John Walton

This website is dedicated to my father, John Walton. John was born to a single mother,Mabel, at the Lying-in-Wait hospital in London on 12th June 1915. This was a hospital for single mothers who, even though this was during the First World War when such events were commonplace, would have been shunned. For some reason we have never discovered, his birth was registered for a second time in Leigh on Sea, Essex, on 19th June 1915 and it was this date that he always celebrated as his birthday.

At the age of 3, John was put into the care of a family in Acton, West London, called Arthur, as a companion for their son, Guy. John was sent away again at the age of 8 for allegedly wetting the bed. Luckily, Guy missed him and he returned to the Arthurs who moved to Ealing, West London.

His mother only visited him a few times when he was young and when he married my mother, Pauline, in 1939 she asked that he cease all contact. He asked her repeatedly about his father but she resolutely refused to give him any information that would identify him. The search for his father occupied his thoughts all his life as you can see from the poem below, No Pedigree, which he wrote about his situation.

John served in the RAF in WW2 in India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) & China. See details of his service here After that followed a career in publishing and advertising including tours in India and Nigeria. He passed away in 2011 aged 96.

No Pedigree

The sense of loss is near despair
for one with no descent to share,
no pedigree where all can trace
the origins of the family face;
no ancestors whose fame or shame
adds some lustre to a name;
no photographs in treasured books
for evidence of the family looks;
no tales of uncles long since gone
for a child to feast upon;
no granny to say, in blame or praise
‘that child has got his grandpa’s ways’
or when another child appears:
‘she’s got my sister’s pretty ears;
no family tree beneath whose shade,
though scant, a family’s history’s made.
Without a heritage to share,
the sense of loss is always there.

John Walton

John aged 5

John in 1937

John & Pauline in 1940

John arriving Bombay July 1954

John & Pauline arriving Bombay January 1955

John Party Silver Oaks Flats

John Party in Bombay 1956

John with his great-grandson, Devon, 2011

Walton, John AC2 Number 128455

My father never really spoke much about his wartime service in the RAF and it wasn’t until I applied for his Service Record in 2019 that my brother David and I were able to piece a few facts and anecdotes together.

John and Pauline were married in Holborn on 21 October 1939 just over a month after war was declared. They were both pacifists and John apparently did try to avoid conscription but without success. He ‘joined up’ on 22 August 1940 having been turned down for aircrew training. Bearing in mind his dreadful driving ability in later years, this was probably for the best! My mother, Pauline, recalls seeing him doing drill training in Blackpool looking utterly miserable. His record shows him in 118 Squadron stationed in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

David was born on 9th December 1941 and John was promoted to AC1 in January 1942 and then posted to India in May 1942, a few months later. There is a family story that he was sent to India whilst still on a charge accused of forging 48 hour passes so that he could say goodbye to David! In September 1942 he was sent to 217 Squadron in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) based at Kandy and at Diyatalawa, which is still a major base for the Sri Lankan Air Force. He spent two or three periods in hospital suffering from malaria.

In March 1943 he was sent to Barrackpore, West Bengal (near Calcutta) and again spent time in hospital again suffering from malaria. October and November 1943 finds him in Delhi.In January 1944 he was promoted to Corporal and on 6 October 1944 he volunteered to go to Kunming in China which was then a major supply and transport hub for the Burma campaign. The flight there over the mountains (called ‘The Hump’) was one of the most perilous and many aircraft were lost en route. Fortunately, his was not one of them!

We don’t know when he left China and India but his record shows him at RAF Oakington near Cambridge in June 1945. This would tie in with David’s recollection of meeting ‘a strange man in RAF uniform’ at Liverpool Street Station, some time around VJ Day. John was finally discharged from the RAF on 1 April 1946.