CBT Training Behind the Wall

Article Published in CBT Today Vol:41 Number 3 September 2013
October 3, 2013 at 11:48pm
CBT Training Behind the Wall

David Raines visited Ramallah last December to deliver an introductory course in cognitive behavioural therapy for mental healthprofessionals working for the Palestinian Counselling Centre (PCC). Here he talks about his visit and the issues facing CBT professionals in Palestine

For 30 years the PCC has struggled with limited resources to develop and improve mental health services in Palestine. They now have five departments providing individual and group therapy in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus and other centres. My visit was organised by Sumud Palestine (Steadfast Palestine), a new charity raising funds to provide training and supervision for mental health professionals in the West Bank and Gaza.

Cognitive behaviour therapy is in the early stages of development in Palestine. Most of the PCC staff had read about and received some lectures on the theory of CBT but they have few opportunities for practical training and supervision in this evidence based therapy.They work in a challenging environment with a range of clients, many of whom have been traumatised by the on-going conflict between Palestine and Israel.

For four days I had the pleasure of introducing the theory and practice of CBT to an enthusiastic and enquiring group of mental health workers. Using case examples suggested by the organiser of my visit we examined and explored the assessment and treatment of Jamal, a 40 year old married man with four children who has suffered from depression since his employers closed their business because of the loss of trade caused by the Separation Wall, and Rama, a student at Birzeit University who had a panic attack whilst trapped in a crowded checkpoint and then developed agoraphobia.

Using standard CBT assessment techniques we explored Rana and Jamal’s problems and the relationship between what they experienced physically, their thoughts and emotions and how these had influenced their subsequent behaviour. We looked at how their problems started, How they developed and the impact on their daily life. We considered in detail what was happening before and after their problems occurred and discussed Rama and Jamal’s goals and ambitions.

I was intrigued by the students as they developed their role plays and six versions of Jamal and Rama emerged. In each I gained a privileged glimpse into the lives of ordinary Palestinians living in the
Occupied territories. Drawing on their own experiences or those of their families, friends and patients they developed the characters of Rana and Jamal. I cannot think of any way to gain a better insight into the impact of the on-going Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza on ordinary Palestinians.

There were interesting discussions about the dissonance experienced by the therapist building hope for the future to combat depression in their patients while at times struggling to see a positive future for their country and themselves.

By the end of the second day the group had reviewed the assessment information Rana and Jamal had given us and developed a formulation that helped to explain onset and maintenance of their problems.
We finished by discussing how the students would counsel and support people experiencing similar problems.

During the last two days we reviewed a range of evidence based treatments familiar to every cognitive behaviour therapist (exposure, behavioural activation, cognitive restructuring and problem solving). We looked at how we might help Rana and Jamal to use these strategies. Together we tried to identify common elements of treatment where there were similarities between their present practice and the cognitive behavioural treatments I was introducing.

The students participated with interest and enthusiasm and the feedback was excellent but each recognised the need for on-going training and supervision. That’s where Sumud Palestine needs your help.

Sumud plan to build a network of experienced therapists prepared to give a little of their time to provide internet supervision to the Palestinian health workers who attended the introductory course.
Sumud is also seeking to recruit experienced trainers willing to journey to Ramallah in the West Bank to provide training as part of a modular CBT programme. Sumud will meet travel costs and other essential expenses.

I have little doubt that anyone suitably qualified and ready to give their time to
will be rewarded, as I was by the warmth and hospitality that Palestinians offer to all their visitors.


David Raines

Please email Sumud Palestine’s chair, Mohammed Mukhaimar
(mkm1975@hotmail.co.uk) CBT therapist and
BABCP member, on for further discussion if you are interested.

To learn more about Sumud Palestine visit: http://sumudpalestine.org.uk/

Fear of losing control of your bowels

The following was my reply to postings on the BABCP "CBT Cafe" discussing possible applications of a cognitive model for the treatment of the fear of losing control of bowels that seemed to be lacking in attention to the behavioural and physiological component of the disorder.

