Wings Over Wick
1939 - 1945
Others

T Gwynn Jones, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd
I spent happy times in Wick 1943-45, at a small RAF radio station at Noss Head. I stayed in 17 Moray Street, with a Miss J Mackay who after the war joined her brother in Australia. She was very kind to me and I remember when she wrote to my parents in Tregarth, North Wales to say I went to the Baptist Church with her every Sunday I was free and played the organ there occasionally. The official organist was Miss G Bruce.

We used to cycle from Moray Street at night across the RAF station to our little station a mile further on, in all weathers and sometimes it was very stormy indeed. Our CO was Flt Lt Murray and the second in command W/O Chalmers. Among the airmen who were there as Wireless Operators like myself, were:

Frank Skerret, now a Glasgow lawyer and radio personality.

William Blezard, now a professional musician, composer and pianist.

On Hogmanay there was a great concert at the Station Hotel arranged by Jimmy Sinclair, where I often played the piano. We used to go dancing at the Breadalbane Hall, that's where I learned the Strip The Willow and the Highland Fling.

I was friendly with a Sutherland family who lived in East Banks, the three daughters were called Rena, Beth and Margaret Sutherland. I also remember two fine ministers - Rev Dick of the Congregational Church and Rev Cameron Clarke of the Baptist Church. I left Wick in 1945 and finished in the RAF in 1946 and returned home to Wales where I started teaching. I ended up as Headmaster of the Welsh School at Colwyn Bay, up to my retirement.