WITH Bournemouth Air Festival about to get under way tomorrow, a Dorset woman has unveiled a priceless historic archive of her husband’s work.

Daphne Moody, of Southbourne, has kept photographs, clippings and hundreds more historic documents from Reg’s life.

They start from his time as an RAF press man during the Second World War – including pictures of him filing copy on a typewriter on the bonnet of a military vehicle.

Reg, who was awarded the MBE and passed away aged 87 in 2002, was later chief press officer at the MoD and was involved with the air show at Hurn, the predecessor to Bournemouth Air Festival.

Daphne said: “He was involved with the Biggin Hill air show from way back and he was involved in the Hurn show as well, which the Echo supported.

“This is a journalist household – my son works for Reuters.

“Reg went into The Hague on the day the war ended and he took a party of 12 men to get the stories back.

“They would sit on the side of their Jeeps and type.

“He was in the RAF and in the last two years (of the war) was attached to the press side. He stayed with the RAF until he retired and then went to the Air Ministry.”

Reg continued to work long into his official retirement, penning articles for many publications.

Daphne added: “He was involved in the press for the air show at Hurn. It’s all stuff that he was in so I’ve kept it.

“There is a lot of history there. When he was working as a press officer in the MoD he would take parties of journalists and look after them.

“He retired in 1963 from the MoD and after that he worked for the Ministry of Health.

“He carried on as a freelance writer in his retirement years.”