Re: Fear of losing control of bowels - Panic Disorder or Specific Phobiaa
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2013, 10:35:58 pm »
Quote
Hi
Back in the old days (pre CBT) just about the only training in Behavioural Psychotherapy was for nurses, bowel and bladder habits were regarded as our bread and butter. So you could try an alternative to Clarkes formulation from 1986 with a greater emphasis on the A and B than the C and always informed by the ABC. Lots of conditioning stuff and negative reinforcement going on. Based on stuff that Rob Newell and Pete Henderson taught me as a trainee.
Fear of soiling self – often following traumatic brown pants experience.
Aversive consequences, of shame and humiliation leading to avoidance behaviour.
Increased fear of soiling leads to increased self-focus on bowel or bladder fullness.
Increased awareness of bowel or bladder fullness follows and the client responds by urinating or defecating with the slightest stimuli.
In other words they stop holding and retaining and as a consequence of not squeezing and holding the muscles get weaker. Awareness of reduced capacity to hold and retain increases fear and acts as confirmatory evidence
Increased use of the toilet as a “precaution” and other safety behaviours (eg; dietary restraint, use of Imodium) maintain fear.
Treatment might include:-
Education on normal effects of anxiety on the G.I tract and impact on anticipatory anxiety leading to safety behaviours and or avoidance.
Baseline recording including bowel/ bladder movements, diet and medication use
Bowel/ bladder retraining exercises, monitoring and recording times from urge to voiding, holding both before going to toilet and after sitting on the seat, establishing regular bowel habit.
All this with exposure in imagination to feared consequence (soiling self).
By this time you have a real good idea of how long the person can retain on best and worst days.
Hopefully you have reduced anxiety response through exposure in imagination, stimulated awareness of ability to hold and retain, improved muscle tone.
Now push the exposure in real life, not just going out further from safety zones but including exposure in imagination to soiling yourself.
A good exposure exercise is to encourage the client to cack themselves in a controlled way. The idea is that they stand in the bath until they cack themselves. Many will find that the turds retreat and if not they can start to actually discriminate when the turtle is about to touch the cotton. Realising perhaps that they were not on the edge of soiling themselves they were several yards or maybe miles from the edge of brown pant gorge. Include imagining they are at a formal dinner party.
Some adaptations with IBS but too little time to go into this. But, similar principals apply with a greater focus on arousal reduction, mindfulness meditation exercises (also introduced to us at the Institute of Psychiatry by Padmal De Silva in 1986).
I am available for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs





Happy days Dave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It still works a charm.

Obviously 'it still works a charm' is less than empirical. That said I'd love to see a presentation on a BE involving testing a hypothesis regarding faecal incontinence being tested by cacking into a bath being presented by any profession other than nursing at BABCP conference. Obviously, that would have to get past the Scientific Committee and they are never going to let anything past that is anything less than 'compliant.

Mick

Great stuff! Brings me right back....Fionnula

Hi David,
Your behavioural programme brought back inspiring memories of work at the Psychological Unit at the Maudsley Hospital in 1990 when l did the Adult Behavioural Psychotherapy nursing course.
Our director was of course Professor Isaac Marks who would demand that the treatment of choice for this specific fear of incontinence would be the exposure programme you outlined and he would not have countenanced a cognitive approach.
Great days and times and l believe as do other therapists that the behavioural aspect of CBT has been superseded by the cognitive therapy acolytes.
Alan

God Got Bored On Sunday

God Got Bored On Sunday

God got bored on Sunday and in a mischievous kind of way
said “I’m gonna make religious leaders start to justify their pay”.
Saying ‘Mary’s gone agnostic down in Accrington,
and ‘one of you has got to save her from hell’.
They were all put together in a call centre
and told “you’d better give the girl a bell”.

The pope called Mary on Monday
and said ‘I want to make a Catholic out of you.
I’ve got a papal dispensation here
I can forgive the things you do’.

