LAC. Thomas Archibald "Nick" Nicholls
Royal Air Force 466 Sqdn.
from:Rosemary, Kingstone, Hereford
I often wondered why my mother called my dad Nick, when his name was Tom. The reason was that it was his nickname in the RAF during the war when they had first met. My dad was a ground crew mechanic in the RAF and worked with the RAAF Squadron 466 at both Driffield and Leconfield. He worked as an aircraft engineer for the rest of his life. He told me that he enjoyed going up for a 'spin' with the pilots when they weren't on missions - apparently it was customary (given the time) for pilots to offer mechanics a quick flight after they had been working on a problem engine. If they declined they would be told 'get back under the bonnet and take another look, when you're ready to go up then it's fixed'! When my mother heard about these 'spins' she made him a tiny bear, no bigger than a matchbox, as a good luck mascot. One of the pilots took a shine to it and borrowed it every time he went on a mission, he would sit it on the dashboard in the cockpit so it could 'see' where it was going. It must have brought him luck as the pilot returned the bear and himself safely home every time. My dad said he was the proud owner of the only bear that ever bombed the Nazis.
I'm afraid I don't know the names of anyone else in his war-time photographs. Sadly he passed away in 1994 and, as is often the case, I wished I'd asked him more about his war-time experiences because I don't even know the name of the pilot - but I still have the bear.
