A chance encounter led to an emotional return to RAF High Wycombe for Bledlow resident Ian Mackinson – sixty years after he was stationed here as a teenager.
Family friend and former police officer Adam Seymour happened to be talking to a member of our RAF Police and mentioned that Ian was celebrating his eightieth birthday and what a gift it would be if he could return to the site of his youth that held so many memories. Of course, we were happy to oblige!
Military service is a constant in Ian’s family. He is able to trace back proud service to the seventeenth century. During his formative years Ian spent time at RAF Geilenkirchen in Germany, where his father served as part of the RAF. “It was difficult living on an RAF base where you could not really gain a vocation. Joining the RAF was the natural thing to do,” said Ian whose brother had already signed up. “Dad said to me that if you pass the induction exam you can follow your brother to RAF Cosford as a boy entrant.” He passed. RAF Cardington was the next step and in October 1960 at the tender age of sixteen he entered eighteen months of boy entrant training at Cosford.
After qualifying as a Telegraphist II with the rank of LAC every eager recruit is keen to find out their first posting. Ian was no exception. “Nobody wanted RAF Stanmore! It was considered the Telecomms centre in the UK at that time with a reputation of being a bit nasty – very strict and rigid, isolated and in the middle of nowhere,” chuckled Ian.
As luck would have it Ian was sent to RAF Bomber Command HQ at High Wycombe in April 1963, a place he never knew existed.
“High Wycombe in those days was very regimented. The discipline levels were probably similar to the 1940s & 50s. Between 1 & 3 sites you had to march. There was a mirror in the guardroom where you had to check your attire before leaving camp. If a ‘Snowdrop’ (military policeman) didn’t like the look of you, you were sent back to be inspected again,” recalled the young LAC.
Life for a Telegraphist Type 2 involved shift work in the radio shack or teleprinter rooms and working on anything from Morse Code to teleprinting. “There wasn’t much here in those days – the guardroom, NAAFI*, Fulton Block, Mess, WAAF’s quarters* and the Sergeant’s Mess. That was it,” reminisced Ian. Accommodation consisted of four men sharing one room with a central shower and washing base.
“The Mad 60s….there was a fair amount of hard work, but a fair amount of hard play to match.”
Ian Mackinson
For recreation the junior ranks enjoyed local pub life, the NAAFI and cricket. The odd pass to go home was also offered but with Ian’s family living in Germany there were no trips back to see them.
And Ian’s favourite part about life at RAF High Wycombe? “It was a structured environment that was enclosed. There was a security about being amongst people you were happy to be with,” recalled the jovial octogenarian. And the least favourite? “Marching up and down the roads and getting wet!”
Seasoned readers may remember the great snow fall of 1963 where the country was engulfed in waist high snow drifts that lasted until April. Ian recalls station buildings buried in snow and ice, helping to deliver food parcels to outlying villages and fixing wooden ploughs to land rovers to help keep the roads open.
“I have no regrets. This place and the RAF in general have a theme that has run through my life.”
Ian Mackinson
Leaving the RAF in 1964, Ian has had a varied career including a term with the Rothschilds Bank, Air France in Ground Radio Control and ML Aviation before spending the last ten years of his working life in China before retiring aged fifty-two. He met his wife Jacqui in 1967 who was working at Bradenham Manor at the time.
And his feelings on returning to RAF High Wycombe after so many years?
“It is a mixture of nostalgia, sadness, excitement a touch of fear. It is such a big step. When I left here it was a really closed, hard military base. It does not leave you – not when you are brought up with that type of discipline at my age – aged fifteen to mid-twenties. Perhaps trepidation is a better word. I don’t really get emotional if I can help it, but I am feeling it now. It is so lovely to be here.”
I had the pleasure of conducting a video interview with Ian and against the backdrop of the Officer’s Mess the memories came flooding back like welcoming an old friend. Sharing his stories with RAF Historian Dave Brown over lunch at the Sergeant’s Mess is what makes the job of Media & Communications Officer so fulfilling – sharing old memories and making new ones. And Ian’s advice after eighty years in this world? “Stand up straight and be proud of yourself. Don’t let people put you down.” Wise words indeed.
*NAAFI – Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes - a place where members of the Armed Forces go to buy sweets, crisps, snacks, tea/coffee.
*WAAF – Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.