ABOUT TED LITTLE
Ted's first posting after Halton was to Upper Heyford for the formation of 108 Squadron with Hawker "Hinds". The squadron moved around somewhat and ended up at Cranfield. Then in 1938 he was posted overseas to 203 Squadron at Basrah which operated Singapore Mark III flying boats. See picture.
These were biplanes with a pair of pusher RR Kestrels and a pair of tractor RR Kestrels, metal hull and fabric-covered wings. The squadron made fairly frequent trips down the Gulf as far as Muscat.
Just before WW2 started in 1939, 203 relocated in Aden and were re-equipped with long-nosed Blenheims. Ted was recommended for a pilots course in 1940, but this was withdrawn in 1941 because of his trade of Fitter-rigger. (I am not surprised, we did the jobs of Sergeant Metal Rigger and Sergeant FitterAE in a flight and saved lots of manpower! - George.) Ted came home in 1941 round the Cape and never worked on a squadon again, but served in various weird training flights.
In 1946 he went to Locking on a one year Fitter I conversion course, which he found to be a good course and very useful, bringing his knowledge up-to-date. He went to a unit servicing Yorks and finished up at RAF Abingdon, where all the Yorks came to from Germany during the Berlin Airlift. In January 1949 he went to the "businesss end" of the airlift at Gatow in Berlin and stayed there after the airlift ended. Then home in '51 as instructor at St Athans and later in the trade testing section. The wheel had turned right round he says, when he went to Halton to pass out the apprentices!
In 1955 he was posted as a Chief Technician to HQ No 22 Group Communication Flight at Market Drayton. During his last few years he got some day release and successfully studied at Shrewsbury Tech. for ONC and HNC in Mech. Engineering with enough endorsements for membership of the I Mech E, but unfortunately he didn't have enough professional engineering experience to qualify at the time.
However at last in "Civvy Street" with his civilian qualifications he taught mechanical engineering at Shrewsbury Technical College for 6 years and then moved to the Dockyard Tech. in Plymouth until it was taken over in 1971 by the LEA, who would not keep on the half a dozen or so of the mature lecturers there including Ted.
So he then worked in the Dockyard, including having a spell writing Quality Assurance Documents for Nuclear Submarines, quite a change from his old stamping ground! He retired in 1981. After 53 years of marriage he lost his wife to cancer in 1995.
Ted is not in the best of health, having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, a pig's heart valve insert, a pacer and macular degeneration in the right eye, to mention a few items. He has had to stop piping with the Plymouth City Pipe Band but now plays again for personal pleeasure and can be seen with the Golden Oldies at Trennials. H e still resides in Plymouth. See below - the rather fierce looking chap with the white moustache.
TED LITTLE WITH GOLDEN OLDIES, TRIENNIAL 2007
TED LITTLE WITH DAVID HOWELLS IN CHURCH 2007
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PIPER TED AND DAVID HOWELLS