John Thomson c1987
John Alexander Stuart Thomson was born to Scottish parents in 1929 in Sailors Gully nean Melbourne, Australia. His mother returned to the UK with him when he was 4 years old and they settled in Devon.
From an early age, John was determined to fly, and although a childhood back-injury playing rugby initially prevented this career, he passed-out from Cranwell and joined the Secretarial Branch of the Royal Air Force as an accountant in 1951. By 1954, with the help of a friendly doctor, he managed to pass the medical exam and switched to flying; effectively starting his career again, as he had to drop a rank to transfer to the flying corp.
He became an accomplished pilot, and flew all over the world. In 1956, John married Joan Humphreys in Shropshire, and at various times they lived in Germany (where daughter Jane was born), Cyprus, Holland, Vienna, and Scotland. John also had a tour in Africa without the family. He reached the rank of Group Captain, and as well as running an RAF Station in Germany, he became a strategist and a key negotiator in the international MBFR talks. (The Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction talks were a series of negotiations held in Vienna between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries between 1973 and 1989). He even had a stint in Intelligence.
The family bought 'Cotstones' in Wooburn Town in 1978, but John's retirement was
as busy as his working life. One of his hobbies was his love of photography and
cameras, and a spare bedroom was converted into his dark room. He developed his
own photographs and would also restore and repair old photographs for others.
John had a great interest in the history of the Wooburn area and would spend
hours collecting and documenting hundreds of photographs and mounting
exhibitions in the local church hall, assisted by wife Joan who would help
prepare and attend every exhibition with him. In common with the SWOP project,
he felt it was important to try to preserve the history and memories for future
generations. As well as this project he worked with a number of local
charities in the area as their photography specialist.
In 2015 John suffered a devastating stroke and returned to Devon to be near to daughter Jane. He died in January 2017.