18/3/1944 to 23/5/1944
Squadron Leader A.H.E. King.
Arthur Herbert Edward King was born in 1899, his father in 1901 was a beer seller and by 1911, a mineral water manufacturer. His home was in Windsor. Arthur joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. He served on the Western Front, ending his time there with 10 Squadron. He received a gunshot wound to his hand on 4th September 1918, whilst flying an Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8. as observer. This was a ‘Blighty’ wound and he was in Southern Hospital in Plymouth on 9th September. Arthur was demobilised from what was now the Royal Air Force on 3rd January 1919.
Eight years later, on 18th June 1927, Arthur embarked on a ship at Liverpool, travelling first class to Singapore, where he was to be a merchant’s assistant. He was back in England by 1935 and living with his parents in Windsor. In 1935 he Married Ada Marion Algar in Marylebone. Ada was born and lived much of her life in Shanghai China. We can only conject how they met, but as Arthur had spent a few years in Singapore, possibly met in the far east or a shipboard romance. However, they met they married in 1935. In 1938 Arthur joined the Royal Airforce Officer Reserve with a seniority date of 17th May 1938, with the rank of Flying Officer on the ‘CC’ list, that means civilians employed by the RAF who would be commissioned on mobilisation. In 1939 Arthur and Ada were living at Severn House in Shrewsbury. Arthur was working as The Adjutant to the Chief Flying Instructor at RAF Shawbury, which was then a training airfield, and is still an RAF Airbase.
Arthur was the Station Commander at RAF Bradwell Bay from 18th March 1944 to 23rd May 1944, just 2 months, possibly just a holding post. It would have been a busy time for the military, with the build-up of forces for the invasion of Europe, i.e., ‘D Day’.
Not much is known of Arthur and Ada after the war. Arthur died on 27th March 1977 in Surrey and Ada died in 1986.