Dates: 1940s

1997.207.1

Medical equipment from Tiree Airport.

Medical equipment found at Tiree Airport, consisting 4 tourniquets, 1 corkscrew (1960), 1 urinometer, 2 x 4oz cotton wool (1952), 2 magnifying glasses, ether masks, airways, needle holder (1959), assorted catgut ampoules size 0.1, aromatic ammonia capsules, standard dressing no. 9, 2 standard dressings no. 12 (1945), Enflavine dressing no. 12, 3 shell dresssings (1944), dibromopropamidine cream, eye solution no. 1, finger dressing, sterliser with burner, 2 blood administration sets, 6 chloroform ampoules (1939; empty), 2 silkworm gut.

1997.189.27

Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron

Photograph of Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron.

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Courtesy of Mr Mike Hughes

Flight Lieutenant Arthur ‘Max’ Bacon (4th left) and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron are pictured beside their Halifax which was lost on operations over the Atlantic in January 1945.

RAF 518 Squadron arrived on Tiree in September 1943 to fly weather reconnaissance missions in long-range Halifax aircraft. Twice a day flights ‘Bismuth’ and ‘Mercer’ left Tiree for a ten-hour-long trip out into the Atlantic at either 20,000 or 50 feet.

Pressure to fly was relentless and in 1944 518 Squadron flew every day but two. Often icing and waves 100 feet high made this dangerous. 518 Squadron lost twelve aircraft during their spell on Tiree. That night in January, Max and his crew disappeared without trace.

Black and white photograph of Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon and his aircrew during World War II.

Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon (4th left) and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron beside their Halifax which was lost on operations over the Atlantic on 21/1/1945. Far right: F/Sgt Tony Porazka (Met. Air Obs., Polish). (Photograph from Mike Hughes in Filing Cabinet 2 drawer 1)

1997.189.11

Black and white photograph of an RAF Concert Party in 1944.

RAF Concert Party in 1944. L-R: Fred MacKeown, Fred Parratt, Jessie MacQueen, Denis Guest, unknown, Bryn Lewis, Nan Hogarth, Frank Murphy, Dodo Leslie, Jack May, Jean Hind, Jim Worthington, Nettie MacFarlane, Harry Smith, Harry Barr, Paul Blomley. (Photograph from Mike Hughes in Filing Cabinet 2 drawer 1)

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