Telford air enthusiast and museum founder dies at 81

Joe Collier of Horsehay in Telford had been chairman of the Wartime Aircraft Recovery Group which had begun in April 1978, and was also a founder of the High Ercall Aviation Museum.

Flight Lieutenant Collier was the former commanding officer of 2379 Squadron of the Air Training Corps based in Dawley.

Originally there was only a flight of the Wellington-based 1130 Squadron at Dawley, which met at the Phoenix School, but rising numbers under his leadership led to Dawley having its own squadron and also its own premises in Manor Road.

Flight Lieutenant Collier left the ATC after 22 years' service in training and instructing cadets in 1985.

He was among the first members of the Assault Glider project based at RAF Shawbury which built a full sized non-flying replica of a Horsa glider as a memorial and tribute to the exploits of the airborne forces.

Varied

And he was a member of the Shropshire plastic scale modellers association.

His ultimate working role was as the farm warden at Acton Scott historic working farm near Church Stretton, and even after retiring he and wife Suzette went back there as volunteers.

He is survived by Suzette, daughter Joanne who is a teacher in Broseley, son Douglas who is a project engineer in Australia, and five grandchildren.

The funeral is at 11am at Horsehay Methodist Church on November 5 followed by cremation at Telford crematorium.

After leaving Coalbrookdale High School Mr Collier became an apprentice at de Havilland near Chester, becoming an air frame technician, but returned to Shropshire and worked on aircraft as a civilian at RAF Shawbury. His varied career also saw him working at Sankeys and as a design draughtsman at Hall Engineering in Shrewsbury, and later in the drawing office at Coventry Gauge and Tool in Madeley.

Afterwards he became a teacher, teaching at William Reynolds Junior School in Woodside, Telford.