IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Pain
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: PAIN, Sqdn Ldr Harry (1921-2002)
Date(s): 1937-1978
Level of description: Collection
Extent: One file or 0.01m3
Name of creator(s): Pain | Harry | 1921-2002 | Squadron Leader
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born 1921; aircraft apprentice, RAF Holton, 1937; Aircraftsman Grade 2, RAF Driffield, 1939; posted to No 7 Squadron Hampdens, RAF Finningly, 1939; volunteered to join 210 Squadron, Coastal Command, 1939-1942; Sergeant, 1940; posted to 407 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, 1942; Signals Instructor, South Cerney, 1943; Emergency Commissioned Acting Pilot Officer, Nov 1943; Flying Officer, Jul 1944; Flight Lieutenant, Sept 1944; Squadron Leader and Station Commander, Training Area Flying Control Centre, 1945; Flight Lieutenant, 1948; retired as Squadron Leader, 1973; died 2002.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Typescript unpublished memoir of Squadron Leader Harry 'Wacker' Pain, 1937-1978, including descriptions of: training as an Aircraft Apprentice, RAF Halton, 1937; wireless operator training in Wallace and Wapiti biplanes; airborne wireless operator training, RAF Driffield, 1939; working for Special Duties Flight, Coastal Command, as a gunner in long range Sunderland flying boats, 1939-1942, including survivor searches after submarine attacks, escorting convoys, account of destruction of flying boats Cabot and Caribou, Bodo, Norway, Apr 1940, training messenger pigeons, serious injury in crash and subsequent reposting as Signals Instructor, 1942, and retraining as an Air Traffic Control Officer, 1943. Also anecdotes from various postings including Nutts Corner, Northern Ireland, 1944-1946; opening a new Area Control Centre in Gibraltar, 1946; RAF Mingaladon, Burma, 1947, and RAF Negombo, Ceylon, 1948; Area Control Centre, RAF Watnall, UK, 1949; RAF Gutersloh, Germany, 1954-1957; Air Traffic Controller at RAF Coningsby, 1957-1959; assisting with the introduction of radar guided systems and the formation of Border Radar in RAF Bishops Court, County Down, Northern Ireland, 1959-1962 and RAF Boulmer, Alnwick, 1962-1964; RAF Paya Lebar, Singapore, 1964-1967; as controller, Northern Radar, RAF Lindholme, 1967-1970; RAF Patrington, Withernsea, 1970-1971; Senior Operations Officer, Border Radar, RAF Boulmer, 1971-1973.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English.
System of arrangement:
One file.
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form and provision of two forms of identification.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archives and Information Management.
Finding aids:
No further finding aids.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to the Centre by the family, July 2004.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Compiled by Katharine Higgon.
Date(s) of descriptions: Nov 2007