"nephew of the late Sir Thomas Houston, the noted bacteriologist" Ed. St. Andrew's College, Dublin, and the Methodist College, Belfast. "He studied medicine for two years at Queen's University, Belfast, but decided to fly and In 1937 he joined Imperial Airways as a second officer" "He began flying on European routes with the Heracles class and the Scylla and Syrinx. He later flew in Frobishers and Ensigns." m. 1937 in Flintshire, Claire E [Beatty] The BOAC pilots seconded to the ATA were the mainstay of the Advanced Flying Training Unit from September 1940, but they were all recalled to BOAC in January 1942. Lettice Curtis says "with the going of the BOAC pilots the school was never the same again, and certainly a lot of fun and gaiety went out of the instructors' room when it passed into the hands of the generally older professional instructors." "With pilots like BOAC Captains Griffiths, Derrington Turner, Weston Taggart, Ken Buxton and last but no means least Jim Weir, there was never a dull minute." He returned to BOAC in 1941 and flew Liberators and Dakotas to North Africa. In 1944 he went to Cairo in charge of the Corporation's training unit there. After 1946 he occupied a number of operational posts and in 1951 he became manager of the Hermes and Yorks fleet.
He was nominated as manager of the Britannia fleet in 1953, then Training Manager from 1957. |
"Clearing the hurdles in fine style" in 1930
Belfast Telegraph, 1953