Ronald Bridge

Institute Fellow Ron Bridge has died at the age of 86.

His early life was dominated by being interned during WWII with his parents and sibling in a Japanese ‘assembly centre’, which he termed a ‘concentration camp’, in the Far East. Fifty years later he was elected to the committee of the Association of British Civilian Internees Far East Region, which was fighting for compensation for civilians who had suffered in the camps. He later became Chairman of the Far East Association and was awarded the MBE.

At the age of 18, Bridge joined the RAF and trained as a navigator, serving in Egypt on 216 Sqn and in Singapore. In the mid-60s, he was detached to the Royal Canadian Air Force and was awarded the AFC for ‘acts of exemplary gallantry’. He left the RAF in 1972 and flew as a commercial pilot before becoming a director of British Airways.

He joined the Institute in 1985 and became a Fellow in 1989. He was also a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society and became Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (GAPAN), which is now the Honourable Company of Air Pilots.

We pass our condolences to Ron’s wife and family.

Ronald Bridge MBE AFC FRIN      3 March 1934 - 27 September 2020

Details and pic from The Times