March 1st is St David’s Day and so we salute the Welsh wizards of ATA, who appear in the employee listings only as British. We have looked at our collection of over 300 ATA travel permits issued in 1944. They provide information about date and place of birth, and reveal 5 pilots and 5 flight engineers, all men. As there were 1250 ATA aircrew we would guess than the Welsh contingent numbered many more than 10.
One of those we found was First Officer Gwynne Johns (left), who was born in Llandovery, 27 miles north of Swansea. He was a pre-war champion parachutist and in civilian life a bank manager. His age and his glasses would have barred him from RAF service, but ATA were happy with both. He was based at Kirkbride, the Ferry Pool known as the ‘salt mines’ on the Solway Firth west of Carlisle. In his right hand is his parachute and in his left his maps and his essential copy of Ferry Pilots Notes, the bible of every ATA pilot. Did you know that our on-line shop sells facsimile copies of Ferry Pilots Notes? Another Welshman was Captain George Pine (right) , born in Porthcawl. He was based at Whitchurch (No.2 Ferry Pool) and was qualified Class 5, ie 4-engined bombers. At the end of the war he was awarded the MBE.