Home

About Bolton

Contributors

Topics + People

Townships + Places

Links

Thanks

Terms + Disclaimer

Philip Laughton-Bramley MBE

Information supplied by Jean Howarth

Philip was born in 1900 and grew up with Mary Hamer in Sharples Park. They went to St William's School, Seymour Road, together. As a young lad Philip worked in Rothwell's chemist's shop in Knowsley Street, and then left in 1917 to join the Royal Naval Air Service.

Between the wars he worked as a chemist, news agency representative, a government official in Czechoslovakia, and Vice-Consul of Aix-Les-Bains.

In 1939 he rejoined the RAF as an intelligence officer.

The highlights of Phillip's amazing life:

He was taught to fly by Louis Bleriot, the first man to fly the English channel in 1909

He was one of the first men to enter the newly formed RAF in 1918

He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 during a motoring holiday with friends

In 1939 he was involved in secret missions to Belgium and he had to escape to safety

He was awarded the French Order of Merit for his intervention in saving Aix-Les-Bains from a planned bombing raid

He helped organise an escape route for servicemen out of France

He was secretary of the RAF Escaping Society's Australian Branch

As British Vice-Consul from 1934 he enjoyed golf and fishing trips with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and other famous people

He was awarded the MBE for his work in the South Pacific

Not bad for a lad from Bolton!

After the war Philip worked for a plastics company and lived and worked in Australia.

 

 

Squadron Leader P Laughton-Bramley
Squadron Leader P Laughton-Bramley,
ANZAC Day Parade, Sydney 1994
Plaque erected in the Municipal Gardens
Plaque erected in the Municipal Gardens
 at Aix-Les- Bains in his honour