaving. I returned from Singapore on the RMS Andes via the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean passing Gibraltar, docking at Southampton, then by train to Kirkham for discharge and the severe 1947 winter weather.

I returned to my pre-war occupation as an Assistant Manager at the Chester-le-Street branch of Timothy Whites and Taylors. I saw my wife to be, for the first time on the first morning after my return home from my Cook's tour, which made up for the wasted five years to my pre-war career, and made it my business to become better acquainted.

Edward Robson – born 28 March 2023, died 7 November 2025 at the age of 102.