Ted Mawdsley – Instrument Mechanic
Many will recall Ted who was a regular visitor to Elsham Wolds from the early 1990s up to his passing.
Ted was born in 1920 in Witham Essex. Before WW2 he worked for the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Co Ltd.
He joined the RAF in 1940 having volunteered for air crew but was rejected due to colour blindness He then trained as an Instrument Mechanic and was posted to Coastal Command working on flying boats. He was then posted to Bomber Command at Elsham Wolds in the autumn of 1942 where he spent a memorable period of his life. In 1943 he was posted overseas serving in North Africa and Italy. At the end of the war Ted returned to the UK and married Ethel and the couple celebrated their 70th Wedding Anniversary in Nov 2015
Post war Ted was a Parliamentary agent for the Labour Party from 1956 to 1965. From 1965 to 1990 he became Lecturer in Sociology and General Studies at Harlow Technical College ( School of Journalism )
Ted sadly passed away in the summer of 2016 I believe.
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Amongst a number of talents Ted was an accomplished writer and essayist. His book An Erk's Eye View of WW2 describing experiences at RAF Elsham Wolds is quite superb. It was published in 2003. Written by a ground crew member it is unusual and certainly well worth reading as it gives considerable background, anecdotes and tales of the day to day activities on a very busy bomber airfield in wartime. I would recommend it to anybody who has a serious interest in the subject.
The Book A Erk's Eye View of World War 2 is published by Woodfield Publishing and is available on Amazon and I have seen it on Ebay.
Ted his pictured below with his old friend Basil Lowe at Elsham Wolds some years ago. Photo courtesy of Robert Adams.
Basil Lowe.
Baz was another Elsham Wolds Instrument Mechanic and a very good friend of Ted Mawdsley. They were regular and popular visitors to Elsham Wolds over many years.
From Macclesfield he trained as a Mechnical Engineer at the Rover Car Company. He joined the RAF in 1942 training as an Instrument Mechanic and was posted to C Flight 103 Sqn Elsham Wolds in March 1943 to July 1943. This was followed by more trade training at Melksham. He returned to the 103 Sqn Maintenance Flight in January 1944 until February 1945. In March 1945 he was posted to the Far East serving in both India and Burma until 1947 when he returned to the UK and was demobbed.
He then resumed his career in the engineering industry and finally retired in 1989.
Basil was an extremely good footballer I understand. Several people mentioned this.
Baz is prominent in the middle of the middle row in this photo of the Instrument Section football team at Elsham Wolds 1944. I believe he also left Elsham Wolds and served abroad before the end of the war.
Basil passed away in 2015.
Written by David Fell.
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