David Holliday

We received the sad news that David Holliday of 84 Entry (D Sqn) passed away on the 14th February 2025. From what we have heard, it was due to an accident on his large estate of land in Lithuania. At Cranwell, David became Captain of the Cricket Team where later in his career, he managed to take the Marham cricket team to the station finals at Vine Lane.  He did finally get an international call up, aged 70!  He was selected to represent Lithuania in a triangular tournament against Latvia and Estonia. He was a keen Soccer player and a Qualified Soccer Referee, for which he was much in demand!

He was on Victor Tankers (57 Sqn) then served as “Plans” in HQ Ops Wing in the late 70s

David’s sense of humour was typified by the following little story. The Stn Executives were about to fly off on a "Western Tankex" to Offutt, Nebraska.  David got the COMCEN to fabricate a Signal from Offutt to say they were closed on the day of departure.  At the morning briefing in Ops the “signal" got passed along the front row to the Stn Cdr, then back, each Exec reading it turn!  The briefing was all but forgotten, and a very worried looking Benny Jackson (later ACM Sir Brendon Jackson) with OC Ops “Spike” Milligan in tow, departed the briefing Room.  As they passed David Holliday, he asked if he could "have his signal back"!

He was a French linguist and went on to do a tour in Taverny, in Paris, before learning Russian, and going into the diplomatic circuit.  Following a challenging tour in Moscow his marriage sadly ended.  David went on to do another “diplomatic" tour with the Army, based at Ashford, before returning to Embassy work as the Air Attache to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, although he was based in London.  During that job he met Migle, in Klaipeda, Lithuania, where she was involved in hosting visitors, in particular those from visiting cruise ships.  After David’s retirement from the RAF, he married Migle and took on a large estate of land near Klaipeda.  He was totally accepted into his new family there, and integrated into the local community, although he visited the UK frequently.  He was a regular attendee at both his Cranwell 84 Entry reunions, and his old School Reunions in Ipswich.