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Hi,in my blog:I stated:
‘Perhaps when we quote the words of Godfrey Bloom we should consider the facts led at CLICK HERE to which may I add I am unable to find any listing for Godfrey Bloom’s father in ‘Aces High’ nor in Hart’s. Whilst checking the full volumes of Hart’s full listing of British military personel, which I own, I was unable to find any record of Godfrey Bloom’s claimed Queen’s Commission – I incline therefore to personally endorse the facts led on Sir Michael Bibby’s blog!’
The vanity publication, via CLICK HERE of Godfrey Bloom’s autobiographical story has seemingly led to more questions than answers relative to military connections!
It is interesting that after further research with the help of friends we have scanned ‘Flight Magazine‘ whose full archive is on line at:
CLICK HERE
where surprisingly for a pilot of the era – particularly one who it is claimed was a qualified pilot before the war, a Spitfire pilot during it, wounded and eventually left a Squadron Leader!
Nor is there any record of an Alan William Bloom in ‘Aces High’ which records all pilots of the second world war.
Then after numerous searches of ‘THE LONDON GAZETTE’ whose full archive can be found at:
CLICK HERE
We could find no entry for Alan William Bloom nor A.W. Bloom.
Fighter pilots of the RAF, in service at the time, were virtually all listed in The Battle of Britain records yet there is no record of Godfrey Bloom’s father.
Nor were we able to find any record of Godfrey Blooms father in Hart’s Military lists.
It was also interesting to note that there is no record of an A.W. Bloom or similar, in the RAF ever being decorated – a particularly rare situation for a Spitfire pilot, not even an MiD.
This all seemed to be all too redolent of a fabrication and knowing Godfrey Bloom’s undeniable propensity for dishonesty and irresponsibility the failure to trace the much vaunted Squadron Leader Alan William Bloom led us to wonder whether Godfrey Bloom had fabricated his own Army service – here again we struggled as there was absolutely no record of a Godfrey Bloom or a G.W. Bloom in any archive of the Regular Army!
There were those who wished to publish that Godfrey Bloom was a fraud and indeed one notable blog did just that it would seem, that there had been no rebuttal and repeated questions to both Bloom and other areas of UKIP, including Nigel Farage, added credence to the belief that Godfrey Bloom was indeed a fraud.
I advocated caution being unwilling to call a man a liar, however contemptible one may find him, without clear proof was against my nature in every respect and as yet we had failed to prove a negative though indeed it seemed a fraud had been proven both circumstantially and by apparent omission.
I advocated one last professional search.
Finally in the professional search the unusual circumstances of Alan William Bloom as a pilot qualified at the outbreak of war who was never decorated, was not in the BoB nor ever listed as a Squadron Leader as claimed came to light.
Alan Bloom was indeed an RAF pilot with the RAF number 64919.
Further he held an acting rank and then materialises in April 1942 as a Flying Officer transfered to admin in 1944 and I am informed he was discharged the service on 23-Jan-1945.
We have been able to trace his record as a Fl/Ltnt., but still he is remarkably undecorated, we see no record of being injured, no ‘kill rate’ nor listing for the defence of Malta and subsequent transfer to North Africa where Spitfires were latecomers after the service of Hurricanes.
Further were are unable to establish the Gazetting of the promotion to Sqadron Leader as claimed.
Perhaps we should leave the reasons for these ‘unusual’ circumstances to the imagination, just as his son has done in his brief autobiographical book.
That mystery now in part cleared we decided to investigate Godfrey Bloom’s military service more thoroughly as we had been unable to locate him in The Regular Army.
Eventually we found details of a G.W. Bloom army number 501912 he would seem not to have had service in the Regular Army but did serve, it seems, as a member of the TA volunteer reserve, indeed there is a listing of him as O/Cdt.from whence he draws the claims of having been at Sandhurst, which with a normal TA 2 week B&B course I guess would be technically true albeit more than a little dishonest not to clarify the facts or people who deliver the post and cut the grass will be claiming to have graduated from Sandhurst next!
Having served as a Green Jacket in the Ox&Bucks at Peninsula Barracks in Winchester, then at Beaconsfield and then as a Regular Army Officer Cadet at Sandhurs the 2 year course of my day bears absolutely no similarity to the brief visit made by aspirants in the TA.
I eventually purchased my discharge being unwilling to serve in Rhodesia in support of the terrorist Mugabe against ex pats & British citizens and also held strong beliefs that it was morally reprehensible to use British soldiers in Australian uniforms in VietNam in an army which seemed more about serving political ambitions than Queen & Country as seen more clearly in Iraq, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Libya where I consider our position to be dishonorable and little more than mercenaries to the ambitions of wet behind the ears politicians of little or no merit or real moral standing.
We also found record of his promotion to Captain in the TA and on to acting Major in 1990 and subsequent substantiation in 1992 – prior to his discharge from the TA in 1995, at which time he was transfered to the Army Officers Reserve Corp. – a retirement position.
I do find the facts led by Bloom decidedly lacking in clarity and seemingly to enhance his reputation somewhat dishonorably in terms of his military service and connections; such that one wonders to what extent the rest of his biography is, if not fabrication, likely to be more than a little ’embellished’ by either omission or commission!
I do however commend the biography, even on those terms, as it is an interesting study on a par, in content, with ‘rakes progress’ and although it shows that from a comfortable background that is relatively well connected it is more than possible to create a comfortable lifestyle which seemingly is based upon self indulgence and often tastless behaviour.
I trust this helps to clarify the missing Blooms in the military garden for those who may have had their doubts! Why Godfrey Bloom had seemingly refused to answer enquiries is beyond me, unless it was with the intent to goad someone into a position where he could exploit a situation of either libel or slander to his financial advantage!
Some may recall when a senior member of UKIP refusedf to answer simple questions from one of the Sunday broadsheets and would not deny their understanding leading to the publication of an allegation that they could not substantiate – Carter Ruck were then employed to seek to extort damages which did little to gain either the respect of the media nor of ethical would be supporters of UKIP – a not uncommon style of practice in UKIP where to this day they befoul their image and the honour of their party in defgaulting on their debt to me of some £13,000 their lackey Mark Croucher, aided by the then Part Chairman paul Nuttall and the press officer Clive Page lost their trumped up and dishonouyrable case against me in the Courts.
It is dishonourable behaviour such as theirs that leads honest and decent folk who are informed from supporting them and conmtributes in part to their consistent failure in domestic elections where even after 20 years, espousing a popular theme, they have failed to come even close to having an MP elected in a General Election and even as the dustbin of choice for protest votes in by elections their achievements have failed to see an MP elected.
Even in local elections their results have been catastrophic and that out of 13 MEPs elected most have renounced support of Nigel Farage many leaving to join or form other parties and yet others unwilling to serve with Nigel Farage’s clique of racist, anti homosexual, anti Jewish associates in his Pan EU political EFD Group!
Perhaps the style of behaviour explains why many have felt Bloom’s glibly made and unsubstantiated claims were probably untrue, a view they then found seemingly to be true in the difficulty of tracing the official records.
I make no apology for having been amongst the number who had grave doubts of the claims – Now largely clarified.
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Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
Ukip-vs-EUkip 