Frank lights his pipe during the 1964 YHA holiday.

Frank Reginald Mason was born in Brixton, London, on the 25th January 1913, the youngest of five children, with one brother and three sisters. At that time his father was the joint owner of a small engineering business which went bankrupt in the early 1920s.

Frank's secondary education was at Poplar Technical College until at the age of 15 when he left home to become a ‘boy apprentice' at Halton RAF College near Aylesbury. It was soon after he left home that his mother died after a protracted illness. At age 18, while still at Halton, Frank enlisted with the RAF for 12 years and from an aircraft apprentice he became a qualified fitter with aero-engines and then an air observer/fitter, with parallel promotions in rank to Corporal by 1937.

One of his loves during this period was motorbikes and it was through a serious ‘bike accident in February 1932, which led to a prolonged stay in hospital, that he met his other love, a young trainee nurse called Louisa Watts. As Frank moved to several RAF bases in the south Midlands between 1933 and 1937, the motorbike (now with sidecar) became an essential means of keeping in touch, and mileage was high (nearly 15,000 miles on BSA reg CXD 232 (the ‘beeza') between Feb 1936 and Feb 1937).

In March 1937 he was posted abroad, to the North West Frontier of India (now the Pakistan/Afghan border), where he joined 60 Squadron and was the observer/navigator in open two-seater bi-planes (Westland Wapitis) trying, in those days of the British Empire, to keep some control over the ‘restless natives'.

Flt. Sgt. Frank Mason in Greece 1941

In March 1942 XI squadron moved to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where they used a race-course near Colombo as their aerodrome. At the beginning of April there was a huge bombing attack by the Japanese on Colombo port. Frank navigated searches for the Japanese fleet in the Indian Ocean.

In July 1942 he was transferred back to the UK, a journey that took two months by ship round the south of Africa. A week after arriving back in the UK he and Louisa were married.

During his period abroad Frank was awarded the DFM (Distinguished Flying Medal) and was also appointed a ‘commissioned' Pilot Officer on his return to the UK and, two years later, a Flight Lieutenant.

He remained in the RAF for a further ten years, moving to various stations around the UK. During this time he undertook a specialist navigation course which enabled him to teach navigation, and also became a member of the Royal Meteorological Society. Both aspects can be seen in the way some of the Willows Walks are recorded. As well as formal teaching he was involved in organising and running ‘survival' courses for airman which would take place over several days. He did very little flying.

During the 1940s Frank and Louisa had two children and innumerable moves of rented accommodation, and all possessions (including the family) could be packed into the 1935 Ford 8. They also accumulated friends all over the UK.