She was phoned by Desmond Tutu on Tuesday
And in a cosy Christian kind of way
He tickled her with his laughter and
tempted her to pray.

Wednesday bought a call from a Witness
who said ‘judgement day is near’.
She guessed his tales of the ‘end time’
were supposed to fill her full of fear.

While talking to the Ayatollah on Thursday
she had to put the Dalai Lama on hold
she forgot for hours that he was waiting
but his patience was a wonder to behold.

By Friday Mary’s phone was humming
She had all the religions in a queue
Sikh’s and Muslims and Mormons
Taoists, Baptist’s and Jews

Her head was spinning when a Dervish called
late on Saturday night.
But, he couldn’t get her to turn with him
though he tried with all his might.

God called Mary on Sunday and said
“have you time to speak”.
Mary said it’s nice to hear you voice
you’re the first girl to call all week.

©David Raines 2011

Is IAPT dying?

Is IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies)dying?

Is IAPT dying? I’m minded to ask
It’s been 8 years since Layard laid out the task
With a unified vision, a national plan
and a big wad of dosh the endeavour began.

We seem to have increased access as the initials purport.
A million people treated says the 3 year report
45% of those hit recovery rates,
though what constitutes “recovery” is up for debate.

Five per cent “off benefits”, “economic gains”.
So why is it this sense of unease remains?
It isn’t that clear, it’s hard to decide
did they return to work, or were benefits denied?

Layard’s calculations may have been sound
but formed at a time when there were more jobs around.
When they laid the pathway and put down the cash
they didn’t foresee the financial crash.

Higher unemployment, applicants abound
Now how does that history of mental health sound?
They won’t ask about it at the ESA reviews
You’ll be found fit for work if you can bend and touch your shoes

On a raft of new measures that come into play
we embark together on All Fools Day.
Drifting off to sea with a forecast of storms
Loaded with a cargo of benefit reforms

Legal aid cuts, changes in employment law
will make it easier for employers to show you the door
Benefits capped and bedrooms taxed
The belt has been tightening, it won’t be relaxed

Maybe , ‘Work Capability Neurosis’ is the diagnosis to be used
describing pathological fears of having benefits refused
or ‘Post Work Capability Assessment Disorder’, is better
Describing the impact of the judgement letter

Care Commissioning Groups are here, the new seasons fashion
giving GP’s the right to share out the rations.
When it comes to decisions about what is to be bought,
will it be evidence based practice or ongoing support?

So will IAPT fit in with the CCG’s plans?
Will it flourish and grow in the GP’s hands?
They seem at ease with disease, with infection and plague,
but when it comes to mental health they’re disturbingly vague.

As the huddled masses start knocking at the doctors door
For their prescriptions to relieve the effects of being poor.
Will they be poring over NICE guidelines or referring everything
to the nice lass down the corridor who does some counselling.

Black Dog

As you lie in bed and the whole world’s sleeping
then the thoughts rattle round in your head.
When the only sound is your own heart beating
and the black dogs breathe on your neck

Certain of your self conviction.
Fooled the others, can’t fool yourself
Black Dog heard your first tear falling
Black Dog feeds on your fear

Amplify, exaggerate,
distort and then condemn
Make yourself your judge and jury
then let the sentence begin.

Choked by the fear of your future failures
Paralysed by past mistakes
Then desperate for sleep with dawns light rising
as the rest of the world awakes

Alone in the gleam of the harshest spotlight
revealed your shame is clear.
Black Dog heard your first tear falling
Black Dog feeds on your fear.

When you look in the eye of the storm that’s raging
Who do you see looking back?
Can you see through the smile to the shadows behind me
where there’s a dog crouched low to attack?

Druids and Welshmen

(A Promised Land)

Imagine the Druid’s claimed Wales as their own
and from four corners return to their ancestors home.
For centuries their forebears the “Silures” lived there,
before exiled by Romans they roamed in despair.

