Story of Max Surman (Royal Observer Corps)

Max (born 1912) was an architect and worked for Harold Rodgers in Oxford, who designed what is now the Oxfordshire Archive Centre which was funded by Lord Nuffield. When he joined up, he was living in 93 Howard Street in Oxford. He may have done his training in Scotland; he once talked about going up there. Max spent all his service with the Royal Observer Corps, which was part of the Royal Air Force. After joining up in 1941, he was initially based in Kent, but later in 1941, he married and was posted as a Flight Sergeant to Malta. He was heavily involved in setting up the Observer Corps in Malta and in planning the war rooms in Valetta. He was in Malta from 1941 to 1943 and lived through the Siege. In March 1943, he was commissioned as an RAF officer and returned to Britain in 1943 or 1945. He spent all his service in the ROC.

He did talk about his time in Malta as he had a great admiration for the Maltese people. The intensity of the bombing of Malta was even greater than the Blitz. He only talked about the good times, never about the people who died. When he returned home, his wife had to tell him to stop using military slang.