Joe Cross was born 3 Jul 36 and was recruited into the RAF on
22 Oct 54. He was initially posted to RAF Cardington, Bedfordshire for the
issue of kit, etc.
In the next picture Joe is in the rear on the left:
From Cardington he was sent to RAF Padgate, Cheshire, probably
early in 1955 - where he would have spent 12 weeks learning the rules, drill
and basic firearms skills. He would have been on one of the last recruit training
courses at Padgate as the unit closed in 1957. From there he was posted north
to Unst in the second half of 1955. At the time Saxa Vord was parented by RAF
Bishopriggs in Lanarkshire, the Unit did
not become fully operational until Oct 57. Instead, the site was in the hands
of the contractors with the Domestic and Ops sites still construction camps.
Joe would have been posted in as one of an "advance party ", which
would have been part of 90 (Signals) Group. The senior RAF serviceman on Unst
for much of the time Joe was there was a secretarial officer called Flight Lieutenant C A Davidson who, as a
Flight Sergeant, had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal in 1943 when
flying with a Wellington Bomber Squadron. In Sep '57, just before Saxa Vord became
operational, the first CO from Fighter Command, (Squadron
Leader Gordon Millar) arrived and Davidson stayed on for a few months as the
first Adjutant. There must have been a reasonable number of servicemen at Saxa
before it became operational as Joe was
the goalkeeper in the RAF soccer team. According to one report there were about26
personnel in the advance party. including 1 Flt Lt, 1 warrant Officer, 5 SNCOs
and 20 others but it is likely that
these numbers changed from time to time:
Another member of the "advance party" became well
known to the civilian population of Unst and to many servicemen over the years.
Sergeant Frank Brand, a fireman, spent
many years at Saxa Vord, both as a serviceman and as a civilian. He
married a local girl and lived at Haroldswick for a long time before his death.
Some of the earliest buildings to be finished on the
Domestic Site were the Billets - structures like the Gym and Education Section were
completed later. The next photo shows Joe in his Billet with some of his
contemporaries:
The fact that site construction was still in progress is
noticeable in the following photo, taken by Joe from the Water Tower at the
eastern end of the camp. The Gym/Ice Cap, Squash Court & NAAFI Shop have
yet to be built and, in the foreground, a Land Rover belonging to Decca (one of
the main contractors at the Top Site), can be seen. Also of note, the
accommodation huts for the construction workers are just visible in the distance on the left:
Joe's
vantage point, the Water Tower, from the
east and with Station Sick Quarters in the foreground on the left:
Joe appears to have had a fairly active social life during
his time in Shetland, visiting the island of Yell and attending dances and/or
regattas at Mid Yell and Cullivoe (neither place would have had mains
electricity at this early date). Joe also struck up a friendship with a chap
called Archibald (Erch) Lennon. The picture below was taken at the Norwick beach
and I believe it shows Joe Cross (bottom
left), Willie Mouat, Margaret Mouat, Erch Lennon(RAF), Gilbert Gray
and Jack Stewart (RAF).
It is believed that "Erch" emigrated to the USA
when he completed his RAF service. The next picture, also taken near Norwick,
shows Joe on his own at the foot of some of the cliffs at Skaw:
The following two
photos are of a couple of Joe's mates "messing around" in the
vicinity of the Domestic Site Fire Section. The hose is unwound possibly as the
area was close to building work and the surroundings would have been in need of
regular cleaning. The subjects of the pictures include "Lofty" Kent
and another serviceman, whose name has been forgotten:
Upon completion of his service on Unst Joe returned to
mainland Scotland and left the RAF. He had fond memories of Shetland and
particularly of his time at Saxa but he never managed to make a return trip.
Joe didn't really got into computers but in his later life his family encouraged him to write to the Shetland Times,
in the hope of rekindling old memories. This he did in 2014 and was
subsequently contacted by phone & letter
by some of the people who had known him from nearly sixty years earlier.
One Unst resident, Hunter Nisbet, who remembered him from the 50's, even called
on Joe in 2016 when visiting central Scotland. Unfortunately, Joe died later that year.
My belated thanks to Joe and gratitude to Calum, his son,
for providing most of the material in this article.
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