RAF Shinfield Park
Headquarters Flying Training Command
(27th May 1940 - 1st June 1968)
RAF Shinfield Park
Headquarters Flying Training Command
(27th May 1940 - 1st June 1968)
I came to Shinfield Park in late 1965, following a two-year posting to HQMEC, Steamer Point, Aden.
I worked at the Command Stats branch with the following (that I remember): John South, Sgt John Morris, Cpl Tony Lewis, Ray Willis and others whose names I cannot now remember. In the next office (Research) was Jill Parkin and Sgt Mick Letch, together with WO Massey (I never knew his first name!).
I remember great times at the Airmen’s Club (NAAFI) … especially the dances, which I enjoyed immensely. John South reminded me that I had a portable hob in my room which I would often use to cook my own meals. Bob Cuss reminded me that I had a Grundig TK46 reel-to-reel which I used for recording songs I wrote.
At one time I was in a small folk group with Anita Muchall, roughly linked to The Parkside Players (theatre and variety group). I married Pat Collier, the C-in-C’s secretary, spending my last year on the camp in Married Quarters.
Unfortunately, I have only a few photographs of my time at Shinfield Park, shown here in B/W..
I purchased my discharge in April 1968 after exactly 6 years service and just before Shinfield closed. I enjoyed my time at the camp and (even with hindsight) wouldn’t change a thing!
After my discharge from the RAF, Pat and I went to live with her mother in Leeds. I worked as a Costing Clerk at Taylor & Atkinson stainless steel works. We split 5 months later and I went to London to college and university. In 1971, during one of my university vacations, I stayed in Germany playing with an ex-service colleague’s band and at one of the concerts met Lorna. We were married in 1973.
After obtaining my Maths degree at City, London University, followed by a postgrad certificate in Education at Garnett College, Roehampton, I spent just under 20 years teaching Maths, Stats and Computing in colleges full-time with some part-time work in specialist institutions and universities and completed my MSc in Statistics at Brunel University. During my teaching years, I was elected to two professional institutions and gained qualifications AFIMA and MIS. We moved from New Ash Green, Kent to Nottingham in 1977 for my job as a lecturer at Clarendon College, where my teaching level qualified me for a Senior Lecturer post and then onto a management position before retirement from the college in 1995. During my teaching period I wrote and published two student text books, “Advanced Level Statistics” (ALS) and “Business Mathematics and Statistics” (BMS). ALS is now out of print but still available on the internet; BMS is still in print but, for the 7th edition, I took on a co-author to help keep it up to date and relevant to an international student audience. BMS (6th Edition) prelims and first three chapters can be viewed here.
I left teaching in 1995 to work as a data analyst and medical statistician in Health Services, first at Nottingham University Perinatal Audit and then at the newly formed Perinatal Institute (based in Birmingham) in 1998. The post was split between a) operational data/statistical work on pregnancy care and fetal growth documentation and charts and b) research, which over 20 years resulted in my joint authorship of more than 60 academic papers with institutional, national and international colleagues. These papers, referenced in my CV, formed the background for registration with Warwick University Medical School and I went on to graduate with a PhD in Medical Sciences (Fetal growth customisation: statistical modelling and clinical applications). I retired from full-time work in 2022 but keep an association with the Institute.
Over the years, I have been involved with a number of entertainment groups. In the late nineties I did three seasons with an amateur music and dramatic society, NOWMADS, and 6 years with the Nottingham Harmonic Society (1st tenor).
I spent almost 20 years with The Saturday Singers during which I helped form Quorus, a 4-part a cappella singing group. I have now joined The Palace Singers in Lichfield.
Lorna and I have a daughter Imogen, a son-in-law Ben, grandson Jacob (b. 2021) and twin granddaughters Ella and Daisy (b. 2024). We live together in Lichfield, Staffordshire and are converting our house (2024) to accommodate all seven of us comfortably.