History records over centuries to come
slaughter, injustice and dark deeds done
The Druids were desperate, convictions ran high
the time of return to ‘Siluria’ was nigh.

After centuries of oppression, exile and pain
they returned to their homeland to settle again.
Slowly at first so it didn’t look planned
the Druids bought whatever they could of the land.

The Welsh weren’t too happy as more Druids arrived
fearing dreams of their own nation would soon be denied
Most Welshmen weren’t Druids but sons of Cymre
with no less desire for their own liberty.

But hot headed radicals soon had their say
shouting “throw all the Druids in Cardigan Bay”,
“druids eat babies”, “they’ll kill you at home”
as the seeds of the conflict were liberally sown.

Peace slipped out slowly and I’m sorry to say
Politics and religion just got in the way
Looking for friends each side cast around
as support was enlisted and allies were found.

The Druids had close links with Gaul (now France)
and the French were determined to give Siluria a chance.
From Swansea to Bangor, from Caerphilly to Neath
The Druids were now all armed to the teeth

Scotland and Ireland answer their Welsh cousins call
pledging aid and predicting the Druids will fall.
The Welsh were armed with promises made
that their cousins the Celts will come to their aid.

Anger bred anger and gave birth to strife
as an eye for an eye moved to life for a life.
After years of keeping the two sides apart
the English, as usual decide to depart

The UN debate and decide to divide
splitting the country with half to each side.
The Druids rejoice as Siluria is born
and the Welsh awake to a tenuous dawn.

The Celt alliance with it’s arsenal full
couldn’t decide which direction to pull.
The Druids were united, well armed and supplied
winning most of the battles they advanced on all sides.

When the dust settled and the ceasefire was signed
from Monmouth to Fishguard they’d drawn a green line.
Displaced and dispersed floods of Welsh refugees
left homes and crossed borders by land and by sea .

Fifty years later after numerous wars
Wales is confined to Snowdonia and Anglesey’s shores.
Some Druids emboldened now strengthen their claims
saying Wales never existed it was only a name.

The Welsh it turns out are a troublesome lot
they revolted and rioted from Maesteg to Splott.
They stubbornly resist signing any Druid plans
that don’t involve the return of their lands.

Some people argue that the French are to blame
their military assistance tipped the balance of the game.
Four point 9 million dollars is the figure they say
That the French give the druids, every single day

The Druids removed churches built on their ancient sacred sites
and settlers in Snowdonia now control the strategic heights.
They are confident in their security as the darkness falls.
Now the government is building the exclusion wall.

I supported the Druids after all they’d been through
but I’m struggling to justifying the things that they now do.
Critical comments about Druids raise the finger of blame
“ anti-druid” they say as they mark you with shame.


Now I ponder and wonder , how is it justified
to excuse your injustices, because you ancestors died
How many druids deaths did it take, over countless tragic nights
To legitimise the denial of the Welshmen’s rights.

Poem for (Insert Name Here)

I wrote this today.
Any nominations for whose name should be inserted ?


Poem for (Insert Name Here.......................................................)

Fudge, blur and obfuscate. Dispute and disavow .
Earnestly with gravitas, deny and disallow.
Justify, exonerate, elaborate, explain.
Deceive, delay, prevaricate but never take the blame
Reject, refute, repudiate distort and then disguise
Duplicitous mendacity, but surely never lies

Conspire, contrive, collaborate, disown and then revile.
Connive , collude, and camouflage for plausible denial.
Impune, gainsay and contradict, defer and then distort .
Warp, conceal or falsify while avoiding getting caught

Wangle, wiggle, wrangle, worm ,
weasel words at every turn

Twist and garble, gloss over, hide
terminological in-exactitudes explained and then denied
Pervert and warp , misstate then empathise.
He may mislead or misrepresent but surely never lies.

