RUMBOLD, Kenneth (#188)

Alan Pollock’s Rough Notes:

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Cpl Kenneth RUMBOLD as an AIRCRAFT FITTER ENGINES for ROYAL AIR FORCE GROUNDCREW here emphasises all the “RATS of TOBRUK”, many from Australia (where in the early 1990s nearly 5,000 were still members), who endured the 200 DAY SIEGE before striking out and joining up with NEW ZEALANDERS of EIGHTH ARMY at El Duda & El Adem between 27 Nov and 9 Dec 1941.

As an engine mechanic, earlier he had been posted to No.73 SQUADRON in the BATTLE of FRANCE and. eventually was evacuated from St Nazaire, fortunate not to join 30 of HIS FRIENDS lost among the three.thousand dead from the 5,800 embarked on the ill fated liner, SS LANCASTRIA, heavily bombed as it departed.  In a strong RAF serving-family, his father in law, SGT JIM FOGGIN, had also been an engine fitter in the ROYAL FLYING CORPS in 1915 FRANCE and BELGIUM.

His wife, Rita, also a Sgt, in WW2 trained many WAAF, with other family members variously an AIR GUNNER on BLENHEIMS in the Far East, on Ground General Duties and in Motor Transport.