1252626 James William Worden

[bvs]

Hi all
Just a question out of interest following Steve Brews thread about French Foreign Legion records.

Jim Worden was an Air Gunner 1941 - 45 but I think he may have been in the RAF until 1949 ?
Other than being MID in 1944 I cannot find anything out about his RAF service.

His autobiography Wayward Legionnaire describes his service with the FFL 1959 - 66 but he does not mention his RAF service at all.
The book introduction states that he completed 94 Ops and ended his RAF service as a F/O Pilot,but I have never been able to confirm.

Any info would be interesting - unusual 'career' move for a 36 year old ex wartime Aircrew member - especially to become a 'Para'.

He was born in Bermondsey in 1923 (it says here) and I think possible died circa 1998 (bit of a guess)

[bvs]

Would you Adam and Eve it - just tried his number again and found his commissioning 'Gazette' entry (got no 'hits' last time :) )

1252626 James William WORDEN (195026). i6th
Jan. 1945.

But that is all so far.

regards baz

[wwrsimon]

Baz

There are a few mentions of him on the 'Army Rumour Service' website.

This post has the following:

'As regards Jim Worden (RIP); from what I recall him telling me after a few drinks. He was an aspiring working class boy from Bermondsey, south-east London. He enlisted in the RAF around the start of WW2 and became aircrew. He progressed rapidly through the ranks, earned his Pilot Wings and was Commissioned from SNCO. He flew B-25 Mitchells in raids over western Europe.

After the war, enabled and inspired by his wartime promotion, he went back to study and qualified as an accountant. He got bored working in the UK and looked for better opportunities abroad. He took a position working for an oil company in Saudi Arabia, where he spent several years, saving up a substantial amount of money in order to set up his own business. He then had a rather unfortunate relationship with a woman who cleaned him out financially and left him at square one.

Thus he joined the Legion during the Algerian War (his time there is recounted in his excellent book "Wayward Legionnaire") After the debacle of the "Putsch" and the end of the war with the return of Legion units to barracks, morale dropped across the force. Jim left (he had done seven years) and picked up work here and there in Africa. His pilot qualification and knowledge of the B-25 served him in good stead, (" 'nuff said").

When he returned to UK he settled down back in his "old manor" in a tower block council flat in Bermondsey and became the (voluntary) General Secretary of the Foreign Legion Association of Great Britain (and Ireland as it was at the time).

He said he later regretted not staying or re-enlisting in the Foreign Legion, as that (and the wartime RAF service) was probably his most enjoyable and rewarding time of life.'

Regards

Simon

[bvs]

Hi Simon
Thanks for that ARR post.
He probably did not have Pilots Wings in 1945 - there is one picture of him in his Legionnaire book which is captioned 1945 - he is seen with 4 other Aircrew - all of them (inc Jim) wearing a 'Half Wing'.
Of course he might have got a pilot course near the end of the war,but I have never been able to confirm that.
Sometimes people think that a 'Pilot Officer' = Pilot - one of those possibly confusing things about the RAF rank structure.

Many thanks and kind regards baz

[bvs]

The only other thing I have found online is Jim Worden (oral history) (1994).
Their description states Aircrew 1941 - 1949,which is why I earlier posted that he may have been in the RAF until 1949.
But unfortunately the recording does not seem to be available online !

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80013984

[Smith 565]

Free BMD gives his birth as being in the April quarter 1923, in St Olave, Greater London.

He appears to have been Mentioned in Despatches as a F/Sgt (1252626), London Gazette 8 June 1944.

Commissioned 16 January 1945 into RAFVR GD Branch (195026). Later forfeited 3 months seniority. Substantive F/O wef 1 November 1947, in London Gazette 27 January 1948.

An interesting character by the sound of it!

Geoff

[bvs]

Many thanks Geoff.
I wonder if you could post a linky to the post commissioning LG entries,I struggle with some LG searches and yet other officer searches seem to be easy on there - very patchy.
To clarify - I have the MiD and commissioning LG entries but had found nothing later than that.

It would just be interesting to see the later entries - as you say an interesting character - there cannot be many people who have qualified as an operational Para in their late 30's.

regards baz

[Smith 565]

Morning bvs,

I'm hopeless at link things to be honest. All I did was run two searches, one for each of his two service numbers. Only a few results for each so nothing awful to trawl through! I couldn't trace his final discharge unfortunately.

Let me know if you have no luck. The London Gazette seems notoriously difficult to search.

Geoff

[bvs]

Hi Geoff
I will have another go later - the info is obviously there.
It would be interesting to find out which sqns/units he flew with.
I picked up the book many years ago from a 'charity' shelf at my village railway station and was surprised he did not include even a brief description of his RAF service,but anyway it was an interesting read about the FFL.

regards baz

[Franek Grabowski]

Hi Geoff
I will have another go later - the info is obviously there.
It would be interesting to find out which sqns/units he flew with.
I picked up the book many years ago from a 'charity' shelf at my village railway station and was surprised he did not include even a brief description of his RAF service,but anyway it was an interesting read about the FFL.

regards baz

Have you tried to obtain his service records from the MoD?