This website is not intended to be a definitive or accurate guide to any of the subjects on the page headings. It’s a family memorial to a young man who died tragically while serving his Country. I haven’t gone into much detail about the headline subjects that feature on each page as this is covered in great detail elsewhere on the web. I’ve simply tried to give a background to Teddy’s short career in the RAF and to give the reader some idea of what he experienced in the months leading to 28th May 1943. Although this is Teddy’s story, he was just one of a great number of young men who died in similar circumstances and, in a way, this is the story of all of them. I can’t begin to understand bravery of this measure and have the utmost respect for all of those who volunteered and fought so selflessly for our Country and its freedom.

A few years ago, before the internet, search engines and broadband this sort of research was very time-consuming and almost impossible. It is due to the determination and hard work of people who have researched this information the hard way, and uploaded it for others to find, that this sort of website is now possible. I want to thank all the enthusiasts and historians who have worked so hard to make all this detail available to amateur researchers. Their reason is to ensure that the memory of the sacrifices made by these young men is not forgotten. So in that spirit I’ve cherry-picked the facts concerning Teddy’s flying career and presented them here. Thank you to all the people and groups who have provided me with general and specific information, either knowingly or unknowingly.

I’d particularly like to thank Vince Holyoak for researching and writing ‘On the Wings of the Morning’ and for making it available for us all. Vince has been extremely generous in his time, advice and sharing his material with me to help find specific information about Teddy and the crew of K-Kitty.

Thanks also to David Middleton for permission to point you towards the Bottesford Living History website with it’s wealth of highly readable information and for hosting Vince’s book.

I’ve created this website because Teddy was my late father’s cousin. I was incredibly lucky in that Teddy’s time in the RAF was so well documented and recorded. Many similar research projects end disappointingly at an early stage. However, Teddy’s story is is not so different to that of many of the young boys who were his friends and colleagues, so in that way it is the story of all of them.

I’ve created a similar website for my father’s war stories but the difference is that he survived, lived to 92, and succumbed to our demands that he write his story in his own words. You can find it at Click Here.

Ian Middleton

Email: webmaster at speedbird747.com (replace at with @) or click here