Foley and Pascall family — Photo 1 and Story

This is a picture of my family in the war. Wilfred Foley (my grandfather) was part of the Home Guard, and his wife Mabel ‘kept the home fires burning’, taking part in all the drives and giving all the support to her family she could.
Their son Wilfrid (known as Bob) Foley, my uncle, joined the airforce. He trained in Blackpool and was part of the ground crew at Lossiemouth Aerodrome in Scotland. One night while going out to collect a crew, the plane he was going out to meet skidded while landing on the icy runway, and took the roof off the cab of his truck. Fortunately he walked away unhurt. Later in the war, he spent time in Holland and Belgium, becoming part of a propaganda unit, which sent up weather balloons to spread leaflets over German occupied territory.
His sister Amy, my mother, followed her brother (Bob) into the airforce, acting as a clerk typist. She also served abroad, sailing to Egypt on the Mauritania. It was there that she met my father Norman George Pascall. He was a career soldier, having been to India and other parts of the world. He worked on the horse-drawn gun crews and retained a love of horses all his life. He became a military policeman during the war, and after the war became a prison officer settling in London with my mother. They were married on 14th December 1946. My mother was proud of her service and remained a member of the local airforce association and even at eighty was out selling flags for them! She tells how as a young girl, she went up in one of the first planes that was selling joy rides, the plane taking off and landing in a field. Mum and dad didn’t speak much about their service in the war, but mum always laughingly recalled how an officer spoke to her on the parade ground with disbelief saying “there are hundreds of airforce men on this base and you are going out with a soldier!”

For the other photos, see the titles:
Foley and Pascall family — Photo 2
Foley and Pascall family — Photo 3
Foley and Pascall family — Photo 4

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