OULTON, AVM Wilfred Ewart Oulton (1911-1997)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Oulton
Held at	: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma ›
Full title	: OULTON, AVM Wilfred Ewart Oulton (1911-1997)
Date(s)	: Created 1956-1996
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 box or 0.01 cubic metres
Name of creator(s)	: Oulton | Wilfred Ewart | 1911-1997 | Air Vice Marshal

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1911; educated University College, Cardiff (engineering) and RAF College Cranwell, 1927-1931; commissioned, 1931; served in flying boat squadron, Malta; studied and taught at School of Navigation, Manston; flying boat squadron at Pembroke Dock and in charge of research on navigational equipment, Ministry of Aircraft Production, 1939-1941; wartime service, 1941-1945, including training of British air crews and combined services liaison team, US, commanded 58 Squadron, set up RAF base on the Azores, in charge of the flying boat station, RAF Castle Archdale, Northern Ireland, Deputy Director Flying Control responsible for setting up air traffic control systems in post-war Britain; Director, Joint Anti-Submarine School, Londonderry, 1946-1948; Joint Services Staff College, 1948-1950; Air Attache, Argentina, Uraguay, Paraguay, 1950-1953; Director of Operations, Air Ministry, 1954-1956; commanded Joint Task Force GRAPPLE for first British thermonuclear weapons tests in the Pacific, 1956-1958; Senior Air Staff Officer, RAF Coastal Command HQ, 1958-1960; retired, 1960; upon retirement became Director of Defence Projects, EMI Electronics and established business consultancy, Medsales Executive; died, 1997.
Publications: Christmas Island cracker (London, 1987)

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Correspondence, a television script, press cuttings and photographs relating to signals during World War Two, the Battle of the Atlantic and Operation GRAPPLE, 1956-1996; including correspondence and script for Westward Television documentary on the Battle of the Atlantic and Coastal Command during World War Two, 1969-1971; personal accounts, press cuttings and correspondence relating to the Battle of the Atlantic, 1990-1996; photographs of Operation GRAPPLE, British H-Bomb tests on Christmas Island, for which Oulton was Task Force Commander, 1956-1958; account of the role of Signals in the RAF Coastal Command expedition to the Azores, 1943-1944, written by Wg Cdr F J Mowbray, 1996.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The collection comprises a single box arranged into sections as outlined above.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided forresearch use only. Requests to publish original material should besubmitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.

Finding aids:

Summary guide available online and in hardcopy in the Centre's Reading Room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Papers presented as a gift to the Centre by his son, Air Commodore Peter D Oulton, in 2002

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Source: Who's who. Entry compiled by Geoff Browell as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April 2003