Born on the 3rd April 1907, Mr Wetton was a member of the Brooklands Aero Club and later joined the RAF in 1929.  He was with No.600 City of London (Bombing) Squadron Auxiliary Air Force, General Duties Branch.  He was made a Pilot Officer during April and became a Flying Officer with the Squadron in October 1930.

In 1934, he was granted commission as a Flying Officer Class A on April 8th.  He later bought farmland at Barmoor Farm, Booker and he established 50 ERFTS at RAF Booker in 1939.  Mr Wetton set up Wetton Aviation, Ltd. with F T Wetton, his brother, in July 1939 with registered offices in St. Dunstan’s, London EC3.  The company was formed to set up an aviation school and to manufacture and deal in aircraft.

With the closure of 50 ERFTS, Mr Wetton joined the Army Air Force Parachute Regiment and was now a Squadron Leader, he was injured in a crash of Airspeed Horsa BT563 of the 102 Glider OTU at Bodicote on the 12th March 1942 and was issued with the Air Efficiency Award in January 1943.

He was seconded to the Australian Air Force in April 1943 from a request by the Australian government, by this time he had been made a Wing Commander. In Australia, he joined the Parachute Training Unit at Tocumwal, New South Wales and took over the command from Wing Commander Glasscock.  Also seconded was a Major H Roberts, but these appointments were not welcomed by everyone in the Unit as it was considered that the training program had been doing well without outside personnel being drafted in.   Wetton and Roberts later persuaded the Unit to move and during April 1943 they relocated to Richmond where they introduced new training based on airborne training in England.   The image to the right shows Wing Commander Wetton preparing for a parachute jump in Australia.

Injured during a parachute jump whilst commanding a parachute group in New Guinea, he returned to England and with Lord Willoughby de Broke established the Garden Corner Club on Chelsea Embankment, London.  He purchased a number of war surplus planes in 1947 but he was injured again, suffering twelve compound fractures when a plane he was flying crashed at Ridge Park on the 27th February 1948 after hitting trees on high ground south-west of the airport on a flight from Croydon to Milan.

It took Mr Wetton nearly a year to recover from the accident and when he finally left hospital, the Garden Corner Club had closed down but he went onto form his own cleaning company Wetton Cleaning Services Ltd in September 1949 and set up his offices in Chelsea.   The picture above shows him standing with a bike and ladder surrounded by his fleet of vehicles outside his Chelsea Offices after they had become established.

In 1952 he employed a lady called Mrs May Baker who was an experienced cleaning manager for a rival company.  It is her son, Mr Charles Baker, who Joined Wetton Cleaning in March 1966 after leaving the army, who went on to buy the company and her grandchildren who run Wetton cleaning today. 

Wing Commander Wetton never lost his love of flying and in January 1958 he purchased Dragon Rapide G-ACPP and it was registered to him as a member of the No.600 (City of London) Squadron Flying Group, and was based at Biggin Hill.  The group was formed after the disbandment of the RAF Squadron of which Mr Wetton once flew.   He remained friends with Douglas Bader, the famous World War II pilot for many years, sharing their love of flying. 

Wetton continued to work and grow his cleaning company while still holding his passion for flying throughout the 1960s.  Having sold his cleaning company to Mr Charles Baker in the 1980, he retired and eventually moved to Hastings, Sussex.  This is where he died in June 1986.

Charles Baker and his children have kept the name of Wetton for the cleaning company as Wing Commander Wetton had created a reputation for delivering a quality and reliable service to his customers.  This traditional value of delivering a quality service and going the extra mile for the company clients is still valued in the company today.  The current Board of Directors are as passionate about cleaning and delivering a quality service built on reputation that has been present since the company's inception. 

Cookie Policy

We use cookies on our website to improve user experience
Cookie Policy