Major IF Watson

A Natural Curiosity

In a 1992 letter, Major IF Watson DFC a No 102 Squadron Halifax pilot, educated at Bishops, referred to 83 pilots being seconded in August 1943. Initially thought to have been in the photograph, he disembarked in Bristol ten weeks after sailing from Durban on the SS “Moreton Bay”. His letter confirms they followed the same sea route and may have been in Montevideo at the same time, but the Montevideo photograph headcount suggests Major Watson’s group did not include more than 21 SAAF pilots.

The Dreaded Telegram

Flying Officer Roger Franklin and Lt Peter Franklin were born in Britain. Peter’s parents lived in Hillcrest and Roger’s in Balgowan close to Michaelhouse where Peter was educated and if cousins, the telegram delivered to Hillcrest on August 26th would have been sshared. Twenty-five-year-old Lt Peter Blundell Franklin was in the group of seconded SAAF airmen who disembarked from the “Rangitata” in Liverpool in November 1943. Franklin and Captain IF Watson another seconded SAAF pilot, reported for Halifax training at No 1666 Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Wombledon on July 21st. Franklin had all but completed training when propeller blades on his Halifax engines broke up during a night cross country training flight on August 24th. The crash left no survivors.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

In a 1992 letter, Major IF Watson DFC referred to being “one of 83 SAAF pilots seconded to the RAF in August 1943 arriving in the UK, Bristol after ten weeks at sea. We embarked at Durban in the SS Moreton Bay (armed Merchant Cruiser) and proceeded to Monte Video- passing the Graf Spee in the River Plate (!), where we shipped mutton and beef into our holds for ten days….” but did not identify the number of seconded airmen who boarded the armed merchant cruiser, by then a troopship.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

The “Moreton Bay” reached Montevideo on the 18th, a day before the “Rangitata” with an overlapping 10-day stopover confirming Lt IF Watson and other airmen were in Montevideo at the time but were not included in the group photograph.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Several participated in the BBC Africa shortwave’s weekly programme “Song time in the Laager” broadcast from London. The airmen in the top image from the left, McGregor, Begbie, Howes, Eagar all former King Edwards pupils in Johannesburg sailed on the “Rangitata” with another former pupil all of whom signed the mounting. That photograph and two others including Lt’s IF Watson, Meyer, Higgins and Quick from the Transvaal appeared in an English magazine in May 1944. 2nd Lt Tony Collett and Naval servicemen in the bottom image were from the Eastern Cape.