Philip Laughton-Bramley MBE
Information supplied by Jean Howarth
Philip was born in 1900 and grew up with Mary Hamer in Sharples Park. They went to St William's School, Seymour Road, together. As a young lad Philip worked in Rothwell's chemist's shop in Knowsley Street, and then left in 1917 to join the Royal Naval Air Service.
Between the wars he worked as a chemist, news agency representative, a government official in Czechoslovakia, and Vice-Consul of Aix-Les-Bains. In 1939 he rejoined the RAF as an intelligence officer.
The highlights of Phillip's amazing life:
He was taught to fly by Louis Bleriot, the first man to fly the English channel in 1909
He was one of the first men to enter the newly formed RAF in 1918
He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 during a motoring holiday with friends
In 1939 he was involved in secret missions to Belgium and he had to escape to safety
He was awarded the French Order of Merit for his intervention in saving Aix-Les-Bains from a planned bombing raid
He helped organise an escape route for servicemen out of France
He was secretary of the RAF Escaping Society's Australian Branch
As British Vice-Consul from 1934 he enjoyed golf and fishing trips with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and other famous people
He was awarded the MBE for his work in the South Pacific
Not bad for a lad from Bolton!
After the war Philip worked for a plastics company and lived and worked in Australia.
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