Some personal history first.....

I had lived in Egypt with my family as a child until wives and children were evacuated during the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956. We were flown out in a Sunderland flying boat from the Great Bitter Lakes to Malta, and then onto Stansted in a Hermes aircraft. We ended up in a refugee reception centre in Richmond Park having lost everything but the one suitcase we brought with us.

My father stayed behind to be imprisoned for spying by the Egyptians until the Red Cross negotiated his release over a year later. (As a Regimental colour sergeant he had served with the Coldstream Guards armoured division though out the second world war participating in the D-Day Landings and the Liberation of Europe)

I will write more of his amazing stories one day. He died just three days before the Millenium,

it is regretted but I have never even seen his campaign medals or heard first hand his own accounts.

Salalah Town

The areas around the Suez Canal Zone had been pretty basic places between 1954 - 56 but visiting Salalah Town in 1969 was like stepping right back into the 14th century.

The town was dominated by the old Sultan’s Palace - The shutters on the palace windows had eye holes in them where it was reputed he would watch what his people and slaves were up to. There was a huge punishment log in front of the palace.

There were no schools or medical services in the whole country and as the old Sultan had invested nothing in his people, a rather understandable Chinese and Russian backed communist insurrection was in progress in the Dhofar provence from 1962 onwards.

By 1969 they controlled 90% of the Dhofar region and urgent action was finally instigated with the war effectively on the verge of being lost.

The new Sultan, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said started to quickly change all this when he ousted his father Said bin Taimur on July 23rd 1970.

It still took another six years to defeat the communist insurgency and bring eventual peace and modernisation to the country.

The streets, shops, Sultans Gardens, boat yard and market place are represented here along with some of the wonderful inhabitants of that incredible medieval enclave.

The second batch of photos are taken on and around the RAF airfield. They are pictures of the station, some of the men who worked there and how they passed their free time. I recognise many but nowhere near all of them.

They have no photographic merit other than they are a record of that place and those people who gave up over a year of their own lives to serve there. We all benefited from the experience. The airfield was central and instrumental to the eventual defeat of the insurgency.

Four RAF men and a civilian meteorological officer got to have a free weeks R&R in RAF Changi, Singapore, courtesy of a draw that the station CO must have kindly rigged for us. You may spot the odd shots which were taken in Tiger Balm Gardens. Alan Cooper and I are now in touch, so will the other three winners we went there with please kindly step forward and remind us who they are ..... We hope they are all well and have prospered as we have. We would be honoured to feature their own photos on this site.

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The Small Print...

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