At home there was never much talk about dad’s time served with the RAF. It was usually local people that mentioned it in conversation. Although I do recall throughout childhood having dads flying jacket cut flat used as a rug on the bedroom floor.

I was born 1946 15months after dad had returned home from war. Mum (Zena Lydia) and dad lived in a small rented terraced cottage on Main St, South Hiendley, Near Barnsley. That is where I was born. I was their fourth child.

When I was 14 years old one of the school teachers set the class a task of completing a project of our choice, I forget what I chose. However unknown to me one of the boy's in the class (Dennis Ellsworth) competed his project on my dad "The Local Hero".  Until then I had little knowledge of any of the facts concerned with dad, including him having a medal for bravery. Arriving home from school mum talked to me about my dad and why he had been a local hero. That was the first time I recall being shown his Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) and photos of the occasion. Mum also gave me newspaper cuttings to read, and I was shown dads parachute buckle that had saved his life. Dad seemed rather pleased and proud to hear about the school project, but said it was no big deal he was just doing his job. Dad loaned Felkirk Secondary school his medal and other items to put on display for everyone to see. This made me feel very special, and still does today. I realised that if dad had been killed with that bullet I would not be alive today.

When dad died in December 1987 my brothers and sister and I had to decide what should be done with dad's medals and memorabilia. He had always said he would like them placing in a museum for people to see. They were not to be sold under any circumstances.

My sister Christine was dealing with this when she and her family died in a road accident while on holiday in New Zealand. Time passed, a lot happened, none of us had "got round to it".

My nephew John Copley had been chosen to take care of the item's (eldest grandson) and was going to live in Spain. This is how I then took over responsibility for them. While visiting my brother one day in 2002, an old friend of my dad Arthur Tibble, was also visiting. The conversation turned to talking about dad and Arthur was very insistent that I should find a good museum to donate dad’s war memorabilia to. Arthur said "there is quite a story to be told you know". I asked him if at all possible would he write down what he knew and send it to me. My brother and I had to admit we knew very little about the events that happened during dad’s service in the RAF as he rarely spoke about it. I did have some conversations with dad around the 40th anniversary time. Lot's of things on television and in papers must have prompted him to start telling me some stories, but they were in no sort of order or time scale. Just some of the tales and mostly funny bits about his experiences.

Dads friend Arthur Tibble's conversation and short note on scraps of paper from him were the start of my research.

2007. 
 I now feel I have enough information to write a book about my dad "My Hero" to pass onto future generations of my family, and for any other person/s who may be interested.