The story of
Eric and Mary Hudgell
On the 25th August 2026, I received a fascinating story from project follower Paul Hudgell, that he's very kindly allowed me to share.
His late father, Eric Hudgell, was a wireless operator in WWII RAF, mostly in the air, but on the ground at RAF Blakehill Farm, crucially on the day Japan surrendered. He was so excited that he ‘pinched’ the attached message which his son found in his loft sometime after his death in 1999.
The message shows that despite the war ending they, still had quite a bit to do. Unfortunately Eric had told Paul that he had the message but he was suffering from advanced Alzheimers at the time so Paul wasn’t sure if his memory was correct.
It transpires it was.
Eric met his wife Mary Clark, another wireless operator, at Blakehill, and they married in 1946 after leaving the RAF.
Eric came from Suffolk and joined the RAF in 1940 at Cardington, Bedfordshire. He qualified as a wireless operator and he spent some time in South Africa seconded to the South African Airforce training local flying crews with SAAF at 45 Flying School, Oudtshoorn.
He also spent quite a lot of time flying over the sea looking for submarines, but never saw any.
Paul still has his SAAF Flying Log but unfortunately his RAF logbook has been lost.
When he returned to the UK, he was at various bases before ending up at Blakehill Farm where he met Mary who was a ground based wireless operator.
Mary came from Yorkshire and decided to apply to be a wireless operator as she had trained as a GPO telephone operator before the war. Three of her five brothers also served in the forces in WWII. Eric and Mary left the RAF in early 1946 and after marrying, settled in Buckinghamshire where Paul's along with his two brothers were born. Eric returned to his pre war profession of printing.
One interesting memory Paul has of his early life is when Mary and Eric wanted to discuss something at the dinner table which was not was not intended for the youngsters, they would tap out the ‘secret’ parts using morse code on the table. Paul never did manage to learn morse!
Oh yes, and the house they moved to Buckinghamshire where Paul was born?
They named their house 'Blakehill'.
My thanks to Paul in coming forward and sharing this wonderful story, and it gives my great pleasure to preserve it forever here, along with their photographs.
