Born in Kentish Town in London in September 1896, William Brereton (“Big Bill”) first enlisted with the London Air-Line Signal Company of the Royal Engineers Territorial Force in February 1913, and became an Air Mechanic stationed in France during World War One after being attested as No 964 Boy in the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing). His service saw him promoted to Sergeant, and he was awarded the 1914 Star, and the British War and Victory Medals for his work at the close of the War.

The latter half of the 1910s saw William Brereton being transferred and discharged a number of times before he re-enlisted in 1921, as a Private in the London Scottish (14^th County of London Regiment). He later rejoined the Royal Air Force in 1923 as No 964 Aircraftmen 2^nd Class Fabric Worker. After being repromoted to Corporal, he attended the School of Balloon Training in Larkhill, and later completed his Parachute Course with the RAF in Egypt in 1926, where he attained a 90%. He would return to Egypt in 1933 and stay for another 4 years while being posted at No 4 Flying Training School in Abu Sueir, receiving the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1936.

He was promoted to Flight Sergeant in 1937, the same year that saw him return home to the UK and being posted at RAF Henlow, where he was in charge of teaching pilots who undertook a course of parachuting in case they needed to bale out. So it was appropriate that Brereton was among one of the first people who were called upon when the Airborne Forces were first established as No.2 Commando. His primary role was to instruct new recruits on how to maintain and use a parachute at RAF Ringway.

His time there was well recorded. According to Hilary St. George Saunders’ The Red Beret, Brereton was a dispatcher, or “the man who gives the word to the pupil to go.”

A soldier call Cleasby-Thompson recalled in the same book that, “he was six-foot full of sixteen stone and had played rugger for the R.A.F. He exuded confidence. “When I just touch you on the shoulder, step out,” he would quietly say. At the precise moment he would take a full arm swing and the frightened and frozen victim would be jet-propelled through the door… Brereton understood parachutists and they liked and admired him.”

Another, a Captain Dawes, recalled a story involving the Flight Sergeant in Julian Thompson’s Ready for Anything,

“Take your time,” said Flight Sergeant Brereton. “We’ll make a dummy run first… we are almost over the airfield now.” With a great effort of will I dared to look down. To my horror I saw, 500 feet below, a tiny stretcher with a dark, motionless figure. Brereton must have seen it too, for he looked hard at me and said: “There’s nothing to worry about. If you like I’ll pull the rip-cord for you myself.”

“I’m alright… just tell me what to do.”

“Watch my hand then, and when you see it fall, pull the handle upward and outward.”

“OK,” I said. “You mean like this?”

“Not now, you bloody fool!” But it was too late. I’d gone. Three hours later the search party found me, six miles away  from the dropping zone, hanging helplessly from the highest branches of a clump of trees.”

William Brereton was thus one of the crucial men who helped develop and progress parachuting in the Airborne Forces. In fact, he was one of the very first three who experimented and undertook parachuting from a balloon in April 1941.

One of the other two instructors, Elliot, recalled the experience in the Red Beret,

“(We) went to Cardington for the purpose and made the preliminary ascent inside a huge hangar which had formerly housed an airship. The balloon, once silver grey, “but the birds had changed all that”, rose slowly to the roof, against which it bumped and bounced to the annoyance of the “bats and pigeons which had their homes there”. Presently “Brereton”…”got to his feet, looked over the side and was sick. Ward raised himself slowly, looked over the side and was sick. I was sick.”

By then, William Brereton had been discharged on appointment to an emergency commission as Pilot Officer, and in July he was promoted to War Substantive Flying Officer and awarded the MBE. At the end of the month he found himself posted at Willingdon Airport near Delhi in India, where he formed what later would become No.3 Parachute Training School, Chakala as the Chief Landing Instructor, and in October, he took part in the first static line parachute descents in India at Karachi.

His time in India lasted till late 1944, by which time he had been awarded the Air Force Cross, and he had been promoted to Acting Wing Commander. He had held several Administrative Roles in India, and at the end of the War he was on the Air Staff at HQ Delhi.

Awarded the Defence Medal and the War Medal, he held an Administrative Role at RAF Records in Gloucester before placing himself on the Retired List in November 1947. He was appointed to Commission Territorial Army 2^nd Hertfordshire Battalion (Home Guard) as 2^nd Lieutenant Adjutant and Quartermaster and was promoted Captain before resigning in 1953.

Wing Commander William Brereton passed away on July 3^rd, 1971, at the age of 74. He lost a son in action during World War Two, but was survived after his death by his sons Cyril and Ken. His obituary in the October 1971 issue of the Pegasus Journal remembers him as having had “the heart of a lion”. He was also remembered as a well known rugby player who represented the R.A.F. in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

William Brereton visited the Airborne Assault Museum in 1970, and to this day, his medals are still exhibited at our museum, commemorating him as one of the pioneers of parachuting in the British Army.

Written and researched by Raphael Tsang, with information from Airborne Assault Archive Box 2.C.3 27/1/43, Box 2.D.1 29/1/2, and other sources as mentioned in the text.