We Celebrated my Grandads 90th Birthday on Saturday and had to deliver a speech, as follows:



Ladies & gentleman, Friends & Family of John,

90 Years is a long time, until I started preparing this speech I don’t think I realised quite how long.

In 1920, a time of Ballroom Dancing and Swing, David Lloyd George was Prime minister and Charlie Chaplin was one of the most popular film actors, and I can guarantee there will never be a better silent film star.

But on the 21st January 1920 is what im focussing on & it’s the reason why we have all gathered here today to celebrate the 90th birthday of John Isllwyn Jones.

Born the 3rd Youngest child to a tenant farmer and farmers wife who already had one daughter and son, and no too long after john, another daughter, He was born on the farm of pont-bryn-carreg in Llangeitho and lived & grew up there for 6 years until the family moved to London in 1926 where his father (my great grandfather) would go into the Dairy trade, which, in London at the time, was dominated by the welsh.

He first set up in the east of London, living in true cockney land for 2 years, until they moved to new cross, Lewisham, and had to buy their own Dairy, they were not a rich family, but luckily had a close family friend who went to London years before and had his own dairy and cow shed with 50+ cows, AS luck would have it, borrowed some money from the close friend to set up his own Dairy & because the money was borrowed by a trusted friend, interest was not an issue. This is where they settled, father a dairy farmer, and mother looking after the shop, and not forgetting 4 children.

John went on to get a scholarship to Brockley County grammar school, and eventually went on to the college of Nottingham, well before it became a university.

It was the Summer of 1939 and the war, as we know, broke out in Sept , John & his friends were all eager to sign up, but the authorities would have it a different way, they wouldn’t let them join until the exams were taken in 1940, so as soon as the exams were taken the next year they were called up and John was put into the Searchlight Regiment.

John spent 9 months here, and it was all quiet until spring of 1940 when the German raids started, at the time he was stationed near Peterborough and John even admits himself, he didn’t much like it. Getting to bed at 5am and up by 9am, they were, understandably, always tired but as they were on sentry duty they most certainly couldn’t take a nap.

Out of the blue in spring of 1941 a chance came up for John to leave the searchlight regiment & Join air crew in the Royal Air Force, which was the only way to leave the searchlight regiment as the RAF at the time was short of Air Crew.

So he transferred to the RAF and was accepted very quickly, then he continued his training and square bashing, and if you’re familiar with military slang, you will know what that means.

In the late summer of 1941 John found himself on a Ship to Canada to commence his flight training in Alberta, where he was hopping between 2 air fields

The first one RCAF station de winton, where, the year before the aerodrome was completed and the No 13 Elementary Flying training school was in full operation.

Here, John was training on single engine aircraft, The de Havilland Tiger moth, which was the primary training craft in the war.

The second Airfield RCAF Station Claresholm, where the No 15 Service Flying School was opened on June 9th 1941, here they used Twin Engine American Aircraft Cessne’s,

At the End of the Course John was commissioned & became an Officer in the RAF.

One thing to mention, during Johns time in Canada, was the day when John received a telegram, his brother, Dan, an Air Gunner in the RAF, had disappeared, still to this day he does not know what happened, it is suspected by john that Dan was shot down into the sea, Unfortunately no one knows for sure & is a great shame I myself could not have met & known Dan.

At the end of johns Course, of 30 people. Most of them were sent back to England, but 6, including John were sent to prince Edward Island off the east coast of Canada, for 6 months, Here was the RAF navigation school, which, obviously Pilots needed Navigation.

There john flew the Twin engine, multi-role aircraft, The Avro Anson, Named for the British Admiral George Anson, originally designed for maritime reconnaissance. This Plane, in Johns words “is the safest Plane he has ever flown, Impossible to crash”. By the end of its production life in 1952, the Anson spanned 9 variants and a total of 8,138 had been built in Britain by Avro.

After this time, John Came back to England & went to Coastal command where he was posted as 2nd pilot onto Wellington Aircraft, A very good role within the Royal Air Force. His first Job on Coastal Command was to go to the Middle East, where he was stationed at Cairo west Airfield, there was a fight of 6 Wellington Aircraft, who’s job was to fly over the Greek Islands, Dropping Leaflets, The Greek Islanders Couldn’t Listen to Radio under German rule so had to drop these leaflets to inform them about news of the war.

John wanted me to mention 3 particular events about his time in the war.

The first was while he was in a crew of 6 on the Wellington, including one young Canadian Navigator, whose job was an important one as there was no radio traffic allowed. They were on one Particular flight, flying above the clouds over the Mediterranean, after a long flight came a break in the clouds and they looked down, as it turns out, they were no longer over the med, they were over land, not only that, they had no idea where they were, especially the Navigator!



