Ken Charney - An anecdote on the Orkney Islands

[rof120]

In Clostermann's book mentioned in the preceding thread on Ken Charney (starting on 31st May) there is an anecdote which some of you might find amusing. I hope humour and fun are allowed.


602 Squadron including Charney, Clostermann and Jacques Remlinger were transferred to the Orkney Islands with the main task of protecting Scapa Flow and the Home Fleet there against German reconnaissance AC and possibly air attacks (?).


They collected all eggs they could get from the farms in the area (using a "Tiger Moth" to get there). Quotation from "Le grand cirque 2000", bottom of page 163:


"After two weeks with eggs for breakast, lunch and dinner everybody finds eggs nauseating. Ken even claims that feathers are beginning to grow on his back."


A side note: the name Ken Charney doesn't really sound Argentinian or Spanish but very British. His parents most probably had emigrated to Argentina like numerous other Britons. Does someone know more on this?

[Chris Goss]

Because of the beef industry, many Britons lived in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay before WW2

[keith A]

He was born and raised in Argentina, with a short spell as a schoolboy in England. His father worked for the Anglo-Mexican Petroleum Company. Ken apparently mixed with Mermoz and Saint-Exupery when a boy. They all lived out of the same hotel. His father won the MC with the East Lancs Regiment in 1917. I am not sure when his father went to Argentina but most sites indicate he was there pre-war and returned when he left the army in 1921. Oddly enough Ken Charney was born in Argentina while his father was still in the army and therefore maybe his mother returned there before he was born. His mother's name was Margaret Ethel (Langley?), so definitely English, probably his parents married in England just after the war.

[keith A]

Ken Charney actually worked briefly for a refrigeration company which was involved in the meat trade before taking ship to enlist in the UK.