MISSING . . .
‘I HAVE tried without success to trace football team-mates from RAF Butterworth in Penang, Malaya, in the mid-1960s,’ writes Bruce Gates, 82, of Bristol. ‘I was posted there accompanied by my wife and two young sons in 1963. I was a paint finisher, sewing machinist and safety survival kit packer, working with the Royal Australian Air Force. ‘On a visit to Singapore in 1965, we won the Far East Air Force Football Championship. It was the first time Singapore’s RAF stations had been beaten for the cup. My team included my best friends Allan Peacock, Bill Penman, John Leather, Tom Mitchell and Vic Probert. ‘Back in Penang, we would swap places with our trishaw drivers and race each other down the main road of the capital, George
Town. My daughter was born in Malaya in 1963 and a couple of years later, I was posted to RAF Colerne in Wiltshire. After I was demobbed in 1970, I worked for a kitchen manufacturer.’