Site History.....

Preamble

This is very much a work in progress and as such not much here at the moment, I also have this nagging feeling it will turn into a labour of love and due to the very nature of the subject never really be finished.

At the time of writing, 1st November 1995, the idea of this section is to attempt to bring together several very tenuous strands of thought and discussion. The idea(s) for this section came from two separate discussions, one was with my brother and the second with my mother-in-law.

First Strand

My brother and I had always known our father, Frank J. Forbes, had done something during the war and that something involved his career in electronics and his being a Ham Radio (amateur radio) enthusiast. Unfortunately our mother was not married to him at the time, they married after the war, and I believe she genuinely did not know anything of the work he did.

My father suffered with polio as a child aged 10 or so, and spent 8-10 years in hospital flat on his back. This however did not stop his education and he went on to gain a place at The London University and studied for his degree, all from his hospital bed. I believe his degree was in Electronic Engineering which would tie in with his interest in radio.

Eventually he was able to leave hospital but could only walk with the aid of sticks, although my recollections of him from my childhood are hazy, I know his disability did not stop him from doing anything and weekends and school holidays would find us all heading out somewhere, exploring London, down to the South Coast or just hopping on a bus to see where it took us, cars in those days (1950's) were still an expensive luxury in the UK.

He obtained his licence and callsign (2BFC) on 31st May 1937. In those days, before the war, there were not many "Radio Hams" in the UK and I imagine it was viewed rather like an exclusive club! Obviously his disability exempted him from serving in the Armed Forces but he still was able to contribute to the war effort by becoming a "Voluntary Interceptor" initially and I believe later on he was recruited to work full time "somewhere" in London

Unfortunately my father died in June 1962, when I was 11 years old, so I was never of an age when I could have asked more questions along the lines of "What Did You Do In The War Dad?". However, I do have an abiding memory as a small boy of all the pieces of radio equipment in his "shack", mesmerized by glowing valves, the sound of morse code, sparks from the morse key, the faint smell of burning ozone, shelves full of OXO tins, a wall covered in QSL cards and the smell of the soldering iron as dad built his own equipment.

After the war he went on to work at Mullards in their offices in Tottenham Court Road, London, a then very large large electronics firm, until he died.

Second Strand

The second strand of this idea concerns a poem, "The Life That I Have", associated with Violette Szabo. The book 'Carve Her Name With Pride' by R.J. Minney and the film of the same name, detailed the work of this remarkable woman during World War II.

My mother-in-law was trying to track down a copy of the poem as she was desperately trying to remember the lines. In searching for the poem I learnt about Violette's work, this then led me onto other women who had worked for the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) under the guise of F.A.N.Y.'s. (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). The role these women played in relaying information, organising resistance and sabotage was another crucial role in the defeat of Germany and her allies.

I realised that although many books and films recounted the work of the Voluntary Interceptors and the women of the S.O.E, there was a lack of information on the WWW. So the idea was born to, hopefully, provide some sort of resource and pull the strands together as well as satisfy my curiosity as to how much the work of my father and the S.O.E became entangled.

Whether the site manages to expand and fulfill my expectation remains to be seen.

Andy
Harrow, London, UK
1st November 1995