Colonel Harold Stevens, my maternal grandfather, died in 1993, not many months short of his 100th birthday. He was a keen photographer, but not all of his photos survived his widow’s death – a few years later. Which is a pity as Grandpa took a lot of photos; the earliest I have is from about 1915, before he joined the Royal Flying Corps. The aircraft that I have him with is a DH5, but most pilots flew a variety of aircraft.
Grandpa flew in the First World War and the Second (with the Royal Air Force, which had been formed in 1918 to replace the RFC). He was an engineer on the railways in various parts of the world, Iraq, Ghana and India, and had several tales of derring do which I never really listened to in my foolish and unappreciative youth. I greatly regret my lack of attention now. but I do remember that he flew his First Solo at RAF Marham, where I was stationed, flying Tornado bombers, in the early 1990s – over eighty years later.
Back to the present, this is St Neots power station; I took this photo because it has a geometric attractiveness which I’ve wanted to capture for 20 years (clearly I haven’t been trying very hard . . .).
