A Weekend With Bernard

By Jason Gore

Over the weekend the HTPG held it’s now annual fundraiser event, this year we were hosted by the Aircraft Restoration Company (ARCo), and Flying Officer Bernard Gardiner was once again the guest of Honour.

It was wonderful to get to see him again, just days before his 101st birthday, this year he was feted by not only us, ARCo, but by 4 members of 3 and the current and 2024 Typhoon Display Pilots from 29 Squadron.

Bernard, like a lot of his generation he doesn’t see that he did anything ‘special’, just his job. “The heroes are those who didn’t come home” and for them, Bernard is almost the face of the Typhoon pilots (like Johnny Johnson was for Bomber Command)

Bernard had a flight in “Pegs” a 2 seat Hurricane, and in his usual measured pace walked around on a preflight check before boarding. He had a small smile and said it felt like being home. We were to see him next 30 minutes later, beaming and walking at a pace that we couldn’t believe, the years had dropped off him. You hear how veterans walk taller and faster when in or around the planes of their youth, witnessing Bernard walking around after the flight, like 80 years had been washed away.