Feast Sean - The Last of the 39-ers: The Extraordinary Wartime Experiences of Squadron Leader Alfie Fripp

I was introduced to Alfie Fripp through the good auspices of Colin Higgs, a fellow author and enthusiast, in the late summer of 2012. Having seen David Jasons documentary on the Great Escape, I was of course aware of Alfie, but had not until that time had the pleasure of meeting him. Colin told me that Alfie was interested in working with an author to help write his autobiography but had not, until that time, come across anybody he especially got on with!

It was therefore with some trepidation that I drove down to the south coast to meet this gallant airman, conscious of the fact that I could swiftly join the ranks of those who had already been seen and deemed not up to the mark. I need not have worried. Alfie was charm personified and particularly pleased that I not only knew but had previously written about his first Blenheim pilot, Johnnie Greenleaf, who had also been his best man. It was rewarding to be able to tell this distinguished gentleman a little about Johnnies wartime service, and I was only too pleased to present Alfie with a copy of The Pathfinder Companion (Grub Street, 2012) with mentions of his former friend and colleague. I think it was this, perhaps more than anything else, that sealed our partnership and I was eager to get Alfies story underway.

The usual order of things (at least for me) is to conduct a series of interviews and complement those interviews with concurrent research, going back over what has been said to check the facts, dates, times, personalities etc as accurately as feasible and against first source and contemporary documents (wherever possible). We had completed the third of these interview sessions when Alfie was taken ill with what seemed to be an innocuous ear infection. I was not especially alarmed; we had reached the stage in Alfies story when he had been shot down and captured, and I was very much looking forward to hearing more of his adventures in the camps that he had already outlined when I received a phone call I had been dreading. Alfie had taken off on his final flight and would not be returning.

This left me in a little bit of a quandary. Alfies story was always meant to be an autobiography, with me in the background to allow the great man to take the deserving centre stage. But I knew it would be wrong to invent words that had never been spoken, or guess at feelings that had never been expressed. With the full support of his family, and my publisher, I was asked if I would finish Alfies story, and do so as a biography using as many of Alfies actual words, thoughts and expressions as possible.

With my first-hand notes, and a selection of Fripp family archive recordings, I was able to bring together the missing components into what I hope is a flowing narrative. Colin Higgs again also came to the rescue by allowing me access to many hours of interviews he had recorded with Alfie only a few months earlier. Friends and family also introduced me to former Kriegies Cal Younger, Andy Wiseman, Charles Clarke and Eric Hookings who were able to give me valuable insight into what life must have been like for Alfie in the camps. So many people were eager to help that it confirmed, if any such confirmation was needed, that Alfies story had to be finished, so that others might recognise the achievements of a man who came to be known as the last of the 39-ers.

I hope my critics will look favourably on this work and understand the path I was obliged to take, and my reasons for doing so. I hope my reader will agree with me that Alfies story is a remarkable one, and it is a great pity that he did not live long enough to enjoy its publication, and a few precious moments in the limelight that might have resulted.

Sean Feast
Sarratt, Hertfordshire
October 2013