Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1917-2014 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
6 boxes, 4 outsize items
Scope and content
Letters, photographs and related papers concerning the RAF career of Wing Commander Eric Garrad-Cole, including: letters from Garrad-Cole to his fiancée, Edna Shenton (later Edna Garrad-Cole) written as a POW, 1941-1943, with details of daily camp life, new arrivals and official visitors; letters to Edna Shenton from the War Office, requesting news of Garrad-Cole, 1942; account of Garrad-Cole’s successful escape from Vianno camp, 1943, and subsequent work in Rome assisting other Allied escapees, 1943-1944; Garrad-Cole’s forged Italian identity card; copies of Garrad-Cole’s published memoir, Single to Rome (1955).
Photographs relating to: Garrad-Cole’s RAF flying training, 1937; RAF service in Iraq and Libya, 1938-1940; the Pakistan Air Force, 1950-1952; Staff College, Quetta, Pakistan, 1953.
Correspondence, photographs, press cuttings and leaflets relating to the Royal Air Force Escaping Society and reunions of members of the Rome underground resistance, 1980-2009. Also background research by the family, 2002-2014.
System of arrangement
In the following sections: 1: papers, 1939-1987, relating to World War Two, POW camps and escape; 2: papers relating to Garrad-Cole’s later career and retirement, 1949-2003; 3: photographs, 1928-1994; 4: artefacts, 1938; 5: research, 2002-2014, on Garrad-Cole’s military service.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1917; educated at Watford Grammar School; apprentice engineer with Vauxhall Motors, 1935; joined the Territorial Army as Trooper in City of London Yeomanry, Royal Horse Artillery, 1936; joined RAF, 1937; pilot, Bomber Transport Squadron, Iraq, 1938-1939; transferred to 211 Squadron, Western Desert, 1939; shot down by enemy ground fire, Libya, 1940; POW, Italy, 1940-1943, made numerous escape attempts; escaped to Rome and worked with local resistance as an unofficial billeting officer for escaped Allied POWs, 1943-1944; awarded MC, 1944; re-trained as a fighter pilot, 1944; served with Night Fighter Operational Training Unit, 1945-1946; commanded 129 Sqn and 267 Sqn, 1946-1948; Staff College, 1948; seconded to Pakistan Air Force as Wing Commander, 1950-1952; Air Defence Squadron, 1951-1952; Air Ministry, 1952-1956; Joint Services Staff College, 1956; Wing Commander, Air Defence 224 Group, Malaysia, 1956-1959; Deputy Station Commander, RAF Syerston, Nottinghamshire, 1959-1960; retired, 1960; publican, Somerset; died, 2003.
Publication: Single to Rome (London, Allan Wingate, 1955)
Repository
Custodial history
Placed in the Centre by the family, 2015
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archives.
Language of material
- English
- Italian
Script of material
Language and script notes
English, some Italian
Finding aids
This collection level description. Further finding aids may be available in the Reading Room.
Existence and location of originals
Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›
Alternative identifier(s)
Subjects
Place access points
People and Organisations
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.