Graham Carroll was born on 9 Dec 51 in Canvey Island, Essex. His life would be sometimes exciting and often quite dangerous; as a toddler he ended up on the roof of his home with his parents to escape the rising tides of the great flood of Canvey Island in 1953!
The family moved around a fair bit, probably giving Graham his lifelong love of travel. After finishing school he had a few jobs whilst deciding what he really wanted to do for a career, but he finally joined the Metropolitan Police Force. He met his first wife whilst in the Met and they married in 1973.
Graham had a passion for cars but didn’t always make a sensible choice, a case in point was a certain Triumph Herald which broke in two on a trip to Selsey; he had bought a ‘cut & shut’! After work one day he told his wife that he had joined the Army, and despite her protests eight weeks later they were in Germany. He initially joined the Royal Signals but soon transferred to the Royal Military Police. In 1976 they had a daughter, followed by a son in 1978. Graham loved the Army but life in Germany ended in 1980 with a posting to Northern Ireland. Living in Army quarters near Londonderry, the family had a near miss one day when a hijacked postal van was driven onto the estate and detonated; their house was severely damaged but luckily they were not at home. On another occasion Graham left a pub frequented by Army personnel and shortly afterwards it was bombed. A four year stint at the RMP Depot in Chichester followed during which time a third child was born. Belgium was the next posting where Graham was promoted to Sergeant and another near miss occurred when circumstances prevented them sailing back to the UK – they had been booked on the Herald of Free Enterprise which sank off Zeebrugge.
In 1992, Graham was out of the Army, but the marriage broke down and he came north eventually meeting his second wife Pamela. He studied hard and became a teacher. In 1998 he joined the Air Defence Support Squadron at RAF Leeming, which a year later became 609 (West Riding) Squadron RAuxAF. He was a stalwart of the new squadron, hardly missed a single training session and more than happy to share his extensive experience. He deployed on Op TELIC as one of the armed guards on cargo vessels sailing between Thessaloniki to Kuwait a task which lasted two months. He served 10 years with 609, after which he worked overseas in education, notably in the Middle East, and was a keen supporter of the Squadron Association.
Unfortunately, by this time Graham’s health was beginning to take a turn for the worse and he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He battled on without complaint, always with a smile on his face, enduring years of treatment. But eventually Graham’s luck ran out, he must have used up his nine lives, and he passed away in October 2024.
Tally-Ho Graham, Tally-Ho!
Wing Commader Jeff Metcalfe