Bill Borthwick, originally from Edinburgh, was a Radar
Mechanic at Saxa from 1963 to 1964. He was posted in from RAF Locking in
Somerset. ( Left click on pictures to enlarge)
As usual he was assigned to a billet with guys from a
similar trade and he took a picture of some of his room - mates on the Domestic
Site opposite the NAAFI. I'm not sure of the occasion but it looks like
everyone was ready for an AOCs Inspection,
Battle of Britain Parade or a Remembrance Day. The only person in the
group whose name can be remembered is
Lew Lewis (at the back, not wearing a hat):
Bill took another photo of Lew on a separate occasion:
:On
passing through Dyce, Aberdeen, Bill managed to take this snap of one of the
Airspeed Ambassadors built for British European Airways from the aircraft he was
travelling in (probably a Handley Page Herald) . By the time of the photo this
particular Ambassador, G-ALZW, had been sold to BKS Air Trans port
Ltd:
Bill was at Saxa during the period when the Type 80 Radome
was built by a Norwegian firm of contractors, with a little help from some of
the local Unst folk. The 18
1⁄2 ton Type 80 aerial assembly had been
dislodged from its turntable by gales in January 1961 and had been replaced:
It was judged wise to
provide the new equipment with some protection. Bryan Edwardson, from Unst, can
be seen displaying a head for heights on top of the new radome in the next
photo :
The next 2 pictures show the interior of the Radome once the
job was completed, the first features Bill himself
The following photo shows a sight which was to become
familiar to many Shetlanders and servicemen over the years, the first
"Golf Ball" on Unst.
Whilst the Type 80 was off the air the stand-by search radar, the Marconi Type 14 Mk9 (originally the
T14 was WWII vintage), was called upon
to maintain operations much more than usual. Saxa's Type 14 was finally decommissioned
on 23 Sep 64, about a year after the Type 80 returned to full operations. The Type
14 can be seen in the next of Bills pictures:
The picture which follows looks as if it may have been taken
from the Receiver Site on Sodders Field and shows the radar heads, with the
TACAN Beacon on the left:
The next picture shows part of the road up to the Mid and
Top Sites, it was possibly taken from the rear of a One or Three Tonner on the
way down the hill - the luxury of RAF coaches/buses not having reached Unst by
this early date!
Being so remote it wasn't possible to send many teams of
sportsmen to the UK Mainland to participate in RAF completions because of the
travel problems. A long tradition of taking part in local Shetland events began
in the 50's with servicemen involved in activities such as sailing and table
tennis. By far the most popular sport
(and Saxa Teams were very successful at it when competing in the early 60's),
was soccer - though in Shetland leagues were arranged in the summer months due
to the climate. Many inter-section games and matches against teams from Unst were played in the field
by Harrys Shop at Baltasound, but the following two pictures were taken at
Burrafirth:
Soccer matches against other Shetland teams were played away
in Lerwick and involved a round trip on special overland buses & ferries.
The weekend trips entailed night-stops in the "Big City"- a number of players and supporters took the
opportunity to sample the night life. The three pictures which follow were
taken in Lerwick. The first two were taken by the small boat harbour and show
the St Clair in the background. The chap with the glasses in the first two is
thought to be Charlie Gaze. The third photo was taken close by, facing in a
different direction and has the rear of the Main Post Office on the right-hand
side:
There was no television in Shetland before Apr '64, when a
single channel became available via a
relay transmitter on Bressay, making BBC1 accessible to some on the Mainland.
However, there were still pastimes, apart from sport, to keep the active serviceman occupied on
Unst. There were frequent film shows in the station cinema, The Ice Cap:
The delights of decanting home-made ginger beer into
Lucozade bottles - it couldn't be home brew (known as hom bru locally), as that
activity wasn't allowed on camp!.
The art of conversation still existed in the 60's, as this
gathering in the billet indicates:
and, of course, there was always the opportunity for a get
together in the Social Club or the Springfield Hotel:
Off camp, apart from trips to Lerwick and the Springfield,
the chance to explore the local environment was frequently taken (when the
weather permitted it). The next photo shows Bill, with a couple of mates, Jim
Barber & Geordie Henderson, at Lambaness, near the site of the remains of
the old WWII CH Radar site at RAF Skaw:
Bill is still remembered in
Shetland as one of the members of the first group in Shetland to play music
from the charts and to use amplified guitars - The Hustlers. There is a complete section about Bill, Dave, Geordie
and Jim here: http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-hustlers-saxa-1962-to-1964.html
Bill, together with the other members of the Hustlers, was
posted from Saxa Vord to RAF Boulmer in
Oct 64. If anyone has more information or photos of Bill, the Hustlers or any
other person featured in this section I would be pleased to hear from them
(gordon.calreATgmail.com). My thanks to Bill for allowing me to tell part of
his story.
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