©David Raines 2011

Trooper Josh Hammond

Trooper Joshua Hammond
1990 - 2009

In July 2009 I was driving to work lwhen the radio announced the death of Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe MBE, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, becoming the most senior officer to be killed in conflict since the Falklands war in 1982. He was travelling in a convoy along the Shamalan Canal, near Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan when an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) exploded under his Viking armoured vehicle. The radio also reported (inaccurately) that a Trooper ‘John’ Hammond also died in the explosion. Later that day when I watched the news the name had changed to Josh Hammond but there were few details of this 18 year old lad from Plymouth.

The news of both deaths saddened me deeply, My own children and a nephew called Josh were almost the same age. I couldn’t stop thinking about his family and girlfrien were feeling out of my mind and I also felt irritated that the radio had at first got Josh’s name wrong. I felt that the death of this young man, with his whole life before him had been eclipsed by the Colonel who died by his side, tragic though that was.

Over the last 25 years I have treated ex-servicemen from almost every major conflict that our armed services have been involved in since WW2. I recalled the veterans of the Falklands and the memories they shared with me of their traumas including the deaths of their comrades, their friends.
I’m not much of a musician but I wrote the following song that night while strumming my guitar.
Every so often I when I can persuade my son (who plays well enough to help cover my basic guitar skills) I play it at an open mic: night. I ask if anyone can remember the name of anyone who died in the Falkland War. Sometimes people give the name of a family member or friend but often they remember the name of Colonel H Jones. I then ask if anyone can remember the name of anyone who died in the Afghanistan War. Many remember Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe and then I play the song.

Each time I play it I think again of Josh, his friends and family and the families of all young men and women lost serving the government’s we elected and who may feel that their loss is not remembered.

Trooper Josh Hammond

Trooper Josh Hammond is late on parade,

On a road down in Helmand there’s been a delay

Our boys in the regiments have been this way before

We lost some back then, now were losing some more

Chorus There’s an army assembled on the North West Frontier

Echoes of empire roll down the years.

Acceptable losses a shilling of pay

a soldiers life was ever this way.

Column inches now fewer as the casualty list grows

and we’re hardened to the cost of the conflict that’s sown.

Trooper Josh Hammond has now joined the list

The caskets been lowered, the colours were dipped

Chorus

Of all of the fallen in that cold islands war

a colonel’s name is remembered, can you name one more?

Khaki falls quietly when it answers the call

but brass makes more noise when it falls.

There’s an army assembled on the North West Frontier

Echoes of empire roll down the years.

Acceptable losses a shilling of pay

a soldiers life was ever this way.

At 18 Josh Hammond slipped from his bonds

to gather with comrades in green fields beyond.

Stepping from childhood into the man

and then lost in the tears of Afghanistan.

Copyright David Raines 2009.

The Anonymous Airman & The Man Who Put the Fire in the Spitfire.


This is the story of an unsung hero of the second world war. A man who perhaps more than any other individual was responsible for making sure that the fire was put in the Spitfire. A man who was sidelined by history after fighting for the rights of British pilots stationed in Canada.

On June 18, 1940 Winston Churchill made his “Finest Hour” speech and announced to Parliament that the Battle of France had finished and The Battle of Britain was about to begin. That morning The Times published an anonymous letter from a young bomber pilot to be sent to his mother in the event of his death. The letter was found by the airman’s commanding officer Group Captain C. H. Keith, who was so moved by it that he contacted the pilot’s mother and with her permission it was published. In the first few days after publication The Times was inundated with over 10,000 requests for copies and in August it was published as a book. By the end of the year over 500,000 copies had been sold in the U.K. and it was reprinted 12 times in the USA .

