Transcribed from a hand written record
Joined Imperial Airways 25 September 1933 as Commercial Trainees:
H A Durawala, Douglas Grey, John Maspero, Geoffrey Pett, Ian Scott-Hill, Ross Stainton, Sunny Sunduram, Edwin Whitfield
Movements for Geoffrey Pett
from London/Croydon Sep 1934 to Operating Croydon (Cro)
from Operating Cro Jan 1935 to Accounts Cro
from Accounts Cro 1st April 1935 to Passenger London (Lo)
from London 9 October 1935 to Brindisi
- by Anson G-ACRN. Stationed there were Denis(?) Bustard, Pat Montague-Bates, Ross Stainton & Stephen Broad
from Brindisi 7 Aug 1936 to London 9 Aug 1936
on Leave then TMO London 31 Aug 1936
from TMO Lo 12 Sep 1936 to Rochester
- as Flight Clerk for takeover and delivery of F/B G-ADUT to Alexandria [Centaurus]
from Rochester 12 Dec 1936 to Alexandria 16 Dec 1936
from Alexandria 18 Dec 1936 to Nairobi 21 Dec 1936
S/O Pett from Nairobi 19th May 1937 to Lindi (via DAR) 26 May 1937
from Lindi 3 June 1938 to Nairobi 5 June 1938
from Nairobi 17 June 1938 to Butiaba 18 June 1938
from Butiaba 8 Sept 1938 to Juba (Rejaf) 12 Sep 1938
T/O2 Pett from Juba 22 Apr 1939 to Khartoum
- Clyde Purnell was S/Supt and Pat Bates Asst S/S
from Khartoum to UK 21 June 1939
- for 96 days home leave
from leave 25 Sep 1939 to Bristol
from Bristol 14 Oct 1939 to reopen Victoria Air Terminal
from UK 6 Dec 1939 to Alexandria
- Stn Supt.: A Thomson till 25 May 1940, then G Pett
- Staff at Ras El Tin (Alexandria) included: T/O D Grey, T/A AJR Murray, T/A ERF Anderson, T/A Michael Clapham. Trainees – Ken McGregor, Keith Cockerell, David Forbes, Roddy Barton, Basil Bamfylde, Oliver Hove, Bill Queckett
T/O Pett from Alexandria 16 Oct 1940 to Cairo (as Stn Supt.)
from Cairo (Rod el Farag) 4 Dec 1940 to Cairo HQ
- other station staff in Dec 1940 were Tr K Cockerell, T/A Gandolfo, T/O Brian Nelson
from Cairo 13 Jan 1941 to Khartoum
from Khartoum 19 Mar 1941 to Juba
- T/A O Hove was in Juba June-Aug 1941; T/O A Watts was relieving at Juba and Malakal during Sep/Oct 1941
from Juba 24 Nov 1941 to Khartoum (Wadi Saidna)
- T/A Cockerell was at Khartoum Oct-Dec 1941 covering leave for various Khartoum staff
- T/O B Nelson was still S/S Khartoum May 1942
- Gregson, Shillitoe & Barton were also ‘around’ Khartoum Sept 1942
- T/O G Boughton still in Khartoum Oct 1942
from Khartoum 9 Oct 1942 to Cairo
- T/O D Paton at Kampala Apr 1943
from Cairo 25 Oct 1944 to UK (Lynham) posted as MCO Europe
BOAC European Region created Jan 1945 and included: Maurice Curtis (Commercial Manager) Harry Matheson (Traffic Supt. Europe) and George Boughton, Geoffrey Gibbons, Douglas Grey, Peter Shillitoe, Ian Scott-Hill and Geoffrey Pett inter alia.
Note: there are many records of other staff transfers in the original documents from which these are taken.
I joined BOAC in November 1950, a month after the last flying boat service. I don’t think I ever knew Geoffrey but somehow his name seems famiiar. Many of the trainees mentioned in the book I knew very well although they had risen to senior positions by then.
