Philip S. Foulds fonds
Philip S. Foulds fonds. – 1909-2000. – 48.5 textual and graphical records.
Note: for brevity Philip Foulds is often referred to as PSF in documents and this finding aid.
Box 1
Item 1. Pilot’s Log Book. 14 July 1941 – 22 May 1945, 6 Sept. 1992
Foulds’s pilot’s log. Includes initial training flights, learning and practicing various skills.
Log includes: Date, type of aircraft and identification number, the pilot(s), and the mission or duty performed.
List of training, various drills, and other additional information pasted in throughout the log. Notes from officials indicating progress and aptitude.
Types of planes: Tiger Moth, Harvard, Swordfish, Albacore, [Short Flying Boat?], Kingfisher, Avenger. A photo of the Tiger Moth and some commemorative stamps have been added at the beginning. The final flight entry is for an airshow in 1992.
Item 2. Wartime Diary
Foulds collected notes he had made in various places together in a binder. For preservation reasons, these have been removed from the binder and each section is foldered separately.
F.2 Map. July 1940 – September 1945.
World Map from the Daily Telegraph, with hand annotations of PSFs various missions, showing that he had circumnavigated the world.
F.3 Service. 1939-1945, compiled 1983.
A typed timeline noting month and date, location or ship, and brief notes. There are additional annotated references to the Notes section.
F.4 Notes. 1940-1945.
Photocopy of PSFs handwritten notes (no longer extant) to supplement the timeline. Include sailing through the English Channel with no ammunition for their guns; convoy duty and submarine attacks; ferrying planes from South Africa to Egypt and an unexpected landing in a field, with help from locals to get them back out; engine failure and water landing; transporting a secret homing torpedo, “Oscar”; practicing night landings on aircraft carriers. [Photographs corresponding to many of these events are in the Scrapbook/Photo Album.]
F.5 856 Squadron. 6 March 1944-15 June 1945.
List of Operations with additional details and commentary. Notes 292 flying hours with the 856, 81 deck landings (80 of them successful), and 20 booster take offs.
F.6 Documents. 1940-1949.
Official appointments to service.
Congratulations from the King re: operations Spellbinder and Gratis.
Ribbon for the Distinguished Service Cross
A note advising of his award of 1939-1945 Star, Atlantic Star, Africa Star, Defence Medal, CVSM, War Medal 1939-45.
Various invitations.
Promotion to Retired List.
F.7 Places. List of cities while serving. Appears to be in chronological order, starting and ending with Toronto.
F.8 Prior to FAA.
List of Original AA Guard Officers, 1940.
List of officers including their locations of service: York, Ettrick, King Alfred, Whale Island, AA Guard.
F.9 FAA
List of officers, some annotated to indicate FAADA, NZFAAA, and Deceased.
F.10 Miscellaneous items of interest.
Various notes that PSF found interesting. Includes, being billeted in a hotel on a watch list because it was believed to be frequented by spies; ‘made good entertainment for the Captain’ trying to climb a rope ladder with great coat and gas mask, before being issued sea going clothing; running into bad weather and landing at abandoned aerodrome, ended up in Atlantic City for the night; Staff Captain’s advice on low flying over the sea “If you can smell fish you may be a bit too low.”
F.11 Just Lucky.
Handwritten notes of lucky breaks during the war. Including, one person away from being assigned to bomb disposal. Nearly shipwrecked. Missed being shot down. Rescued after ditching in the Indian Ocean. Unhurt in night crash on deck. Last Murmansk convoy of the war.
F.12 Books
List of books and other sources.
Pilot’s manual for Avenger I & II [this was loose in the original binder and has been placed here].
Item 3. World War II Scrapbook, 1939-2000
Black and white photographs: 179 [1939-1945]
Colour photographs: 102 [c.1985-2000]
82 pages
The scrapbooks details Foulds’ placements and travels during the war and then a section dedicated to reunions post-war and the rebuilding of a Swordfish airplane by Bob Spence. The scrapbooks is in three main sections.
- Starting at the front – World War Two, except 856 Squadron, roughly 1939-1943
- Starting at the back – 856 Squadron during World War Two, 1944-1945
- Continuing after the 856 Squadron from the back – post-war materials, 1985-2000
The scrapbook contains photographs, clippings, maps, and official communications about operations or duties during the war. There are also stamps, currency, postcards, and other ephemera. Foulds has mostly identified people and places. For more details, researchers should refer to his diary.
The scrapbook is especially rich with engaging photographs, many of which are taken from a plane, as well as the people Foulds’ served with or met. Notable amongst these are images from ferrying planes in Africa, including landing in a field and visiting with nearby residents. Photos of planes that had crashed or been damaged while landing on air craft carriers. Mine laying operations in Norway.
Post war, the photos are mostly of people who Foulds served with, and the restoration efforts of Bob Spence on the Swordfish.
The scrapbook runs mostly chronologically within each section. Section 1 has the year indicated in the top corner. Below are summaries of key words and subjects to help with identifying useful content.
Royal Navy Air Stations: RNAS Eastleig (1941), Crail (1942), Abroath (1942), Winfgield (1942-43), Tanga (1943), Nairobi (1943), Hatson (1944), Eglington
HMS: Argus (1942), Hawkins (1943, rescued after ditching, Indian Ocean), Premier (1944)
Stationed with/operations:
Anti-Aircraft patrol, England/Norwegian Ship(1940-41)
HMT Ettrick (1940)
EFTS Elmdon (1941)
31 SFTS Kingston, ON (1941-42)
USNAS Lewiston (1944)
USNAS Squantum (1944)
Ferrying planes 1943: Trip from Mombasa to Nairobi (on train); Nairobi to Capetown, Nairobi to Cairo
Operation Goodwood, 22 August 1944 (photos of Nabob, Bickerton, and Trumpeter)
Final Russian Convoy to Murmansk, 1945
Places: London, Portsmouth, Lincolnshire, and other parts of England, Capetown, Table Mountain, Mombasa, Embakasi, Kilimanjaro, Meru, Dodoma, Rusha Valley, Mbeya, near Mpika, Ndbala, Zambesi, Bulawayo, Limpopo, Melbourne, Wellington
Clippings include:
“Bomb Scare at Clifton”, Cape Times, [1942/3]
“Fall of Mussolini”, Mombasa Times, 27 July 1943
“Allied Armies Land in France...”, New York Times, 6 June 1944
Post-war
Bob Spence’s Swordfish restoration operation, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990
Various commemorative gatherings and reunions, 1985-2000, many on HMCS York
Item 4 - Archibald Foulds WWI scrapbook. 28 pages containing 22 black and white photographs and textual material. 1909-c.1927.
The scrapbook covers the military service of Archibald Foulds, PSF’s father. He joined the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, 2nd Regiment, as a Leiutenant in 1909. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Fources, with the 123rd Overseas Battalion, Royal Grenadiers as a Captain in 1915 and promoted to Major in 1916. With the 123rd he served at Ypres and Passchendaele. In 1918 he was transferred to the 8th Battalion, where he concluded the war at the Battle of Mons. The scrapbook features a number of photo postcards of celebrations in Mons, as well as broadsides related to the victory. The scrapbook concludes with memorial efforts and photo postcards of the preserved trenches at Vimy.
The scrapbook includes: official documents, letters (originals and copies), Diary 27 July-27 Aug. 1916, photographs, postcards, menus, cards, and broadsides.
