"Vincent Orange has produced a long-awaited, very substantial biography... The author has succeeded in presenting the facts and well-deserved tributes to Sir Keith Park in a pleasant, easy-to-read style."
Aerospace
"The flow of books devoted to various aspects of air operations in World War II continues unabated. They include, from time to time, a work of particular importance... Park is an overdue biography... Vincent Orange, author of this excellent biography... has clearly taken a scholarly approach to the research necessary to produce such a definitive work."
Air International
"This fine biography of one of the wars greatest unsung heroes, researched in commendable depth, reveals how Parks career survived the "scheming and deceit" of envious senior officers after he was prematurely replaced by one of the principal culprits, Leigh-Mallory of No. 12 Group, a less able commander, without Parks clear and detailed understanding of the defence system."
Daily Telegraph
"Park emerges from this very thorough and scholarly biography not as The Great Man, but as a human being with strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us: a man whose greatness is delineated alongside his more everyday qualities, and who seems all the more impressive for that ... It is one of the many strengths of this biography, however, that the "warts and all" approach in no way detracts from the sense of Parks greatness ...Vincent Orange never assumes that Park was right until he has proved it for himself, and as an historian, scrupulous about his sources, listed in detail in endnotes, he provided us with the basis for reaching decisions of our own."
Christchurch Press
"It is a magnificent record, well and clearly set out by Vincent Orange, and its telling establishes a proud heritage for New Zealanders."
Sunday Times, New Zealand
This new edition published by Grub Street
4 Rainham Close, London SW11 6SS
Copyright Grub Street 2001
Text Copyright Vincent Orange 2001
Reprinted 2009, 2010, 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Originally published as Sir Keith Park by Methuen, 1984
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Orange, Vincent, 1935
Park: the biography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park GCB,KBE,MC,
DFC, DCI.
1. Park, Sir Keith, 1892-1975 2. Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Biography 3. Marshals Great Britain Biography
I. Title
358.4'331'092
ISBN 978 1 902304 61 8
EPUB ISBN: 9781909166721
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the
prior permission of Grub Street.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
the MPG Books Group
Grub Street only uses FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) paper for its books
All who know
Ann Margaret Orange
know also how much of this book is hers
Illustrations
PLATES
MAPS
Acknowledgements and thanks are due to Mr Neill B. Park for plates la and lb; to 48 Squadron for plate lc; to Mr F.C. Ransley for plate 2a; to Dr Stanley Rycroft for plate 2b; to the Department of Aviation Records, Hendon, for plate 2c; to Mr I.K.W. Park for plates 3a, 5a and 8b; to Mrs Noel Wells for plates 3b, 4d and 8c; to the Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, NZ for plate 3c; to the Imperial War Museum for plates 4a, 6a, 6b and 7a; to the BBC Hulton Picture Library for plates 4b and 4c; to the SAAF Museum, Valhalla, South Africa for plate 5b; to Miss Betty Neill for plate 7b; and to Mrs Keithia Harasimick for plate 8a.
The maps were redrawn from the authors roughs by Neil Hyslop.
Acknowledgements
I am glad to have this long-awaited opportunity to thank all those who have helped me to complete this book. Pride of place, after my wife, must go to Ian Park, Sir Keiths son, who freely permitted me to use his fathers papers. I have also benefited from many conversations with Ian and his wife Dorothy. All other members of the Park family have cooperated fully, offering me their memories, papers, photographs and, not least, their generous hospitality: Miss Betty Neill and her brother Bill; Dr Keith Park, his brother Neill and their families; Mrs Marie Stevenson and her daughter Mrs Keithia Harasimick; and Mrs Noel Wells. No member of the family has attempted to restrict or influence in any way the use I have made of the material they have provided.
Many men and women who served with Sir Keith have helped me more than I can thank individually, but I must single out (in alphabetical order) Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader, Air Marshal Sir Edward Chilton, Flight Lieutenant Michael Crossley, Air Commodore Alan Deere, Derek, Lord Dowding, Sergeant Norman Davis, Flight Lieutenant Peter Ewing, Captain Edward Griffith, Group Captain Tom Gleave, Air Marshal Sir Gerald Gibbs, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Grandy, Group Captain Colin Gray, Squadron Leader Sir Archibald Hope, Air Vice-Marshal J.E. Johnson, Air Vice-Marshal A.V.R. Johnstone, Captain Alan Light, Group Captain P.B. Lucas, Wing Commander Michael Constable Maxwell, Air Marshal Sir Kenneth Porter, Lieutenant John Pugh, Captain Coralie Pincott (nee Hyam) Lieutenant Stanley Rycroft, Squadron Leader Joseph Rank, Group Captain W.G.G. Duncan Smith, Flight Sergeant Tet Walston, Colonel Stanley Walters, Group Captain George Westlake, Group Captain Donald Wiseman, Wing Commander Robert Wright and Air Marshal Sir Peter Wykeham.
Others who deserve my grateful thanks include my colleagues Sam Adshead, David Gunby and David Maclntyre for reading drafts of the manuscript, and two graduate students in the History Department of the University of Canterbury, Wilma Falconer and Christina Goulter, for helping to gather and sort my material. I am also grateful for information and advice to Christopher Barnes, Trevor Boughton, Ernest Edwards, Marjorie Jones, Paul Leaman, Peter Liddle, Ronald Lewin, Timothy Loveil-Smith, Errol Martyn, Colonel Neil Orpen, Phillip OShea, Arthur Parrish, Edward Rubython, James Sanders, John Seabrook, Christopher Shores and Elaine White. My particular thanks go to Christopher Falkus, Chairman of Methuen London, for offering me a contract to write this book, to Liz Hornby, my editor, for helpful suggestions and to Nigel Nicolson for his thoughtful introduction. Without the prolonged hospitality of my brother-in-law, David Jeffery, who lives in London, the collection of material would have been far more expensive than it was. I have left until last, traditionally a position of great honour, two friends without whose generosity, advice and encouragement this book could hardly have been begun, let alone completed: John and Fenella Barton of Auckland.
As for the institutions which have helped me, I gladly record my debt to the Air Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, London; the Auckland Institute and Museum; the RAF Museum, Hendon; the House of Lords Record Office, London; the Imperial War Museum, London; the National War Museum, Malta, G.C.; the Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland; the Public Record Office, London, and the National Archives and Defence Library, Wellington. I owe a special debt to the New Zealand branches of the Royal Aeronautical Society, which have for years invited me to address their meetings up and down the country. This book grew out of one such address. Numerous individuals in these institutions helped to make my work a pleasure. All the men and women mentioned above are collectively responsible for whatever merit this book has; I made all the mistakes and misjudgements myself. Finally I must also record my sincere gratitude to the University of Canterbury for granting me financial assistance and leave to visit England for seven months in 1981.