Brian Voller

We were sad to learn that Brian Voller of  70 Entry (C  Sqn) passed away on the 24th July 2024

David Scouller writes

Brian and I first met when we joined the Royal Air Force together at Cranwell on 6 September 1954. I got to know Brian well; he was always a cheerful happy-go-lucky sort of fellow, who laughed easily, was very gregarious and never boastful. He dealt with matters as they occurred.

When we began flying training. Our pay went up from seven shillings a day by three and sixpence  flying instructional pay (that’s 57p today!) The course was very academic, covering some 24 subjects, 12 humanities and 12 sciences. Concurrently we learned to fly on the Provost and the Vampire…..

It was during our flying training that Brian’s panache and lucky streak became evident. The north airfield at Cranwell has large areas of undulating grass. Shortly after Brian had made his first solo he was sent off to do some solo circuits and landings in area out of sight of the staff. The Provost was  powerful with a 550 hp engine and on take off would tend to swing to the right. The take-off run was marked by a row of sodium lights.

Take-offs were made from the left side and landings on the right. Brian lined up, didn’t get the stick back and opened the throttle quickly. The aircraft swung to the right through 360 degrees, missing the sodiums, finishing up on the right hand side pointing in the correct direction. At that point he collected his wits and took off normally without any instructor noticing.  He was a very good pilot, graduating 30 July 1957.

Our paths remained together as we converted to the Hunter at Chivenor in Devon and joined 54 Squadron at Odiham in early December 1957. Our flight commander was David Harcourt-Smith; known for his short fused temper and great sense of humour.

54 was a day fighter ground attack Squadron. A pilot officers pay in those days was £300 a year. Brian bought a VW Beetle for £365 shortly before going on leave. After coffee in the crew room, Brian in high spirits, departed in the car. Half an hour later the phone rang and an unmistakable voice said “I’ve crashed - can someone come and help me”. He had taken a corner too fast, the car rolled over one and a half times, the door burst open and he was thrown out. When collected he was of course smartly dressed and he had neither injuries nor damage to his clothes. The car needed a completely new body shell and he sold it for more than he originally paid for it. At Odiham members of the Officers Mess had a concession to play golf at Farnham golf club; not that we were much good at golf, and Brian played with his usual gusto. He sliced the ball one day and it flew off to the right into a field and landed between a horse’s legs while the horse was quietly grazing. Brian climbed over the fence walked up to the horse, slapped it on the rump and then drove the ball back onto the fairway. A bit further on that day we came to a hole with a dogleg and the pin was not visible. Nevertheless, in Voller style, he attempted to bypass the dogleg by driving straight ahead over the trees and he then realised that the ball must have landed in someone’s back garden.

By now you’ll have little doubt about what happened next. He left the course and then walked down the street to the point where he estimated the ball had landed and went up the garden path. There was no reply to his knock and he heard the family in the back garden. So he walked round the side of the house and saw that his ball was lying on their lawn. He was always very polite in such circumstances and I feel sure that they expected him to just pick up his ball, thank them and depart. Not Brian, he had the nerve to drive the ball off their lawn and back onto the course.

From 54 Squadron on Hunters Brian was posted to 8 Squadron in Aden, also to fly Hunters. He then went to the Lightning OCU at Coltishall before joining 111 Squadron at Wattisham in Suffolk. He later served a period as an instructor on the Lightning Simulator at what is now Teesside Airport. A further move was to 56 Squadron at Akrotiri in Cyprus. It is on 56 that Brian decided to exercise his option to retire from the RAF in 1974 before retraining as a teacher.

One last anecdote that I gleaned is from a widow now in her 80s who married a pilot on 208 Squadron also in Aden. She had been in her late teens in Aden and, although they only overlapped by a year, she remembers Brian as a loveable rogue, possessed of great charm.