Obitury for one of the many

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Member for

12 years 9 months

Posts: 331

Yesterday morning, another one of the many surviving veterns of WW2 and The Cold War, passed away.
Born in 1924, Joseph Ingram joined the Air Training Corps at the outbreak of WW2, and applied for aircrew training when he became 18.
For whatever reason, his application was deferred, and he spent the next 2 years serving as ground crew on various Bomber Command Stations in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

In 1945, he was sent to 1 BFTS at Terrel, in Texas, where he gained his wings, shortly after the end of the war.

Posted back to the UK, he spent some time at various Stations, before being posted to 51 Squadron, and later 511 Squadron, flying Avro Yorks, mainly on routes to the Far East. During this period, as a Sergeant Pilot, his crew flew Earl Mountbatten to India, as a replacement crew, as the usual crew were unwell. (I have a picture of his crew standing under the nose emblem of this York).

Declared surplus to requirement, he left the RAF shortly before the Berlin Airlift began.

He subsequently attended university, and was ordained as a Church of Scotland minister..

In 1960, married, with a young family, he rejoined the RAF. He subsequently served at Melksham, Laarbruch, Cosford, Kormaksor (Aden), Scampton, Episkopi, Hereford, and finally Swinderby, before retiring in 1977, with the rank of Wing Commander, on the same date that his eldest son passed out from recruit training. He was still entitled to wear his Pilot's Wings on his unifirorm.

One of his "claims to fame" was that he was one of the last servicemen to leave Aden, when it closed, in 1967.

He never lost his love of flying, his resettlement course was 2 weeks with a Universty Air Squadron, to get his PPL.

Among the various aircraft he flew, as pilot or passenger, are, Tiger Moth, Dragon Rapide, Stearman, Harvard (both British and USA versions), York, Oxford, Prentice (the one at Newark Air Museum), Chipmunk, Varsity, Bulldog. Auster, and various civil types from Tayside Flying Club. He often took his sons aloft with him, and let them fly the aircraft under his supervision.

He wrote up his memories, but had to self-publish as no publsher showed an interest in them.

The main reason I'm posting this is that I am his eldest son, and have a lifelong interest in aviation because of him.

Original post

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Cabbage,

A life well lived ! Now you're carrying the flag - with grace and style. Next Remembrance Sunday and hopefully thereafter, the Wing Commander will be in our thoughts..