HOWELL DAVIES – EULOGY
My father’s Eulogy has changed a great deal over the past weeks, because of so many kind messages - from family, his friends of 60+ years or just acquaintances, with such a strong common thread of admiration and respect that it would be presumptuous to present this Eulogy simply from my own perspective.
Howell Davies was born in Dinas Powys, South Wales on 5th July 1939. A proud Welshman and Davies all his Life, he was schooled at Swansea Grammar, then Clifton College, Bristol. He joined the CCF’s RAF Section, and, bitten by the flying bug, won an RAF Scholarship, gained his PPL in a 1930’s bi-plane Tiger Moth, before heading to London’s Kings College to study Medicine in 1959. And at London University Air Squadron (UAS) he flew what stayed his favourite small-piston aeroplane, the Chipmunk off RAF White Waltham’s grass airfield.
Our parents met in London, where Pa’s passion for flight overcame his interest in medicine; he started his RAF Officer Training, not as a medic, but as a “potential” pilot at RAF South Cerney in February 1962, and they were married months later on 28th May … I was there in spirit if not quite yet in person! Daddy was commissioned ‘Pilot Officer’ and posted for pilot training on Jet Provosts to RAF Leeming in June.
Too junior to qualify for a married quarter, Howell and Mouse rented a tiny unheated cottage in Carthorpe, North Yorkshire, where they endured the infamously cold winter of 1962-1963.
They only had one car in their early years, and Mummy drove Pa to work daily; no fun in that abominable winter. One day, Mummy drove Pa to work in her nightie, a cardigan and slippers, but returning home spun the car into a snow bank, and had to flag down a farmer’s tractor who thought it was his lucky day to find a shivering blonde damsel in distress in just a nightie … until Mother leaned back into the car to retrieve me, her 5-month old baby son.
“Oh My Life!” Daddy would sigh, as in her defence Mummy insisted that ‘a baby-doll nightie and fluffy slippers’ were a faster solution to roadside assistance than AA or RAC Membership!
Dadz earned his RAF “WINGS” on 19th April 1963, was posted to RAF Swinderby to train on Vampires, then 5-years training on the Avro Vulcan, and his first operational tour started in January 1967 for 3-years at 50 Squadron RAF Waddington, part of NATO’s front-line Cold War Nuclear V-Force.
Daddy’s passion for flight led him to the RAF Central Flying School and instructing for 3-years at UAS Liverpool. Then his first desk-job at RAF Brampton, when we ‘landed’ at Gosmore House in 1974. Next, he was operational again with 35 Squadron Vulcans based at RAF Scampton for 3-years before lean flying years from 1978 - 1986; 4-consecutive Staff roles ‘flying a desk’ at HQ Bomber Command RAF Bawtry, Joint Airmiss, Staff College Bracknell and at Brampton HQ RAF Support Command – all commuting from Gosmore.
In 1982, Vulcans deployed to the Falklands on the daring long-range bombing mission to disable Port Stanley’s runway on 31st May in ‘Operation Black Buck’. Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael James Beetham, was planning the raid when, Howell tells, he knocked on the door to tell him that “I am one of only two Vulcan pilots current at air-to-air refuelling, and my bag is packed Boss…” to which Sir Michael retorted “Oh bugger off Howell, I’ve got a bloody war to run!”.
An instructor again from 1986 on Chipmunks, Grobs and Bulldogs, Howell manged to broadly avoid a desk-job until his retirement on his 55th birthday in 1994, after 32 years’ service. But to no surprise he joined the RAF Reserves the next day to spend another decade sharing his experience with the next generations of young potential RAF pilots.
Howell’s four packed RAF flying logbooks are meticulous and precise, with 5,228.5 total hours in aircraft ranging from the humble Tiger Moth to the mighty Vulcan nuclear bomber, detailing every imaginable military training and operational exploit across the USA, Africa, Europe, various aircraft emergencies, instruction in aerobatics and smuggling Christmas presents and Canadian Moonshine in the Vulcan bomb bay.
Mummy loved giving presents, especially surprises, and as a belated 50th Birthday present in anticipation of his retirement she presented Pa with a pile of pre-WW2 bi-plane parts - so he wouldn’t get bored! Over 18-years, continuing his local flying with family and friends, Howell restored the now exquisite K8203 Hawker Demon so it could be displayed at Old Warden, Duxford and Goodwood. His first flight in it was as Rear Gunner on 13 August 2009 … Hopefully we’ll see K8203 flying overhead after the service.
Some of the messages we have been privileged to receive deliver a collation of Pa’s character and of what made him so very special to so many of us:
“No one has the perfect words to make our sadness go away …But you may find comfort in knowing how many people wish they did.”
“I will remember him as a true Gentleman. A man of great dignity who had a wealth of amazing life experience and stories to tell. Always the most entertaining man and definitely the one to draw for sitting next to at lunch!”
“I only got to know him during the last year at Sunday morning Choir at St. Ippolyts. If we were signing Cwm Rhondda he would indicate to me with signs or whispers to sing the rising bass part in the chorus, which adds so much to the Welsh spirit and fervour of this rousing hymn.”
“I will miss the chats with your father and interesting tales of his time in the RAF. However, I will not miss the ravaging hangovers from his hospitality and bottles of Calvados.”
“Howell was a font of knowledge. The Services he took for us at St, Mary’s, Great Wymondley were memorable – especially Remembrance Day at the Lychgate. He gave such moving accounts of the 5 who died in WW1 from our tiny village.”
“The rarest of men - always genuinely interested and interesting, in equal measure. And uniquely, always interesting or interested at precisely the right time!”
“Although I only knew your father in his later years, he always had a smile on his face and clearly never happier than when surrounded by his family. He had a wonderful ‘DASH’” (The Dash Poem, by Linda Ellis)
Daddy loved Gosmore and Gosmore House, and as a family we had the happiest time with Mummy Mouse running a fun-filled home; always busy with RNLI and Church Teas, Open Gardens, village swimming days and Daddy always a welcoming host. Since Mouse passed, father has enjoyed his friendships in the Parish, at Monday Club, Almshoebury shoot, BOBs, Probus, his walking group, his dear church St. Ippolyts, and amongst this aviator, sailing and Welsh rugby debenture seat friends at Cardiff’s ‘Cathedral of Glory’ and visiting his beloved Gower Peninsula. And since his retirement, he completed two Open University degrees, and was working on his 3rd at 83!
We have all been blessed to have Howell/Daddy/GrandDadz in our lives; he truly was a gentle and wise man, a good, steadfast and loyal friend to all, generous, kind, humble and gracious. We will miss him dearly.
There is no doubt he had great DASH, and happily he is on his final journey to join our beautiful Mother, his beloved wife Mouse; though I suspect not for the peaceful rest that he deserves, but most likely to be met with party poppers, beer and champagne at Heaven’s most riotous reunion party - for which Mummy has been preparing for 21 years!
Peter Davies
