Roy Abbott is born in 1922 in Smalley, Derbyshire. He is the son of Ernest John Abbott and Lilian Ivy Abbott. Roy has 2 brothers, Ron and Ernest. The family lives in Dobholes Lane, in the center of the village. Father Ernest comes from a big and close family, Roy has got 9 uncles and aunts. Roy’s grandfather Richard Hayes Abbott was the postman in Smalley, with his pony Nancy and cart. Roy’s father plays the organ in the Smalley church. In Smalley, Roy attends the Smalley Boys Endowed School. He later marries his girlfriend Betty from Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Roy also enlists in the Royal Army Service Corps.
 
In the Corps both Roy and Lionel, not related to each other, enlist as volunteers for the Airborne Forces section. Like Chisholme, they successfully complete their Air Despatcher training and are also stationed with the 223 Air Despatch Company. Meanwhile, Roy and Lionel have become good friends, they visit each other regularly and Roy is also considered a friend of the family by Lionel’s family.
 
The task of this recently established Air Despatch Company is to continuously supply the British armed forces at the war front with new supplies. These supplies are dropped by the despatchers from aircrafts of the Royal Air Force, division Transport Command, in containers on parachutes above and behind their own lines. A good dispatch crew can drop 16 containers in 12 seconds. But it is also demanding and dangerous work. Because more than once, self-despatching occurs when a despatcher gets entangled in the cables and falls down when pushing the load out.
 
In September 1944, George, Roy and Lionel are ordered to work on behalf of Air Despatch Company for 271 Squadron, 46 Group at Down Ampney base in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

You can read how it continues in the full version of “Faces from the Past” below. 
 

See the extended list in the full version.