Sunday 21 October 2012

Australians in the Battle of Britain. 22 October 1940. Peter Moore


Australians in the Battle of Britain. 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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