​​A Pilot's Story

A Chesterfield Hero

Hello and thanks for visiting my website.

This is my website about the life of my father. He was quite a remarkable man.


He was a welder at a Derbyshire colliery when he ran away to join up in 1941. He spent the next 23 years as a RAF pilot. When he was told they wouldn't let him fly anymore, he left the RAF and became a welder again at another colliery.


Please follow the links at the side of the page or the button links at the bottom to navigate the site. Most pictures on this site have been scanned in from photos and log books belonging to the family however some images are borrowed from other places. I have endeavoured to credit all images not from the family archive with the copyright owner where applicable, please contact me if you feel I have infringed any material rights to resolve the issue.

Thank you.


​In a further update I have now finished a brief website about my maternal granddad and Roy's boss at the colliery, John Cyril 'Jack' Mawson. an extremely gifted engineer and inventor of mining machinery. Was he the father of modern mechanised retreat mining? Read and make your own mind up. Follow this link:  Life of an Engineer - Jack Mawson

16/03/2024 Due to lack of interest and GoDaddy extorsionate rates I have dumped this site


For some reason, GoDaddy's website builder software on which I built this site, sometimes has issues displaying on certain browsers. If you find that the webpage runs off the screen at the edges, try reducing the size of the page to 80% until I can get them to fix it. Thanks. 

Flight Lieutenant Roy Mather DFC AFC