22 October 1940. Peter Moore
After his
initiation into operational flying with 253 Squadron on 20 October, if not
combat, Peter Moore did not fly on 21 October 1940. But he was in the air again
on the 22nd. He carried out two sorties with the squadron that day. The first,
in Hurricane V7499, was at 10.20 a.m. for 45 minutes, and the second, in L1666,
was a two hour one at 12.15 p.m.
Because most of
Peter’s Battle of Britain experience has been in training schools, he has
appeared infrequently in these posts. I have told you a little of his background
but nothing of his academic and sporting life at Oxford University.
Peter
matriculated—was formally admitted—to Oxford University on 12 October 1937,
during the Michaelmas
term, and took up residency in University College.
He
planned on embarking on a diplomatic career when he left university and so he enrolled
in PPE, short for Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
As
well as attending lectures and writing up notes, Peter had to research and
write a weekly paper for his tutors. He would meet in the tutor’s rooms, read
his paper and the tutor would make comments and discuss it. It was all very
civilised.
Peter
joined an informal discussion group convened by the Master of University
College, Sir William Beveridge (who, later as chair of the Inter-Departmental
Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, would be instrumental in creating the template for post-war
British social policy and the creation of the Welfare State).
The
discussions mainly focussed on politics and economics. During the 1937−38
academic year Peter read out a paper entitled ‘Unemployment: the
Administrative Problem’ and it appears as if he was giving it a dry run amongst
likeminded friends before submitting it to Harry V. Hodson, the editor of The Round Table. In his paper, Peter set
out to analyse certain key features in the current system of unemployment
relief to discover flaws, if any, and stressed that a fundamental problem in
the system was the relationship of relief to wages. He believed that the
solution lay more on the side of wages than on the side of relief.
Hodson
considered that Peter’s paper was ‘extraordinarily good’ and congratulated him
on it, noting that ‘I can’t think of any important point that you have missed,
though perhaps in a longer paper one would have spent more time on the relation
between public works and relief’. Despite Hodson’s congratulations, it does not
seem as if he published Peter’s paper; there is no indication in the letter of
a publication date.
It was
not all study for Peter. Although he did not appear too keen on sports while at
Xavier, he took up golf and tennis and soon became an enthusiastic rower.
In 1938, Peter rowed in University College’s Second Eight in both
Torpids and Eights Week and, in 1939 rowed in the First Eight in the two
events. Such was his dedication he also coached the Second Eight for the 1939
Eights Week.
(Peter Moore with his
rowing crew at Oxford. Second from left, leaning forward.)
Undergraduates had any number of clubs to choose from for
extracurricular activities. Some considered the Oxford University Air Squadron
to be the best club in Oxford and with its long waiting lists it had a certain
cachet and glamour and Peter was one who fell to the lure of Oxford’s best club
and he signed up as a social member on 26 April 1939. He became a full member
on 2 May. Peter joined the summer camp training camp that year, joined the
RAFVR and, in September 1940, along with all the other reservists, was called
up, thus putting him on the (flight)path that lead him to the Battle of
Britain.
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