Perhaps it was inevitable that rumours suggesting the letter was fictitious started to circulate. The pilot was eventually identified as Flying Officer Vivian Rosewarne and his death notice was finally published on 23 December 1940. In 1941 Michael Powell released a short documentary style propaganda film An Airman's Letter to His Mother featuring the voice of John Gielgud. The most famous portrait painter of the day, Frank Salisbury used photographs provided by his mother for a painting which was unveiled on 18 September 1941, although his mother attended, she wished to remain anonymous desiring to be known only as "the mother of the young unknown warrior". A copy of the painting hangs in the RAF College at Cranwell and his letter is reproduced in the RAF book ‘Leadership’. Group Captain Keith died in 1966 and linked with Flying Officer Rosewarne’s letter became a footnote in history. The story of the Commanding Officer who was at the centre of the RAF’s preparations for war and helped to ensure that our Spitfires and Hurricanes went into the Battle of Britain with the right weapons. A man who, perhaps more than any other individual can be said to have ‘ put the fire in the Spitfire’. A man who was sidelined and prematurely retired after fighting for the rights of RAF personnel in Canada with questions asked in Parliament.

In the early 1970’s Group Captain C. H. Keith’s widow gave up her little antique shop in Romsey and on his last visit she gave a package to the slightly nerdy teenager who visited her shop after school. Saying, “ I know you will look after them”, The parcel contained a carved wooden crest for RAF Worthy Down, a copy of her husband’s book, his pilot’s handbook for the Cairo to Baghdad route and two small books, an English and an American copy of “An Airman’s Letter to His Mother”. The books included newspaper clippings about the story, three photographs of a young airman and one contains a handwritten note “To his Commanding Officer Group Captain C. H. Keith. With much appreciation of all he has done in connection with this letter. From the
Airman’s Mother, 21 August 1940”.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Dearest Mother:

Though I feel no premonition at all, events are moving rapidly and I have instructed that this letter be forwarded to you should I fail to return from one of the raids that we shall shortly be called upon to undertake. You must hope on for a month, but at the end of that time you must accept the fact that I have handed my task over to the extremely capable hands of my comrades of the Royal Air Force, as so many splendid fellows have already done.

First, it will comfort you to know that my role in this war has been of the greatest importance. Our patrols far out over the North Sea have helped to keep the trade routes clear for our convoys and supply ships, and on one occasion our information was instrumental in saving the lives of the men in a crippled lighthouse relief ship. Though it will be difficult for you, you will disappoint me if you do not at least try to accept the facts dispassionately, for I shall have done my duty to the utmost of my ability. No man can do more, and no one calling himself a man could do less.
I have always admired your amazing courage in the face of continual setbacks; in the way you have given me as good an education and background as anyone in the country: and always kept up appearances without ever losing faith in the future. My death would not mean that your struggle has been in vain. Far from it. It means that your sacrifice is as great as mine. Those who serve England must expect nothing from her; we debase ourselves if we regard our country as merely a place in which to eat and sleep.

History resounds with illustrious names who have given all; yet their sacrifice has resulted in the British Empire where there is a measure of peace, justice and freedom for all, and where a higher standard of civilization has evolved, and is still evolving, than anywhere else. But this is not only concerning our own land. Today we are faced with the greatest organized challenge to Christianity and civilization that the world has ever seen, and I count myself lucky and honoured to be the right age and fully trained to throw my full weight into the scale. For this I have to thank you. Yet there is more work for you to do. The home front will still have to stand united for years after the war is won. For all that can be said against it, I still maintain that this war is a very good thing: every individual is having the chance to give and dare all for his principle like the martyrs of old. However long the time may be, one thing can never be altered - I shall have lived and died an Englishman. Nothing else matters one jot nor can anything ever change it.

You must not grieve for me, for if you really believe in religion and all that it entails that would be hypocrisy. I have no fear of death; only a queer elation ... I would have it no other way. The universe is so vast and so ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice. We are sent to this world to acquire a personality and a character to take with us that can never be taken from us. Those who just eat and sleep, prosper and procreate, are no better than animals if all their lives they are at peace.

I firmly believe that evil things are sent into the world to try us; they are sent deliberately by our Creator to test our mettle because He knows what is good for us. The Bible is full of cases where the easy way out has been discarded for moral principles.

