Balloon Command

When we went to Egypt, we went with, I was going to say with a Balloon Command. And we were putting out balloons at night on the ships, that came into the harbour. We were right in Suez Harbour, well actually it was called Tufi. A lot of people called it Suez, but it was, the harbour was really Tufi. And then, we put our balloons out and put a man on the ship. We stayed there for about I guess, two years I guess and we started to get itchy feet. So three or four of us got together. We had put in for posting to the commanding officer, made application. And he wanted to know why we wanted to leave, and we told him why. And he said, “Well, we’ll see.” So the next thing we know, about a couple of weeks after, we got posted to Malta. So we had to go to Cairo and then get transportation across to Malta, we flew across. We flew up to the desert first, and then from that across to Malta. And we got into Malta, there was pelting rain. And we hadn’t seen the rain for over two years. And we threw our jackets off and threw it on the ground, you know, and they thought we’d gone crazy because we were out in the rain. And Malta was at that time in the climate, it rained plenty a day.

Mr. Bishop talks about how the change in scenery and climate was welcomed after putting in for a transfer.

Leo Bishop

Leo Bishop was born in St Joseph, Newfoundland on September 9,1819. His parents died when he was seven years old. After Mr. Bishop was turned down for the navy he worked about a week at forestry when he was sent to Padgate for training. Later he became involved with Search and Rescue where he served most of his career.