Jimmy Ward VC badly burned!

[Dave Homewood]

Here is some trivia that I'd never come across before.

Only weeks after Sgt Pilot James Ward won his Victoria Cross by staggering out onto the wing of a Wellington bomber attempting to douse a firey flaming engine, in which he was totally unscathed, he went on leave.

While in London, he attempted something as comparitvely simple as fixing a petrol cigarette lighter. It exploded, and his hands were badly burned! Even when he returned to base for duty his hands were heavily bandaged.

It just goes to show, eh.

Source: New Zealand herald, 13th of Septemebr 1941

[xr6turbo1]

That is interesting.
What a hero that guy was.

[Dave Homewood]

Did you know before the war as a kid he was an avid modleller and he won a national model aircraft competition.

A film should be made about him I reckon.

[Calum]

Did he suvive the war?

[phil82]

Sadly, no.

When I was in Singapore with 14 during Confrontaion, I lived in Ward Block!

[Dave Homewood]

Jimmy Ward was killed only ten weeks after being awarded the VC.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2201083

www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbwardja.htm

There's a good photo of him here
www.feltwell.org/raffeltwell/75sq_james_ward_plus_others.htm

This artwork says it all too
www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/images/JamesAllenWard.jpg

[Calum]

phil82 said:

Sadly, no.

When I was in Singapore with 14 during Confrontaion, I lived in Ward Block!

I lived in Ward block at Wigram on both Mechs and Techs

[Dave Homewood]

Trigg, Trent, Ward and Francis Bryers blocks, all named as memorials to great RNZAF personnel, have all been destroyed now. Terrible.

[Calum]

Just looked at what I'm pretty sure is wigram via Google earth



Can't recognise anything I remember,e g Trigg, Trent, Ward.. 2 TTS

I think the Gym is tilll there, no No 2 Officers mess. Quite frankly I don't reognise the place. Have i got the right place?

BTW you can zoom in 1 step more

[Calum]

At least Ohakea looks kinda like I remember it. Althoguh the only jet is a RAAF F-111




Mind you in Bulls I can see the 4 houses I lived in.................... 3 of them in Devon Dive ;D

[Dave Homewood]

Yes that is what is left of Wigram. As the photos on Google Earth were taken a number of years ago it'll be worse now.

The Gym is still there, now filthy and unkempt, and used by some university or polytech.

A and B Block are still there, and look almost the same. They have been brought back up to good shape since the days when they became doss houses and some druggie was murdered there. I was pleasntly surprised to see this when i was there in April.

All seven hangars remain, plus a barrack H block near 7 Hangar which from memory was either tranist barracks or part of the Officer school remains and is occupied by some business. 7 Hangar is a John Deere tractor place now and has a farming school. 6 Hangar has that company that used to operate DC-3's and now has Corvairs (is it Pionair?). That hangar is a mess.

The fire station remains and is now a medical centre, fire and ambulance. Much unchnaged.

I don't know who has No's 4 and 5 hangars. The tower is still there and looks unchanged. No's 1, 2 and 3 Hangars and No's 1 and 2 Stores are all RNZAF Museum now.

The tennis courts are gone, the Canteen gone, the cafe gone, Cpl's club gone, Baggies gone, Sgts Mess gone.

All of Tech Squadron including the large hangar and the smaller outbuildings, and including the original WWI hangars have all been destroyed. All that area is currently being built on. No. 2 Officers Mess (where trainee pilots etc lived) which was a magnificent building is gone, destroyed. The Institute is detroyed. All the other H blocks gone. The water tower is gone, swimming pool filled in. The sport field is still there but I doubt for long. All of 2 TTS and 3 TTS are gone. Most of all this is now under housing - dogboxes on tiny sections. The original 1930's/40's base houses remain and are lived in too.

I felt physically ill when I walked around there in April, my wonderful former home destroyed by greed. Up till 1995 it was a time capsule almos unchanged for 50 years, a real museum piece. A heritage site. WWI hangars and buildings intact, WWII superstructure unchanged. Now, just another suburb full of foreigners.

Why, even when you decide to pull the place down and build a new suburb, would you destroy vital pieces that would benefit the community you're building, like the Institute, the Cafe, the swimming pool and water tank?

The only survivor that seems to have been saved with some forethought is the gorgeous art deco No. 1 Officers Mess, which has been turned into a high class hotel it seems, and looks better now than when in RNZAF hands I think.

I have photographed everything that was surviving in April, as I did so there were several new houses being built around me! I will try to post them sometime soon when i can stomach it. The airfield is, I was told, to be swallowed up by the "progress" of the housing soon. Bastards!

[Dave Homewood]

I mean to add the photo you posted cuts off half of Wigram, so you wouldn't have seen T,T and W in it anyway, they're below the compass in the bottom left corner.

[Dave Homewood]

Here are some older Wigram shots to compare with
1990's


And by comparison some 1940's shots - this one showing where Trigg, Trent and Ward would later be in the foreground



Look at all that lovely countryside

[Calum]

Is that a Andover in front of the Musemn?

[phil82]

That "art deco" Officers' Mess is in fact a British, RAF design, and is basically Georgian! If you look closely at the Officer's Messes at Ohakea and Whenuapai, you will see they are essentially the same, and all are very similar to many on RAF Stations, [they still don't call them 'bases'], from which the design was copied by the NZ Government,and are now of significant architectural interest in the UK. Oddly enogh, quite a few on long-closed establishments are still in use for one purpose or another.

Having stayed in all of them at some time, the very best was Shelly Bay! It was like a 5-star hotel because it did a lot of work for Foreign Affairs and Government House, and we peasants gained the benefit!

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Colin, I never realised it was that old a design. I have to admit I nebver went near O's messes much in the RNZAF, and April this year was the first real good look i had of the Wigram one. I recall the Whenuapai one was built on the hill away from us riff raff airmen too, the closest I got was the tennis courts.

I did have a few drunken nights in No. 2 O's Mess at Wigram though, smuggled in by officer mates, and that was a stunning old building.

Calum, yes that is an Andover at the museum, and is somewhat decaying a little out in the cold, it looks a bit rusty and the paint is a bit oxidised these days. It will come inside when the extension is built. It's a shame none of them were kept here in private hands, I love the Andover.

[phil82]

I don't know when they [the Officers' Messes] at Wigram, Ohakea, and Whenuapai were built,probably pre-war, but the work would have been undertaken by the then Public Works Department. They are more or less identical to eighty-four buildings built for the same purpose for the RAF between 1935 and 1939 and Quote: "the Georgian elegance of the facade chosen makes them interesting". This link
homepage.ntlworld.com/phillip.charlton/teesside.html
includes a photo of such a Mess at Middleton St George, now the St George Hotel, and I belive Biggin Hill Mess is now a Museum!

[Dave Homewood]

Ohakea and Whenuapai as stations were only built in 1939-40, I'd imagine their officer's messes were lower priority than other buildingsd too. Wigram's O's mess was around 1940 from memory but I will have to check that. I think No. 2 O's Mess there was built first.

Prewar the Wigram O's mess was the Bush Inn pub at Riccarton.