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Cyril Barton
Cyril Joe Barton, VC (5 June 1921 – 31 March 1944) was a Second World War bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force who received the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth Armed Forces. Early life Cyril Barton was born in Elveden, in the county of Suffolk on 5 June 1921, the son of Ethel (1896–1958) and Frederick (1892–1963). He received his early schooling at Beverley Boys' School, in New Malden, in the county of Surrey. In his childhood he was a Boy Scout. At 16 years of age he was apprenticed as an engineer at the Parnall Aircraft Factory works in Tolworth, and was a part-time student of engineering at Kingston Technical College, in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. Second World War Barton left his reserved occupation apprenticeship at the Parnall Aircraft Factory and volunteered for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 16 April 1941, when he was 19 years of age. After pilot training via the ...
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Elveden
Elveden is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. In 2005 it had a population of 270. The village is bypassed by the A11 between Cambridge and Norwich, which ran through the centre of the village prior to 2014. Etymology The name ''Elveden'' seems to come from Old English *''ælfa-dene'' 'elves' valley': the name appears, translated into Latin, as ''vallis nympharum'' 'valley of nymphs' in the mid-12th-century ''Miracula sancte Wihtburge''. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the village was often referred to as ''Elden.'' Tourism Elveden Hall is the centrepiece of the Elveden Estate, a vast country estate that is now the family seat of the Anglo-Irish Guinness family, Earls of Iveagh. Formerly, it was the family home of Maharaja Duleep Singh, who is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew and St Patrick Church; his grave is visited by the Sikh community who pay homage to the last ruler of the Sikh Empire. A Center Parcs hol ...
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New Malden
New Malden is a suburban area in southwest London, England. It is within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston upon Thames, Kingston, Norbiton, Raynes Park, Coombe, Kingston upon Thames, Coombe, Tolworth, Motspur Park, Old Malden, and Worcester Park. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, New Malden was in the Administrative counties of England, administrative county of Surrey. History New Malden was established as a result of the arrival of the railway. What is now New Malden railway station was opened on 1 December 1846 on the main line from London Waterloo railway station, London Waterloo. Building started slowly in the area just to the north of the station, gathering pace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with two- and three-bedroom terrace (architecture), terraced houses. Further out towards Coombe, Kingston upon Thames, Coombe Hill are large ...
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Pilot Officer
Pilot officer (Plt Off or P/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Pilot officer is the lowest ranking commissioned officer immediately below flying officer. It is usually equivalent to the rank of second lieutenant in other services. The equivalent rank in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was "company assistant", later renamed to "assistant section officer". Canada The rank was used in the Royal Canadian Air Force until the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, when army-type rank titles were adopted. Canadian pilot officers then became second lieutenants. In official Canadian French usage, the rank title was . United Kingdom Origins In the Royal Flying Corps, officers were designated pilot officers at the end of pilot training. As they retained their commissions in their customary ranks (usually second lieutenant ...
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RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became Area bombing directive, less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and the civilian manpower base essential for German war production. In total 501,536 operational sorties were flown, of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a high casualty rate: 55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, a 44.4% death rate. A further 8,403 men were wounded in action, and 9,838 became prisoners of war. Bomber Command stood at the peak of its post-war Armed forces, military power in the 1960s, the V bombers holding the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent and a supplemental force of English Electric ...
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Rufforth
Rufforth is a village in the civil parish of Rufforth with Knapton, in the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area of the City of York in North Yorkshire, England. It lies about west of York. The village is mentioned in the ''Domesday Book''"Our village parishes – Rufforth"
Rufforth with Knapton Parish Council. Retrieved 8 November 2010
and dates from Saxon times. Rufforth is the larger village in the parish of Rufforth with Knapton. The parish also includes the village of Knapton, York, Knapton, and the Trenchard Road Estate on the edge of Acomb, North Yorkshire, Acomb, York. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 census the parish of Rufforth with Knapton had a population of 950 of which 560 lived in Rufforth. In the 2011 census the parish of Ru ...
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Albany, Georgia
Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in Southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area, Albany metropolitan area. The city's population was 68,089 in 2020. It became prominent in the nineteenth century as a shipping and market center, first served by riverboats. Scheduled steamboats connected Albany with the busy port of Apalachicola, Florida. They were replaced by rail transport, railroads. Seven lines met in Albany, and it was a center of trade in the Southeast. Albany is part of the Black Belt (geological formation), Black Belt, a geological formation of soil conducive to cotton growth. An extensive area in the Southern geographical area of the United States. From the mid-20th century, it received military investment during World War II and after, t ...
