The long and the short and the tall...

"It's well known that the clerks who saw these letters would think: 'He wants to go there, so I will put him somewhere else,'" said 80-year-old Nigel Reay, of Market Drayton, whose own wish was to go to RAF Seletar in Singapore.

"Apparently some of these clerks had got together and kept in contact, and would decide that everybody with ginger hair was going to one station, everybody who was short was going to another one, and anyone exceptionally tall went to another.

"Unless you had been in the military, it's difficult to believe this."

That Nigel should get to go where he wanted was itself through unusual circumstance.

"I applied. I have always been a motorbike man, and I was an electrician in the RAF, and I was working on this clerk's motorbike doing the rewiring and I happened to say: 'I have put in for an overseas posting.' He said: 'Where do you want to go?' I said: 'RAF Seletar.' He said: 'Done!' 'What do you mean?' 'I'm the postings clerk.'"

And so Nigel, who had joined the RAF in 1955, got his dream posting.

"I loved it. We were still on active service. It was called the forgotten war as we were fighting the Communist terrorists at the time although they didn't call it a war for insurance purposes because if they had done the locals, the people in business, would not have got any compensation."

Nigel was a ground electrician, working on a variety of vehicles and aircraft, including Sunderland flying boats. Nigel says Seletar was the last RAF unit to fly them. He ended up as a Senior Aircraftman.

A volunteer - he was not a National Serviceman - he left the RAF in 1960 and is these days on the committee of the RAF Seletar Association, a national organisation for all ranks founded in 1997. He is keen to promote it and attract more members among those who served either as regulars or National Servicemen in the Far East, particularly Singapore or Malaya, and among the children of those who did so.

Anybody interested can call him on 01630 657908.

The association already has several Shropshire members and one of the things Nigel is involved in organising is an annual holiday for association members in different parts of the country.

Other aspects include a magazine, trips to the Far East, and an annual meeting, which this year is in October in Derby.

"As it's 100 years since the formation of the RAF I have suggested we go in military fancy dress, to give it a bit of a different flavour."

He says he is not sure yet what he will wear and in any event wants to keep it a surprise.

Nigel made a nostalgic return to his former haunts as a young serviceman in the Far East last year.

"The change is remarkable, with the native trees now replaced by palm oil types over vast areas."