Page 4 - James Skidmore

James Skidmore was born in the Staffordshire village of Wombourne near Wolverhampton
in 1911.
His first employment was with A.J.S. Motorcycles Co. in Wolverhampton. The company is still
British owned, its production however being in China.
From there he moved on to British Road Services and then Boulton and Paul Ltd.
This company is famous for its production of the Sidestrand and Overstrand bombers on charge to
the Royal Air force in the 1920’s and 30’s.
A detailed history of these three companies is available on Wikipedia.
In the early part of the Second World War Jim was seconded to Avro as an airframe fitter.
He moved to Leicester and it is possible he was working at RAF Langar, which was Avro’s main
maintenance depot in the Midlands.
Jim moved to Leicester taking lodgings with his wife Iris and three year old daughter Pamela.
Jim’s duties would be to repair battle damage to Avro’s Lancasters.
By 1942 a new depot was opened at Bracebridge Heath next to RAF Waddington just outside of
Lincoln, It is to this depot that Jim moved to before finally moving to Fiskerton.
This depot, like Langar was part of the Civilian Repair Organisation established on 11 September
th
1939 under the management of the Air Ministry, and controlled by No. 43 Group
RAF Maintenance Command.
At least 7 other Avro repair depots were opened, part of some 120 repair depot’s scattered
throughout the country supporting the RAF in repairing battle damage to the Commands aircraft
covering every type that the RAF had on charge.
Every Bomber Command airfield had a detachment of airframe fitter’s resident at these airfields
and in Fiskerton’s case this repair facility was in the airfields B1 hangar. Battle damaged
Lancasters are known to have been flown from Fiskerton to Waddington then having had the
wings removed these airframes were transported on Queen Mary transporters to
Bracebridge Heath for repair.
The lamp posts on the route were hinged as to allow access. Waddington itself had a hangar set
aside for this work and some 4000 Lancaster’s were repaired at Waddington and its
satellite repair sites.
Post war Jim was a partner in a haulage firm for a number of years before returning to
Boulton and Paul, working in the Inspection Department.
Jim continued working at Boulton and Paul until his early passing in 1974 aged 63 years.