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Throughout World War Two, The amount of air
traffic over the region of North Wales Increased
dramatically and quite inevitably,flying accidents
in the mountains had reached an alarming level.
In those early days there was no official mountain
rescue team to deal with such events, and rescue
attempts were often made up of volunteers from
nearby military bases,along with the local police,
with little or no equipment to combat the elements.
However,due to the efforts of F/Lt George Graham,
a senior medical officer at Llandwrog, that much
needed vital rescue equipment was aquired, and so
the first RAF Mountain Rescue Team was formed,
though at that point was not officially recognised
by the Air Ministry.
The RAF Mountain Rescue Service as it became known
was officially recognised in January 1944 at RAF
Llandwrog,and with this came a new Commanding
Officer,F/Lt Tom Scudamore,for George Graham,despite
all his efforts in bringing the team to official
status, he was given a posting overseas.
Along with the new C.O.and following publicity in
the National newspapers,came new members of the N.
Wales team,and one of those men LAC John Campion
(Campy) Barrows from Sheffield recorded events of
his days from Jan 44 - Jan 46 in a series of diaries,
it is thanks to those diaries and pictures by the
late Gordon Leigh,a Climber with the team 1944, that
a book was compiled by the author of this website
entitled:ALL IN A DAY`S WORK. The book gives a day
by day account where events took place 1944-46.
Whilst the team at Llandwrog were deemed the first
official Mountain Rescue Service. Other teams sprang
up throughout the country,Millom,Kinloss, Harpur Hill,
West Freugh etc,and the Service grew from strength to
strength into what it is today,and thanks to the
efforts of men like George Graham,David Crichton and
Bill pitcairn (Kinloss)etc, the unit continues to be
now what it was back then "A life saving necessity".
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RAF Mountain Rescue 1943-46
