Inspecting the airmen. Photograph courtesy of J M Alexander 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Inspecting the airmen. Photograph courtesy of J M Alexander
The gentleman far right is Flight Sergeant Robert Cole my wife’s grandad, also mentioned in dispatches in June 1942 for distinguished service.
The King inspecting instructors of the Hudson Conversion Flight (The Hudson Circus) November 1st, 1939, from left to right are,
W.E. (Waters Everleigh) Rankin, an Australian, wrote his memoirs before passing away in 1989.
G.T. (Gradon Title) Gilbert, also Australian, passed away in 1995.
William (Bill) Coulson, (Canadian) brought down by a balloon barrage and crashed at Nutbeam road, Eastleigh, Hampshire, in Hudson T9320 on 15.8.40. He had previously been a Trans-Canada Airways pilot flying out of Montreal, he was 37 when the Air Ministry called him back for service. He was posted to Thornaby from Finningley on 19.9.39 with a 1000 hours on the Lockheed Electra.
Geoffrey C.C. Bartlett, UK, passed away 2010,
William (Derek) Hodgkinson, later ACM, UK, also passed away in 2010. On the night of 25/26 June 1942, Derek Hodgkinson was on board the only aircraft dispatched from Thornaby that failed to return from the Third Thousand Bomber raid on Bremen. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp, Stalag Luft III, made famous, or infamous, for the Great Escape.
Chris Holdway, nationality? what became of him? Flight Sergeant Holdway, being one of the “Other Ranks”, was not invited to talk with the king in the Officers Mess following the parade.
May I thank all those that made coments on the Kiora Guns. May I now please ask if there are any persons that can shed any light on the war years in the parish of Grindon, I am looking for such things as gun placements, shelters, home guard. Please do contact me if you have anything. Gordon
I would like to thank all thoes People that have made comments about the KIORA guns and the prisoner of war camps in the North part of Stockton, now known as Roseworth. I would be even more excited if I could chat with some of the people of this era. Once again, Many thanks and keep them comming
I am sorry to say that I have no recolection of a Clive Parkin in my family. I can tell you that my father was called “Randolf Gordon Parkin”. Hope this is of some assistance
Hi Gordon Parkin Can I ask if you have a Clive Parkin in your family he would have been very early twenties in age back in 1939. He may have courted my mams mother.
The KIORA guns – my mother and my auntie were part of a concert party that provided entertainment to the local army bases during the early years of the war. At Kiora they performed in a very large wooden hut which had a stage at one end and accommodated hundreds of soldiers. Members of the concert party were collected from their own homes by a taxi driving with blacked out headlights. As well as Kiora the party also visited a similar a-a base at South Gare.
The KIORA guns – The guns (4) were situated on and around the site of the present REDBROOK PRIMARY school They fired a 55ib shell to a max of 26000 ft with a rate of fire of 8 rounds a minute. The site became a German P-O-W camp , with working parties going out to farms in the area. In 1945 it was taken over as a D.P ( Displaced Persons) camp , by U.N.R R A ( United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Authority), mainly Yugoslav and Ukranian, with Polish army guards. In 1946 a number of the outlying huts were taken over by British ex Servicemen and their families, due to the desperate housing shortage. Later the whole camp was used in this way, with Stockton Council keeping essential services going on an almost “peppercorn “rent. These were the first genuine “squatters”. Re The Guns. When they “Box-Salvoed” the noise of the shells passing over was that of “an express-train roaring through the sky”. Both ICI I and the Army used Kiora Hall and a Barrage Balloon site was set up in the drive to prevent dive-bombing of both the gun-site and the rail Junction
I live in Stockton and I am a part of a historical group and curently I am researching what was known as the “KIORA GUNS”, 1939 to 1945, this is an area in the north of Stockton “Roseworth” where during the war there was a anti aircraft battery together with a misplaced persons camp, I have had one very skimpy report of this and I am now finding it verry difficult to gather information on it. I would appreciate any information form you, or any other interested parties, on this matter. May I thank you for your time in dealing with this topic for me Yours most sincerely Gordon H. Parkin
These “troops” are quite clearly airmen and should be described as such . Note their pilots wings on their uniform breast as they line up in front of an Hudson aircraft . I wonder how many of them survived the war ? Please , pilots not troops .
This is King George VI inspecting airmen. Could this be in 1941, the same year that the King visited Middlesbrough?