Tony Meston (Antigua) or Tony Meston (UK)
(Click either link to e-mail Tony).
B Flight
Lives in Antigua, The Caribbean
Also Bembridge, Isle of Wight
Tel:
Home:
This info supplied by Tony:
A brief little history. You already know I went to St Athan. From there I was on 30 Sqdn Beverleys in Bahrain . Then Lyneham on Britannias. Then unfortunately I was put on Blue Steel missiles at Scampton. From there I managed to escape to Leconfield on Lightnings. I was there 4 years until I left the Air Force.
Then I went to Saudi and worked in the Nose Dock at Dhahran for 5 years fixing their Lightnings. I left there when I was 35, so I could get myself a professional pilot’s licence.
I did this at Oxford. During that process I was a flying instructor at Biggin Hill and I was helping to build Project Thrust at home on the IOW. That was a car to challenge the Land Speed Record. I was in charge of the engine and propulsive systems. It was a piece of cake, as the engine and reheat system was the no. 2 installation out of a Lightning. I got the pilot’s licence and no job as in 1980 there was one hell of a recession.
So I was part time Company pilot for Britten-Norman. I went to 2 interviews one was Dan Air. The other was LIAT the Caribbean Airline. I tell people I live in the IOW, I just work in the West Indies. I was flying Dash 8s for them from George Town in Guyana up to Santo Domingo in Hispaniola and all the Islands in between. I retired when I was 60, so I took a week off, then started flying Twin Otters for Carib Aviation. That is where I am at, at the moment.
The break down of my email address. Dozy Girl is the name of my sail boat, candw.ag. That stands for Cable and Wireless, the ag stands for Antigua . So I have in fact lived here in Antigua for 25 years, I kind of like it. I still have my home at Bembridge IOW. We have a way of pronouncing the address, it is candy wag, it just makes life easier. Each of the Islands naturally have different last 2 letters, so you can tell at a glance where they are.
Tony also provided these snippets later:
I saw Mike Pulford’s name on the AWOL list. If he comes to the surface perhaps you could give him my address as well. I think Mike bought himself out and went to work for BA at Heathrow.
As for Les Purvis, he never went to St Athan for his first posting, if he did, I never spotted him.
I can shed a bit of light on the loss of A E Frost. One day while I was in Bahrain an RAF Britannia landed and taxied in. It was on the ground about an hour, then it taxied out again for departure to the Far East, only to taxi back in again. Unfortunately it was A E Frost, we were told he had passed away due to heat exhaustion. It must have been in 1964 or 65.
- Site admin's note - Pete Garrett has since confirmed this. The death was diagnosed as a heart attack. Alec Edward 'Jack' Frost an armourer aged 21 was buried in the Military Cemetery at Bahrain with full honours. Pete was a pall bearer at the funeral. This should be confirmable from RAF Records Office.