No one knew what country they were over, and even worse, no one knew what Continent they were over. As such, the Captain just turned 180 degrees and went back they way they came, eventually finding where they should be and getting back safely.

The Second Event was During a flight One night over Crete, which at the time was very heavily defended by Germans with Anti Aircraft guns, and from johns description, “the enemy fire looked like balls of cotton wool when they exploded near the aircraft”.
Even in those days, the guns were guided by computers and if they flew in a straight line they would eventually get hit, so it was a flight of twists and turns to avoid getting shot. On their flight back to Cairo-West, out of the blue, both engines on the craft failed, and they had to ditch the plane, Because they were flying below 2000ft they just put the nose down and ended up in the Mediterranean off the coast of Egypt, From one of Johns Quotes “if you must come down in the sea…..Choose a Wellington”. Luckily All 6 crew got out onto the lifeboat & they got to shore, and the biggest danger, little did they know at the time, was when they got onto shore, they walked through a rather large minefield.

The Official version when they got back to Base was that the wellington was Hit and Came down, but I think its been long enough now to tell of what john thinks actually Happened. One of the jobs of the navigator, the same young Canadian Navigator I mentioned before, is to swap the fuel Tanks when they get empty, to the full ones, They suspect that the Navigator switched off from the empty tank to yet another empty one, and as we know, planes don’t like to fly on empty tanks
I think the truth wont hurt now!

The 3rd Event was Later on in the war, March of 1945, John had left Wellingtons by this time and joined a squadron of Torpedo Beau-Fighters, a twinned engine all metal aircraft with just 2 men on board, the pilot & the Navigator, after a couple of months of exercises off the coast of Scotland, while flying the Mark 1 Beau-fighters, and if your familiar with that aircraft, you will know they don’t like to fly on just one engine, but exactly that happened, on one of the routine excersies, one of the engines failed and so the plane came down, fast, into the sea, as I mentioned, this is an all metal plane so is very heavy and will only stay afloat for 9 seconds, John and the Navigator managed to get out in 7 seconds. But in the sea off the coast of Scotland in March, its, understandably VERY cold, luckily a Scottish fishing vessel saw the crash, cut their nets & came looking for them, When they were found, they were so cold they had to be dragged aboard, unfortunately John never had chance to thank the crew of the fishing Vessel but im sure the thanks are constantly there!

During the war, at the age of 24 in 1944 at the welsh club in Greys inn road in London, was what became the Head Quarters and a regular Haunt for welsh men and women in the forces, he met one of the helpers there, a 21 year old girl by the name of Megan, and in the summer of 1946 they married.






September ’45, after the war, John pulled out of the forces to return to College and in October 1945 started summer term where he was for another 2 years, after which he came out with a degree in economics, after that he had 3 different jobs for a while & then went back to the RAF as a flying instructor, He and Megan then Lived together when they moved to Sutton on sea.

John was then posted to Syerston and they both came to live in Newark in 1950, 9 Years later, John & Megan had their Daughter, Anne, my mother.

John was in the Air Force until 1964 at the age of 44 where he went on to be a school master and taught at 3 different schools but the longest was at the Magnus, 15 years in fact.

John retired the summer if 1982 at the ripe age of 62 1/2

Unfortunately in 1998, Megan, Johns Wife, Anne’s mother and mine and Joannes grandmother Passed away, and is a huge Shame she cannot be here today to celebrate this milestone birthday, but my love, as Im sure everyone’s love who knew her in this room is with her.

Since then John has still remained active, putting up with his Daughter & Grandchildren, and certainly in these later years, travelling around, trying to get away every month, Next month he’s off with Jim, my other grandfather, to Bournemouth
And in March with Bill to Brighton.

I cant list the times he’s been jet setting off around in the last few years, and even though, now, having lost 85% of his eyesight, He’s not bitter in the slightest, its just something he has to put up with and as he says “you just have to get on with it”

God permits us to grow older in order that we may learn, and by learning, to grow younger in spirit. I think that’s fitting.

I could never lead the life John has, but I respect the life he has led and thank him, He is one of the reasons im here and he is the only reason we have all joined here today.

You have to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather is.

I ask you all to raise your Glasses and wish John a very happy 90th birthday.

Ive been very busy of late and not had chance to upload much, Moved into a new house in Newark, needs some work doing to it but its lovely.

pictured are some animals. ninja and Panthra (the cat).

hopefully going to be more active soon...when I get the internet sorted!

Helping a couple of friends out by dong some photos at their wedding, which turned out to be ALOT of photos! heres a small sample

Helping a couple of friends out by dong some photos at their wedding, which turned out to be ALOT of photos! heres a small sample

Helping a couple of friends out by dong some photos at their wedding, which turned out to be ALOT of photos! heres a small sample