Skip to content

A podcast taking you back to 1943, a pivotal year in World War Two

Menu
  • ABOUT
  • EPISODES
    • Blighty Thank God -Trailer
    • Episode One: Death In Winter
    • Episode Two: Piled into Hills at Wadi Halfa
    • Episode Three: A New ‘Goolie Chit’
    • Episode Four: The ‘Grisly Bisley’
    • Episode Five: When Jim ‘Got His’
    • Episode Six: BOAC Crashes
    • Episode Seven: Leo and the Gold Smugglers
    • Episode Eight: Dodging Deadly Diseases
    • Episode Nine: A Brief Encounter with VIPs
    • Episode Ten: Secret Missions
    • Episode Eleven: Chemical Bombing at Bari
    • Episode Twelve: Story of the Diary
    • Extra Episode – SEX, SPIES & LIES
  • DIARY
    • Diary in full
    • Diary Notes
  • PHOTOS
  • RESOURCES
    • VIDEO SHORTS
    • TRIVIA
  • INTERVIEWS
    • BBC Radio Tees
    • BBC Radio Merseyside
    • YouTube
  • LATEST
  • CONTACT
Menu

Episode Nine: A Brief Encounter with VIPs


In Baghdad’s sweltering heat of the summer of 1943, my father helped run the city’s airport for the RAF – managing the arrival and departure of VIPs.

Two he mentions were playwright/singer Noel Coward and Lord Louis Mountbatten. Not everything went smoothly with their visits.

Guest interviewee, author and professor Sky Gilbert, talks about Noel Coward in 1943.

Grateful thanks to the Noel Coward Foundation and Noel Coward Archive to be able to use an extract from his tour diary. Visit www.noelcoward.com.

Episode photo: Noel Coward on stage. (Source IWM)

Click here for a PDF with supporting material


Diary entries read by granddaughter Bethan.
Additional voices: Matthew Yeomans and Alex Paddock.

Skip to the NEXT EPISODE or back to the PREVIOUS ONE.

LATEST

  • VE DAY: MORE THAN ONE MISSION
    by Neil Chapman
    On VE Day 1945 I believe Flt Sgt Ron Chapman was on more than one mission. His log book shows he flew a Douglas Dakota Mark III(KG 320) from RAF Broadwell in Oxfordshire making a quick stop at RAF Hartford Bridge, nr. Reading, before continuing on to Germany and then Denmark.
  • NEW YEAR NUMBER BUMP
    by Neil Chapman
    Thanks to historical author Jessie Childs mentioning ‘Blighty Thank God’ during one of the UK’s leading history podcasts there was a holiday season jump in downloads to over 2000.
  • WORLDWIDE INTEREST
    by Neil Chapman
    Without the internet, ‘Blighty Thank God’ couldn’t have happened. When the podcast series was first published in 2023, anyone, anywhere could access it via the web.
  • RON CHAPMAN REMEMBERED IN HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER
    by Geoff Paddock
    The Northern Echo newspaper featured the diaries of Ron Chapman in a feature article for its "Echo Memories" column by Chris Lloyd this week, part of Remembrance Day coverage.
  • REMEMBRANCE MEMORIES
    by Malcolm Parker
    A dear friend kindly wrote about his memories of Ron from our school days, as well as his thoughts on Remembrance Day.
  • SEX, SPIES & LIES
    by Neil Chapman
    What a joy when award-winning historical author Jessie Childs (pictured) contacted me via this website. She found ‘Blighty Thank God’, published one year ago,  when delving into the fascinating life of her diplomat grandfather, Stephen Childs.
  • Ron Chapman on lake - possibly Cairo, Egypt around 1942.
    D-DAY AT LAST
    by Neil Chapman
    80 years ago, on June 6, 1944, Flt Sgt Ron Chapman was 5,000+km from the Normandy D-Day landings. Stationed in Egypt, he was probably ‘cheesed off’.  
  • ENSA TRIBUTE
    by Neil Chapman
    In my father’s war diary, ENSA - the Entertainments National Service Association - features regularly.
  • PAYING THE PRICE FOR FLYING THE ‘GRISLY BISLEY’
    by Neil Chapman
    One ‘Blighty Thank God’ episode highlights the Bristol Blenheim V plane - or as pilots dubbed it - the ‘Grisly Bisley’. Through research into my late father’s (Flt/Sgt. Ron Chapman) 1943 war diary I learned how it earned its macabre reputation.
  • TESTING THE MIGHTY HURRICANE
    by Neil Chapman
    Visit this website  to see pictures of British Hawker Hurricane Mark IIb fighter - BE208. To my surprise my father - Flt Sgt. Ron Chapman of (xxx)-  played a 6,000km part in its long journey from the UK to Asia.
©2025 | Built using WordPress and Responsive Blogily theme by Superb