A young man sat at home, in his garden in early 1940, having just finished work in a job he loved. Watching some planes high in the sky, he and his father witnessed an attack on Croydon aerodrome. Worried for his workmates he set off to find that they were all gone, factory, people, all gone. George knew what he wanted to do. The day he turned 17, he signed up with the RAF as aircrew to seek retribution for the loss of those innocent lives. He was soon to become a pilot, first in the ADLS and then in photo reconnaissance. He survived belly landings, near crashes, enemy fire and engine failures, to name but a few.
His dogged determination (and 9 lives!) kept him going through countless experiences during the war and beyond. His amiable character and optimism secured a lifetime of interesting anecdotes on his pathway to the very top in his field.
These are the memoirs of George Wellesley Pritchard, an electrician, a pilot in the RAF, an electronics consultant engineer, entrepreneur and a great mind, helping in the development of the pacemaker, the heart-lung machine and many other innovations through his working life.
As you turn each page his amazing story unfolds through his own words and a few photographs. Anecdotes of life in the RAF and some of his exploits throughout his career reveal the highs and lows as he builds his successful business many times over. He has written four children's books about a character called 'Dusty', a teddy bear, the proceeds of which have supported Great Ormond Street, and his current project. He is still working in his electronics business at the age of 98 and is currently supporting a charitable project to raise funds to have a memorial erected on behalf of the photo reconnaissance unit who were never recognised with a memorial for their heroic efforts in the second world war in which they suffered great loss of life.
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