I count myself fortunate in that I have seen the whole country and known men of every calling. But with the final test of war I consider my character fully developed. Thus at my early age my earthly mission is already fulfilled and I am prepared to die with just one regret: that I could not devote myself to making your declining years more happy by being with you; but you will live in peace and freedom and I shall have directly contributed to that, so here again my life will not have been in vain.
Your loving son



I was that teenage boy who sat and chatted with Mrs Keith about a war that didn’t feel like ‘history’ to me , it was the story of my parent’s early lives, something recent, tangible and real that touched and shaped my family. As a child I imagined myself in a Spitfire as I sped down the road on my bike, splashing through the holiday surf with my brothers we stormed imaginary beaches. We set ambushes in the woods before going home to make Airfix models that were destined to make their last raid just after the bangers went on sale for bonfire night.

Those models were of aircraft that my Dad and Uncle Edwin had flown, that Uncle’s Fred & Bill had serviced and repaired. They were the planes that rumbled over my Mothers Huntingdon home on their way to Berlin or the Ruhr. The black and white films and war documentaries had not been prematurely aged by Technicolor and were followed by black and white episodes of Dr Who. My own daughter when very young talked about “black & white days” believing that there was a time long ago when there was no colour in the world. I learnt to read with the Victor comic and then leapt to Ministry of Information books about the War. My interest was rewarded with gifts of badges, medals and more books, each with a personal story. The Polish Air Force ‘wings’ given to Auntie Flo from the Polish airman billeted to her home. The Royal Observer Corp button from Uncle Roy who watched from a warship as the D. Day landings took place. The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers cap badge from Uncle Alan whose gruesome task involved recovering damaged Sherman tanks, nicknamed ‘Ronson’s’ (after the cigarette lighter) by its crews and ‘Tommy cooker’ by the Germans because they burst into flames when hit. I remember the shock as I turned the pages of the last volume of “The War in Pictures 1945” to see the mass graves at Belsen and started to understand what it was that they had been fighting for or perhaps, what we had been fighting against.

Seen through modern eyes, with its references to religion and empire the Airman’s Letter to his Mother seems dated, for some its themes of duty, sacrifice and patriotism are distant relics of “black & white days”.

The nerdy teenagers fascination with war subsided and it became an interest among others. Apart from occasional ‘Gollum’ like moments poring over the ‘precious’, the books remained on the shelf until recently. Somehow I had missed the other half of the story. I had read the books and missed the importance of Claude Keith in the critical preparations for war ensuring the RAF was equipped with the right equipment to win the Battle of Britain.

Claude H. Keith was born in Canada in 1884 and trained as an electrical engineer with the Marconi Telegraph Company. In 1909 he witnessed Louis Bleriot land in Dover after the first air crossing of the British Channel. After joining the RNAS as an electrical engineer he transferred to aircrew in 1916 and qualified on seaplanes. Shortly afterwards he was charged with “endangering one of His Majesty’s aircraft” by looping the loop, a year later he was teaching young pilot’s aerobatics as part of basic training. After the war he transferred to the RAF and specialised in navigation and gunnery and was appointed chief instructor of the first Royal Air Force armament school in 1925.

He served in Iraq between 1926-1930 as a squadron leader in 70 bomber squadron then 6 Fighter squadron and took part in the Trans Oman Expedition of 1927. During his work in Iraq, 6 squadron achieved the first 100% of bullets on target with congratulations to the squadron from the Chief of Air Staff.

From 1930 to 1937 he was intimately involved in the RAF’s preparation for war at the Ordnance Board and then the Air Ministry as Assistant Director of Armament Research and Development .In July 1934 he organised an informal conference to consider air gunnery which led to the formation of the ‘Air Fighting Committee’. Keith and his team showed that future aircraft should carry eight machine guns capable of firing at least 1,000 rounds per minute. Both the number of guns and the rate of fire was seen as revolutionary but with the support of Air Vice Marshall Tedder the decision was made. Further input from Keith and his team led the RAF to replace the English Vickers machine gun with the more reliable American Browning machine guns which became the main armament for Spitfires and Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain. These guns used the same bullets as a rifle and it was soon realised that a more powerful weapon was needed.

