Over the next week or I’m going to post!some of the photos mentioned in #AboveUsTheStars which didn’t get into the book due to lack of space. For those of you who have a copy, I’ll include the page no.
1) Jimmy Thornton & Jack Clyde in the back yard at Caroline St p43, 1941

Jimmy (left) trained as a bomb aimer with 75 NZ Sqn; he only completed 13 ops before being discharged due to being “bad with his nerves” after escaping a burning aircraft. He and Jack were good mates and next door neighbours. He returned to the RAF as an instructor later on.

2) Lydia Clyde (Jack’s sister), in 1938, aged about 17, just after the death of their mother. Lydia was left to look after her father John, and younger brothers Jack (aged 16), and 6 year old George. (p 6 #AboveUsTheStars )

3) Lydia Clyde & Jim Groark's wedding April 1940. Jim had been conscripted in January & joined the Royal Engineers. They were married on Jim's first home leave. The first photo was cropped to remove Jim's sour-faced mother who was against the marriage (p24 #AboveUsTheStars)

4) The visit of King George & Queen Elizabeth to 114 Sqn, RAF West Raynham, in April 1942. They're chatting to Wing Cdr Jenkins, who'd been shot down on 27.3.42 & reported safe a few days later (p51 #AboveUsTheStars ).

5) “Penny’s Prangers”... the original crew list belonging to skipper Reg Pennicott, signed by all the boys, showing them in front of Halifax Z-Zebra, 10.6.43. By the end of the war, 2 of this crew were dead, another a POW (p136-7) #AboveUsTheStars

6) The original postcard sent by Prisoner of War Ernest Temple to Edie Threadkell in 1944. Ernie describes how he had a “rough time” in Italy. Edie wrote to dozens of POWs from her home town of Seaham during the war. Edie was the Clyde Family’s neighbour (p206) #AboveUsTheStars

Edie features in my first book too - her Aunt Sarah Marshall was The Horsekeeper’s Daughter