 Aldon
Ferguson spent his formative years in Freshfield, very close
to the southerly boundary of RAF Woodvale. He clearly remembers
the early morning take off of the Spitfire from the THUM
Flight en route to gather data for the country's weather
forecast and also witnessed the wrecked Spitfire in which
PII R A Bailey died in May 1949.
Educated at Merchant Taylors School , Crosby his interest
in aviation saw him in both the school CCF (RAF) Section
and the Air Training Corps at Woodvale itself.
Desperate to fly in the RAF his short sightedness prevented
this career but after a short time in the RAF he tuned to
property as a career.
Further education at Liverpool College of Building eventually
saw qualification as a Chartered Surveyor. Retaining his
military interest he was commissioned in the RAFVR(T) with
the ATC at Woodvale.
Working for a Liverpool based company he moved to London
in 1976 to run their London office and set up his own Commercial
Property practice in 1982 acquiring, disposing, managing,
valuing etc properties across the UK .
In 1990 he was asked
to sort out some property problems in Moscow for one of
the leading firms of accountants. After resolving that problem
he opened the first, western run, property consultancy
business in Russia since the Revolution, eventually employing
50 staff in Moscow , St Petersburg and Kiev in Ukraine.
Even though away from home for long periods he wrote books
on the RAF airfields at Sealand, Shawbury and Woodvale and
countless magazine articles on RAF, FAA and USAF bases in
the UK. More recently he has undertaken detailed photographic
surveys of RAF and USAF airfields as they closed down for
an accurate record to be maintained for the future. He sold
his Russian business in 1998 and is now a property consultant
with an international finance institution continuing to travel
across Easter Europe and Central Asia.
Aldon founded the Burtonwood Association in 1986 after writing
the first book on the base, currently out of print, to perpetuate
the memory of RAF Burtonwood. He edits and produces
the quarterly magazine, Burtonwood Times, and the Association
has a Heritage Centre at Burtonwood and holds reunions in
both the US and UK. The Association has over 1,000
members.
He lives in the Thames-side village of Wargrave near Henley
with his wife, Sue. His roots are deep in the Merseyside
area which is where 611 Squadron was born and eventually
died; from where most of the pre war and post personnel came
from and intends to keep the memory of this incredible squadron
alive for the indefinite future. |
