AN OBITUARY - RALPH RUTHERFORD
One of our long-standing and much respected members has sadly died. Ralph Rutherford has been ill for a while and has not been seen at meetings for a couple of years.
Many of us will remember a presentation Ralph gave a few years ago of his RAF career. He was a pilot in the early days of jets and flew Vampires and Meteors.
Following his RAF service Ralph was a geography teacher at both Copleston and Thurleston High School. As one of his former pupils wrote on our Facebook page, "He was one of the few who encouraged his students and really did elicit the best from them."
As a tribute to a true gentleman and friend I intend to repeat an article in our next newsletter that Ralph wrote for "Runway 22" in 2012.
Alan Powell.
Left - Two “elderly statesmen”.
Ralph Rutherford on the left talking to our late President, Gordon Kinsey at one of our Open Days
A report on our annual Remembrance Parade on Sunday 10th November is available.
Please click here
Our meeting on Friday, 6th December featured the return of a friend who has entertained us before with his aviation knowledge and humorous presentations.
Ken Ellis is a former editor of Flypast" magazine. He is also an air show commentator and aviation author. He was accompanied by his wife, Pam and the subject was "The De-Havilland Story."
De Havilland was of course a legendary British aircraft manufacturer since the days before the Great War and only lost its name when the government of the day amalgamated aircraft companies under the umbrella of British Aerospace and the Hawker-Siddeley Group. Eventually, in the case of the Hawker-Siddeley Group it became BAE Systems.
Ken is a complete master of any aviation subject he speaks on and a great evening was enjoyed by all.
A vote of thanks was given by our chairman, Martyn Cook.
On behalf of our society I would like to thank all of you who attended our annual Remembrance Parade on the Barrack Square at Martlesham. We were blessed with lovely autumn sunshine, but the temperature dropped suddenly before the parade was over. We are considering starting at 2.30pm in future years.
