Kenneth Mason obituary
My father, Kenneth Mason, who has died aged 95, was of a generation we can only marvel at, going straight from school to fight in the second world war. Aged 18, he joined the aircraft carrier HMS Vindex as an air direction officer, helping to protect merchant convoys supplying the Russians on the infamous Murmansk Run.
Severe weather and ice fields were common and floating mines, submarines and surface craft a constant menace. Ships and men had a one in three chance of returning, and with gales and ice on the flight deck, planes often overshot on landing or failed to re-find the ship at night. Like many, Kenneth would not talk about his wartime experiences, yet in his self-effacing, charming and good humoured way he epitomised the bravery of those times.
