JACK FURNER (1921-2007) – f u r n e r a m a

Preface

Hallo! I am Jack Furner and this is my web site. It has been constructed in such a way as to guide you through an autobiography.

I am now* in my early 80s and have therefore been “retired” for quite a number of years. But I still keep busy with this and that. And I have been fortunate enough to be married to the same lovely girl for 55 years: long may it continue. We have three very clever sons, sporting some eight degrees between them; and at last count, eight very spirited and able grand-children from 24 years old down to 1.

If you choose to look further, you will find that my life is covered in 22 Chapters, a majority of which encompass my career as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. I joined the RAF at the age of 19 just after the Battle of Britain and was fortunate enough to rise from Aircraftman 2nd Class to Air Vice-Marshal, in which rank I retired in 1976. During World War II, I flew in Bomber Command and, towards the end of the war, in Burma. Peacetime widened my horizons with test-flying at Boscombe Down and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the United States; with the V-Force, principally the Vulcan, in the Cold War period of the late 1950s and the 1960s; with command of RAF Scampton in 1968 and of Central Reconnaissance Establishment in 1969-70; with NATO appointments both in Paris and in Brussels; and with manning tasks in the Ministry of Defence, London.

Remaining Chapters of the autobiography deal with my time as a Company Director, and subsequently a multitude of voluntary tasks for which satisfaction was reward itself.

* Jack was writing in mid-2006, when he was 84.

Table of Contents

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