Obituary Robert Charles Langton Aran
Robert or Bob as he preferred to be known was born in 1938 in Liverpool. His family moved to Northamptonshire in the small village of Blakesley where he spent his wartime childhood, his Mother and Father being Head teachers at the local school.
 
Bob married my mother a local girl, following his Nation service which he served in the Royal Air Force.
He was stationed at El-Adam air base in Libya, and spent time in Tobruk and Bengazie.
 
Following National service, Bob elected to join the RAF and wanted to become a Pilot, but due to his colour blindness he was selected for Meteorological scientific duties instead.
 
Bob served as a Senior Meteorological officer for the Air Ministry and was stationed at RAF and Army bases throughout the UK, performing scientific atmospheric measurements for the military. He worked on the Honest John Nuclear capability deterrent missile for the Army, and the V bomber Victor, and Vulcan strategic bomber force at RAF Gaydon.
 
Bob had a keen interest in military planes and in particular those flown during the cold war, many of which he had flown on, including the Vulcan, Shackleton, Victor and Beverleys.
 
Bob spent the majority of his career in the Government service for the Met office which was part of the Air Ministry. He held the rank of Senior Scientific Officer, which had the equivalent rank Of Navy Commander.
 
Although serving for the Air Ministry, Bobs station was in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, being assigned as the officer in command of the Ocean Weather ships.
 
Unlike today where we have satellite technologies, in the 1960s, the weather patterns were created by measurements of the upper atmosphere using high altitude balloons carrying sensing equipment.
 
The weather ship service also acted as part of the Cold War Dew line early warning system to detect Russian attack forces coming over the North Atlantic routes for Nuclear defence.  The ships were often festooned with various radio antennas and equipment to monitor above and below the waves for incursions.
The weather ships were all serving vessels having been used in WW2 for the North Atlantic convoys.
The ships were ideally suited for spending 6 weeks at a time stationed in the harsh North Atlantic waters.
On one memorable occasion Dad told us that the ship had recorded the largest ever wave at that time, going off of the scale of the recording equipment.
 
Bob served for nearly 30 years on the Ocean Weather ships, and when they were finally decommissioned in the 1980s he transferred to the Met Office in London, running the London Weather centre until his retirement.
 
 
Upon retirement Bob became a member of the South East Midlands MVT (Military Vehicle Trust). He purchased a restored RAF series 109 Land Rover from Rod Siebert at Hack Green Nuclear bunker.  Bob performed further restoration on the vehicle, and regularly showed it at MVT events up and down the country together with his display of Met Office instruments. He recreated a display of kit that he would have used as a mobile met office when deployed with forward air and Army artillery units in the cold war era.
 
Bob went with myself to the MVT 55th anniversary Normandy tour, we travelled in my restored Willys MB and lived for a week in WW2 uniforms and canvas, eating rations. I said it was his re-initiation into Military life.  We really enjoyed the MVT tour.
 
Bob bought his second military vehicle, which was a Willys Necaf M38A1 Jeep. He restored this to represent a USAF vehicle from the Korean war period.
 
Bob regularly attended military shows alongside our other military vehicles, such as Evesham War in the vale, Wicksteed at War, Overlord military vehicle show Denmead,
His jeep was used by Jeep UK in their promotions for the anniversary of the jeep and launch of the latest Wrangler model.
 
Bob really liked talking to visitors about his Cold War experiences, and although he wasn’t the most knowledgeable about the mechanics of his vehicles, he did enjoy working on them and displaying them to the Public.
In 2010 Bob, myself and my Brother Duncan ran a large Military vehicle event in Greens Norton Northants to ,mark the 70th anniversary of the battle of Britain. We had 48 military vehicles attend and raised over 4000 pounds for the Royal British Legion.
 
Bob was also a vice chairman for the local RBL branch, and always showed his vehicles at the local towns in support of the Poppy collection.
In more recent years Bob sold his military vehicles and re-invested the money into a series of British Sports cars of the period which was his other passion.
 
After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, his health declined, and he was no longer able to actively display his vehicles, but he did attend events such as Stoneleigh Militaria, Wicksteed at War and local RBL events.
Bob succumbed to the COVID 19 virus after being admitted to Northampton General hospital and passed away on Tue 21st April aged 81
He leaves his wife Patricia, Daughter Michell and Sons Howard and Duncan Aran
 
Bob will be dearly missed many people that he met at shows up and down the country, his service is intended to be commemorated at the National Memorial Arboretum when the COVID emergency has subsided. Bob had been instrumental in the inauguration of the Castle Class Corvette memorial which also honours the service of these ships post war as Weather ships.
If you wish to add a tribute or donation to Roberts memory you can do this at https://robertaran.muchloved.com/
To find out more about the ocean weather ships history visit https://www.weatherships.com/
 
Howard Aran