We remember a REAL war veteran - sadly no longer with us.

90-year-old Eric Abrams had a model collection that would be the envy of most schoolboys and his Bartley home boasted a fleet of aircraft that outnumbers many an RAF base.

This Portsmouth boy joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15 in August 1938, a year before World War II opened.  After serving his apprenticeship in aircraft engineering with No.1 School of Technical Training at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire, he began twelve years man service, his first posting taking him to RNAS Hatston (Orkney) where he worked as a fitter, servicing aero engines.

In 1942 Eric gained a second trade, completing a conversion course on airframes at RAF Hednesford in Staffordshire.  He was drafted to the cruiser HMS Glasgow for its two Supermarine Walrus, the dependable single- engine, amphibious biplane.

By late 1942 he was patrolling the North Atlantic and the wild, icy waters around Iceland and Russia for 15-months before serving for just over a year at the Scottish air base of RNAS Machrihanish (Kintyre) 

In February 1945 he joined the carrier HMS Glory at the Harland & Woolf shipyard in Belfast and just before the end of the war in Europe sailed to join the British Pacific Fleet in the Far East and Australia. 

The ship arrived as the Pacific war ended, so part of its work at this time involved repatriating ex-POWs to Australia and to Canada for the UK. Before these trips however, an Australian Army General took the surrender of Japanese forces in the South West Pacific on HMS Glory's flight deck - a stirring sight.

HMS Glory returned to the UK in November 1947 and Eric then served at RNAS Anthorn (near Carlisle) and RNAS Culham (near Oxford).  His 14 years with Fleet Air Arm finally came to an end in 1952, his campaign medals being the 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star and Burma Star.

After four years in Canada, it was back to England and spells writing with Hawker Aircraft at Kingston-upon-Thames and Bristol Aero Engines in the West Country. There he worked on manuals for the Proteus prop-jet engines in the Britannia medium-to-long-range airliner and in naval torpedo craft.    

For three years he worked for P.E.R.A. (Production Engineering Research Association) in Melton Mowbray before joining IBM in Hursley as a Technical Editor in 1966.  After 21 years with the multinational technology corporation the gentle, genial aviation expert finally retired and turned his attention to new passions.

Our members know that Eric has served the Copythorne & District Branch as news correspondent with great distinction for some thirty years.  But, few will know that his house serves as a hangar for his collection of model aircraft, all researched for their engineering, colour schemes and military service markings, then hand-built with vast enthusiasm.

Eric started his collection around 1975 but has no hesitation in naming the first Airfix aircraft he constructed.  It was, of course, a model of a Walrus. Initially, he chose to construct and paint naval aircraft but when he exhausted the manufacturer's stock-list he turned his hand to RAF, American and Luftwaffe aircraft.  His three 'heavies'  -  the Lancaster, Halifax and Stirling are firm favourites.