Keith played a key role in the decision to introduce the French designed Hispano 20 mm cannon after a visit to France in 1936. The Hispano cannon was first used in 1940 but early trials in Hurricanes and Spitfires found that the gun could jam during combat. After modifications it became standard armament and one of the most used aircraft guns of the 20th Century allowing Spitfires and Hurricanes to make effective attacks on ground targets and enemy shipping. Keith also played a part in the introduction of the power-driven gun turret that became standard equipment in British bombers.

He was station commander at RAF Worthy Down in 1936 and for the first year of the war he was Commander at RAF Marham, a heavy bomber station where the young Wellington Bomber pilot Vivian Rosewarne was based.

In April 1941 Keith became the first Commanding Officer of Picton Gunnery School. The Commonwealth Air Training Plan provided Canadian and RAF personnel with training bases away from the dangers and restrictions of training in Britain. Unlike the members of the RAF, Royal Canadian Air Force personnel paid the lower Canadian rate of tax and were let of all tax if they flew more than average time each year. This and other “ hardships”, produced “bitterness” and “dissatisfaction” among the RAF personnel serving in Canada. Keith presented a list of “20 points of hardship” which he felt should be removed. He managed to get six of the twenty points cleared up before being unexpectedly recalled to England in April of 1942, despite the Canadian Chief of Air Staff requesting that he be allowed to remain.

He was assigned to command the RAF Central Gunnery School at Sutton Bridge but after a short period of sickness and a recommendation from the medical officer that he should serve in the South of England he was listed as “supernumerary” at the age of 53.

In Parliament on 3rd February 1943 Tom Driberg, M.P asked why Keith had been recalled and why it was proposed to retire him, saying; “is it not a fact that this officer was brought back from Canada after serving eight months, although it had been laid down that he should serve not less than 18 months, and that he was given the highest tributes, officially and unofficially, for his efficiency? “. The Secretary of State for Air replied that a policy had been in place since “the summer of 1941, under which senior officers must give way to younger men when circumstances so require” and “deplored” that individual officers were named. Driberg responded by saying “Is it not more deplorable that they should be treated unjustly? “ Keith reported first hearing of this after receiving a copy of Hansard in the post. Within a few months he retired and subsequently took a post with the BBC as an announcer.
His insistence that hardships for RAF staff in Canada be removed led to two meetings of the Air Council and to a final concession of all the “20 points of hardships” he had raised.

“I Hold My Aim “ is the motto of the Air Gunnery School and also the title of Group Captain Keith’s book published in 1946 where he writes:-
“I ran my Station commands as a dictator –a benevolent one, I hope –and I built the efficiency of my units through the happy, hard work of my airmen. They knew I should bite them when they deserved it, and fight like hell for them when they merited it. I have always refused to be a ‘Yes Man’ when it affected my doing what I thought to be right for those under me. That is probably why I am in plain clothes, as I write this book.”

Sidelined from the official history except as the Commanding Officer of an anonymous young pilot Group Captain Keith died in 1966 and was survived by his wife Gwen (nee Dunkerley).

The 70th Anniversary of the battle of Britain prompted me to look again at the books and to search the Internet, though little was to be found. I have created a Wikipedia entry for Group Captain Keith, up-dated the entries for 58 squadron and ‘An Airman’s Letter to his Mother’ including copies of the photographs of Viviane Rosewarne from the books given to Group Captain Keith.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Hilton_Keith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Airman%27s_Letter_to_His_Mother

From little acorns come small squirrel snacks

No mighty oaks here, just the confused ramblings of a middle aged man and I am sure that when it comes to a list of things requiring my (or your)attention this comes a long way down. However, I hope that you, like me, might find in this blog something to distract you from the less enjoyable activities you should be getting on with.