David John Whythe - Biography

Dad was born in 1924, the only son of David Reginald Whythe and Lucy Whythe.

Initially they lived in a flat in Wallworth in East London,
but soon after moved to a terraced house in Chiswick.

Dad was evacuated during World War 2 to High Wycombe,
and was a student at the Grammar School there when his parents
were killed by a bomb on 10 November 1940.

The family he was living with as an evacuee, Mr & Mrs Lacey,
took him under their wing and he came to know them as Mom & Pop.

He joined the RAF on leaving school, and trained as an aircraft mechanic,
becoming a Leading Aircraftsman (LAC), working on Spitfires and Lancasters.

After the war he was sponsored through University (Imperial College) by the BBC and when he graduated he joined the BBC Research Department in Kingswood.

During his time at University he went for a break with the Holiday Fellowship, staying in a bunk house at Stool End Farm in Great Langdale in the English Lake District. While there he met Kathleen Stone, from Warrington, and they struck up a close friendship using letters to keep in touch. Before long they were married and set up home in Coulsdon, Surrey. John was born soon after, followed by me a couple of years later.