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Naval Air Station Albany
Naval Air Station Albany (formerly Turner Air Force Base and Turner Field) is a former United States Air Force and United States Navy military airfield located in Albany, Georgia. History Turner Field (1941–1946) In mid-1940 the U.S. Army Air Corps approached the city of Albany about the possibility of building a training base near Albany. The city raised the necessary money and purchased 4,900 acres of land which was then leased to the Army for $51 a year. Construction of the base and airfield, named Air Corps Advanced Flying School, Albany by the United States Army Corps of Engineers began on 25 March 1941. On 21 July 1941, the field was named Turner Field in honor of Lt. Sullivan Turner, a Georgia native killed in a midair collision. Once operational, Turner Field was used for acclimatization training (for foreign trainees) and advanced flight training as part of the 30th Flying Training Wing. Primary flight training in the Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet was done at Darr Ae ...
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Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 200,603 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Alabama, third-most populous city in the state, after Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville and Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham, and the List of United States cities by population, 133rd-most populous in the United States. The Montgomery metropolitan area's population in 2022 was 385,460; it is the fourth-largest in the state and 142nd among Metropolitan statistical area, U.S. metropolitan areas. Montgomery is the county seat, seat of Montgomery County, Alabama, Montgomery County. The city was incorporated in 1819 as a merger of two towns situated along the Alabama River. It replaced Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Tuscaloosa as the state capital in 1846, representing ...
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Arnold Scheme
The Arnold Scheme was established to train British RAF pilots in the United States of America during World War II. Its name derived from US General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the United States Army Air Forces, the instigator of the scheme, which ran from June 1941 to March 1943. Background In the early years of the Second World War there was an acute need to train pilots for the Royal Air Force. The United Kingdom was considered largely unsuitable due to a combination of enemy action, high operational traffic at airfields and unpredictable weather. Several overseas training schemes were therefore established, including the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the British Flying Training Schools and the Arnold Scheme. The scheme was one product of the climate of greater co-operation between the United Kingdom and the then neutral United States following the introduction of Lend-Lease in March 1941. Introduction and operation In April 1941 General 'Hap' Arnold flew to London an ...
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Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF), the active reserve for the RAF, by providing an additional non-active reserve. However, during the Second World War, the high demand for aircrew absorbed all available RAuxAF personnel and led the RAFVR to quickly become the main pathway of aircrew entry into the RAF. It was initially composed of civilians recruited from neighbourhood reserve flying schools, run by civilian contractors with largely RAF-trained flying instructors as well as other instructors in related air war functions, such as observers and wireless operators. After the war, and with the end of conscription in the early 1960s, the RAFVR considerably reduced in size and most functions were absorbed into the RAuxAF. The RAFVR now forms the working elements of the ...
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Reserved Occupation
A reserved occupation (also known as essential services) is an occupation considered important enough to a country that those serving in such occupations are exempt or forbidden from military service. In a total war, such as the Second World War, where most fit men of military age were conscripted into the armed forces, exceptions were given to those who performed jobs vital to the country and the war effort which could not be abandoned or performed by others. Not only were such people exempt from being conscripted, they were often prohibited from enlisting on their own initiative, and were required to remain in their posts. Examples of reserved occupations include medical practitioners and police officers, but what is or is not a reserved occupation will depend on war needs and a country's particular circumstances. Reserved occupations in the UK in World War I Some of the reserved occupations included clergymen, farmers, doctors, teachers and certain industrial workers such ...
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Kingston College (England)
South Thames Colleges Group (STCG) is a large further education institution that operates four colleges in south-west London: South Thames College, Kingston College, Merton College, and Carshalton College. The four main campuses are in Wandsworth, Kingston upon Thames, Morden, and Carshalton. History South Thames Colleges Group was formed in 2017 by the merger of South Thames College and Merton College with Kingston College and Carshalton College. South Thames College South Thames College was founded in 1895. South Thames College is the largest provider of post-16 study and training in the London Borough of Wandsworth Carshalton College Carshalton College opened as Carshalton Technical Institute in 1954. In 2012, it entered into a federation with Kingston College. Merton College Merton College has existed since around 1890. A new building was erected in 1971 with additional blocks in later years. It formerly occupied a site on Central Road in the borough, which was sold to B ...
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