Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
Air Marshal Sir William COLES KBE, CB, DSO, DFC & Bar, AFC (1913-1979)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - William Coles, retired Royal Air Force officer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at RAF Northolt, having been led to believe he was there to take part in a film documentary about the RAF.
William, the son of a village grocer from Oxfordshire, spent several years with the Metropolitan Police before joining the Royal Air Force in 1938. During the Second World War, he served in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy, Burma and Northern Europe before taking command of No. 117 Squadron, then based in North Africa, and later, in June 1944, No. 233 Squadron, which was heavily involved in the Battle of Arnhem. Early in 1945, he attended the RAF Staff College and was awarded a Permanent Commission as Squadron Leader.
His last appointment was as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Technical Training Command in 1966 before retiring in 1968 to become Controller of the RAF Benevolent Fund. As a keen and talented sportsman, he was a member of the RAF bobsleigh team in the 1948 Winter Olympic Games at St Moritz and later became President of the RAF Rugby Union.
"I can't believe it! Really? Well how very nice. What a tremendous compliment!"
programme details...
- Edition No: 370
- Subject No: 371
- Broadcast date: Wed 23 Jan 1974
- Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
- Recorded: Thu 10 Jan 1974
- Venue: Euston Road Studios
- Series: 14
- Edition: 10
on the guest list...
- Vanbrugh Castle School band
- Dickie Sharp
- Babs - wife
- Peter - son
- Jonathan - son
- Bert Lee
- Alec Laidlow
- Len Bastian
- Terry Wheat
- Arthur Rees
- Fred - brother
- Ernest - brother
- Millicent - sister
- John Veal
- Gilbert Howie
- Bob Bennett
- Dick Lawson
- Basil Wellicome
- Teresa Elliott
- John Elliott
- Jane Elliott
- Jacqueline Elliott
- Mark Elliott
- Robin Elliott
- Snowy Parker
production team...
- Researcher: Vincent Stafford
- Writer: John Viner
- Director: Royston Mayoh
- Producer: Malcolm Morris
saluting the armed forces
Screenshots of William Coles This Is Your Life
On 10th January 1974, when Eamonn Andrews surprised William Coles at RAF Northolt, I was a witness to a major hiccup, which nearly meant that the surprise was lost.
The set-up was to get the Air Marshal to arrive in an RAF HS125 aircraft, leave the aircraft and go into the Royal Lounge to record an interview about the RAF Benevolent Fund, which he was then the Controller of. In fact, in the lounge was the band of Vanbrugh Castle School and the conductor was Eamonn Andrews. As I was the Press Liaison Officer at the station, I was in the mobile control room as the action took place. Just as he exited the aircraft, all the screens went dark - this was because a fuse blew. There was a flurry of panic, and an engineer leapt out of the control room and restored power. The director was still concerned because the pictures that returned to the screens were in black and white. The engineer reassured him that the colour would return, but anyway, the taped pictures would be in colour. By this time, William was about to enter the lounge, so everything was back on track for the surprise.
After all this had happened, I was given a ticket to go to Euston Road to watch the rest of the programme being recorded.
Series 14 subjects
Jim Dale | Vic Feather | Hayley Mills | Pete Murray | George Sewell | David Nixon | Robert Dougall | Deryck GuylerDerek Dougan | William Coles | Jimmy Jewel | John Alderton | Patrick Moore | Sam Kydd | John Dankworth
Gordon Ostlere (Richard Gordon) | Lionel Blair | Sheila Scott | Roy Dotrice | Barry Briggs | Christopher Lee
Beryl Grey | Terry Biddlecombe | Don Revie | Robert Morley | David Hemery | Eamonn Andrews