Photographs of the Fleet Air Arm

I borrowed a wonderful book of photographs from my local public library and have enjoyed looking at it so much have renewed it three times.

Fleet Air Arm in Camera 1912 – 1996 by Roger Hayward tells the story of the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy from its inception to the end of the twentieth century. It draws on a photographic record from both The Public Records Office and The Fleet Air Arm Museum.

It’s a fantastic mix of photographs: close-ups; action photos; aerial views of shore bases and at sea; people, ships and planes.

Each photograph is accompanied by an informative caption and occasional quirky details.

I was particularly interested in the photograph on page 82 of a Leading Wren (Pat Lees) who was one of the first WRNS to fly as part of her regular duties. She was a radio mechanic too like my dad and it was interesting to see the size of the radios they had to handle. When I was researching the background to I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II I managed to find out a lot of information about the radio equipment my dad was trained to work on because the code numbers were all included in his record of service; an internet search found a very useful website which matched the codes to the equipment and it was then possible to find out more about each one. I hadn’t come across many photographs though so found this one particularly interesting.

The book was published in 1996 but it’s still available on the Amazon website if you want to check it out.