ISSUE NO. 24
NOVEMBER 2002
EDITORIAL
Your Newsletter is a curious mixture of current events and stories and pictures of yesteryear. It would be helpful if more of you could provide material for inclusion rather than leave it to the few. This will give the Newsletter a better balance. So come on guys dig up some stories from your days at Fontainebleau.
In the pages that follow you will read of the latest additions to our membership. It is encouraging to see some more of our contemporaries from the Army joining our ranks and it was great to see a few of them at our Reunion Dinner last month.
I am still reaching for the most appropriate logo for the head-post and this month another one is tested. Your views will be taken into account.
With the UK Reunion now behind us the wheels are in motion planning a coach trip to Fontainebleau in September next year ~ details on page 4
OBITUARY
With much sadness the death of John Christian is recorded. During the last year John underwent surgery for lung cancer followed by radiotherapy. John put up a brave fight and a few weeks before our Reunion he was hopeful of attending but his condition worsened and he was admitted to a local hospice where he passed away on 15 October Those who were at AAFCE during the early fifties will remember John as a cheerful and colourful character. He was an active member of our Association and will be sadly missed by all his friends. In 1981 having been appointed a candidate in waiting in 1973, John was appointed to the Queen’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard as one of only six RAF appointees. In this capacity he attended about 8 functions a year including the State Opening of Parliament, State Banquets and Investitures etc. Although a lifetime appointment John was not required for duty when he reached the age of 70 in 2001. Earlier this year the Queen was graciously pleased to award John the Medal of the Royal Victorian Order for his services to the Queen’s Bodyguard. John is survived by his wife Iris. Your Association made a donation to the hospice.
WELCOME ABOARD
Cpl Vernon Lane was Personal Chef at Sir Theodore McEvoy’s
residence from about May 1956 until November 1958 when he returned to Uxbridge
with the Air Vice Marshall. Vernon re-mustered to Air Traffic Control and saw
service at RAF Stations in Bovingdon, Aden and Watton before being medically
discharged in 1965. Vernon then worked in Industrial Management rising to
Director. Now living in Leighton Buzzard with his wife Jackie they have two
grown up children.