First was Roddy Barton who, in the latter part of the 1950’s, was Planning Manager, Western Routes and took me on as one of his staff. Really nice and capable man. His boss at that time was Ross Stainton, then General Manager, Western Routes but later to rise to the very top of British Airways. He and Keith Granville, another ex Trainee and later Chairman of BOAC, who both received well-deserved Knighthoods were greatly and rightly respected. They had made BOAC the fine airline it was.
I met George Boughton, who I fancy had returned to BOAC. Ian Scott-Hill I came across when he was helping set up the British Airways Museum at Cosford. Shame it lost support from the later BA “brass”.
Basil Bampfylde was another ex trainee I knew very well. He became Commercial Director of BOAC. He had attended Winchester as a boarder and was a stickler for grammatical correctness! You soon found out if something you had written fell short of his standards
Thank you for the book, I found it really interesting and my only criticism would be of its shortness – I wanted more!
Thanks for that interesting tour, Mike! I’m glad you enjoyed the book.
I didn’t look up all Geoffrey’s postings after that, but he went into BEA, and by the 1950s he was Cargo Sales Superintendent, then Air Mail Manager, which sort of completes the circle from him supervising his boss throwing the Christmas post aboard Centaurus that first year of the service!
He was very much involved in drawing up the IATA regulations and went to all sorts of international meetings. I could never quite work out why, since he worked for BEA, that he spent a lot of time in the USA, but of course, I realise now it was the IATA stuff.
Of all his other ‘mentions’ other than those of high rank, George Boughton was the only one I tracked down. He died not long before I published the book, and I got a copy of his obituary as a press cutting from a library in the States, which was very kind of them. I know he had several senior (CEO-level) roles with other airlines. The Commercial Trainees kept up their annual reunion dinner till the late 90s when it became too much for most of them to travel to London for it. There are some memorabilia in his ‘box’ including photos, most of whom I can’t name.
I suspect Geoffrey didn’t carry on with more memoirs because it just wasn’t as exciting being based in London. Also he had a young family so his attention was elsewhere. I don’t recall any interesting stories of London being told around the dining table, anyway.
I was rather late getting to your reply. Anyway here are a few more observations.
I had always wondered why some of the Imperial Airways trainees ended up, post war, in BEA and some in BOAC. Seems it depended on where they happened to be based at the moment BOAC split in two. Logical but surprisingly uncomplicated!
The Trainee scheme restarted in BOAC circa 1956. During their training, Trainees of that era wore a standard uniform but with white, lapel badges, similar to those worn by Midshipmen in the Royal Navy. Perhaps that was following earlier Imperial Airways practice?
During the late 1940’s and 1950s in particular, when interdependence between airlines was total, there had to be International agreements on standards and financial settlement arrangements. This applied to Air Mail just as much as Cargo and Passenger traffic.
This was accomplished through semi-annual meetings at which specialists, like your father, would represent the interests of their airline. I can well imagine your father would have been a very busy man but the work rather tame after those heady days in Africa.
IATAs main offices were in Geneva and Montreal, but those meetings could take place in other locations – sometimes places so attractive that their selection aroused envious comments.
I would be interested to discover more about George Boughton’s jobs in the late 60’s, early 70’s if you happen to have details. I just cannot remember where I met him.
Yes, he used to be away for ages… months sometimes, although he didn’t know how long he would be away when he went. This of course was in days when currency was tightly controlled, so he was very lucky to find generous hosts. I have no idea how today’s families would cope not knowing when their dad was coming back.
I remember on one of his US trips, he brought back a cashmere twin set for my mother, which the wife of his host there insisted she should have. This was very much a luxury item and very fashionable in the 50s. I have a couple of souvenirs he brought back from an Arizona trip around 1961 or so. And most of my foreign doll collection he brought back from his trips for me. Mostly European countries, plus a couple of Native American costumes, although I think there are one or two African. I’ve added more myself.
The George Boughton information would have been when I had a different generation of computer, so finding it may prove difficult. If it’s physical I know the box it is in, but that is tucked well away, too! I’ll try to remember to look for it.