225601 WO. Reginald Skepper Royal Air Force 99 Squadron from:Lincoln Reg Skepper was born in Fiskerton, Lincoln 1921. He worked as an Apprentice at Rustons Bucyrus in Lincoln until joined RAF in 1942. The house he lived in at the time, with his half sister Mary, suffered a direct hit from a 200lb bomb days after they both moved out as Mary was joining the WRAAF. Reg was sent to Moreton on Marsh OTU in April 1943, and then to Burma, Reg flew sorties over the Japanese in the ultimate Wellington, the Mk X. The crew he was with more or less stayed together throughout the war, being Tony May (Bomb Aimer), Jimmy Hatfield (Pilot) and Bill Gunn (Wireless op). They flew to Burma to begin operations on 5th of April 1943, taking an epic route from Moreton in Marsh, via Portreath, Tripoli, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Karachi, Jhodpur, Allahbad, and finally Jessore, arriving 8th June, the entire flight taking 48 hours over a month. They flew Costal patrol, leaflet dropping and Intruder raids, the first real War Op being the raid on Tuang Akyab, In Wellington Mk X HE 714. They were ditched once on 10th November 1943, at position 20 ° 45' N 92 ° 12' E, about 5 miles off the coast near Cox's Bazaar, in the Bay of Bengal and crew had to use dingies to escape, but luckily they were picked up next day by an American patrol. For having to use a dingy, the whole crew became members of the Goldfish Club. Jimmy Hatfield. the Pilot stopped flying with them on 10th of June 1944, and was replaced with a pilot called Sankey, and sometimes another called Sullivan, and the crew switched to flying a Dakota C47 FL611 or FZ604, ferrying freight, dropping supplies, and moving stretcher cases. He then was sent to El Shemer Staff Navigation School for 6 months, mainly flying Wellington XIV's and then was demobbed.
Reg went back home to Lincoln, resumed his job At Rustons, married, and bought a house at North Hykeham rising to the position of Chief Development Engineer, working at first on Diesel engines and large Megawatt Diesel Generator Sets, and then developing and building protoype Gas Turbines. He left Rustons when the entire Small Engines Division was taken over and moved to Cannock, and worked for Mirrlees Blackstone at Stamford, until he retired in 1981. Reg's lifelong passion was photography, and he was a leading member of Lincoln Photographic Club. His garage at North Hykeham never held a car, as it was converted into a darkroom very early on. Reg was one of the first amateurs to print colour photographs at home, and would also photograph weddings as a side business. Reg died aged 74 at St Barnabas Hospice in 1994 having been cared for at home. His wife Gladys, who also spent the war in the WRAAF, at died in 2017, aged 93. Reg and Gladys had two children Patricia, and Stephen.
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