AS the Royal Air Force celebrates its 100th birthday, we turn the spotlight on one of the ‘pioneers’ who laid the foundations of the service as they fought their way through the First World War.

Alf Grundy from Blackburn, who joined up to the Royal Flying Corps in March, 1915, wrote a war diary, which has been opened for Bygones by his nephew Ralph Robinson.

In 1915 he enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps at Ainsworth Street recruiting centre, which he described as 'far from being a gateway to the world, as advertised, more like a 'back door to hell' and flew sorties over the German lines in France.

Initially a mechanic, he had to pick pilots out of the tangled wreckage of their flimsy aircraft and patch them up to return to the fray.

He survived two-and-a-half years in the field and a near nervous breakdown, ending the war as a Warrant Officer.

Alf and his wife, Eveline, later ran the Bute Cafe opposite Blackburn town hall, in premises that became the Lewis Textile Museum.

They also did the catering at Alexandra Meadows cricket ground in the late 1930s. They lived in Woodbine Road, Billinge.

Back in the recruiting office, Alf took the oath of service to the King, his heirs and successor before being prodded, pummelled and pronounced A-1. It was then that a big chap asked 'what have you joined, mate?'

I replied: "The Royal Flying Corps,", feeling rather proud that I had gone for something new and adventurous, but his reply 'Hell, you’ll soon be among the angels,' produced a great roar of laughter.

"That morning in Blackburn opened up a new outlook on life and men. I have never regretted one day of the years I spent in the service of my country in France and in Flanders.

"Not that I enjoyed the war, for there were many times when I would have given anything to be in the warmth and safety of family and friends in England.

"But the open-air life appealed to me and the work, with aviation in its infancy, was new and interesting.

"Having handed over my first day’s pay to my widowed mother, I caught the train to London with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Flying was indeed a rather hazardous occupation and war very much a man’s game.

"But my fears faded when I saw the eager faces of the other recruits at the depot at South Farnborough, where I did three weeks’ training on a very crowded barrack square, before being sent for technical training with the aircraft and in the workshops, learning to be air mechanics.

"On April 10, a party of us were put on a train for Southampton and at dusk we boarded S.S. Viper, still in good spirits, despite the news from an old dock hand that enemy submarines had been reported in the vicinity.

"We arrived at Le Havre early the following morning and I eventually found myself in Morbecque, where I was attached to No 5 Squadron, B flight - and as I went to sleep that night I could hear the guns in the front line.

"On April 14, I was assigned to Lt. Gilmour’s aircraft. Most of the aeroplanes were two-seaters of the Vickers Gun Bus type, with a top speed of 80 miles an hour.

"The engine was mounted above and behind the crew so that the gunner, sitting at the front, had a clear field of fire.

"Nine days later, I was up before dawn. We were moving to the Front ..."