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THE PROPOSAL OF A LIFETIME Pilot surprises girlfriend after mammoth charity journey By James Booker news@basingstokeobserver.co.uk
AN RAF Chinook pilot has pulled off an unlikely engagement manoeuvre in the most dramatic fashion. James Kingham, based at RAF Odiham in Hook, was taking part in the famous Mongol Rally charity event this summer with a colleague, raising money for the RAF Benevolent Fund and environmental cause Cool Earth Action Group. And the 28-year-old from Essex came to a serious life decision while driving along a quiet stretch of land in Ukraine – just one of 27 countries he travelled through in the monumental challenge. He decided to propose to his Australian girlfriend Pamela Jane ‘Peejay’ Prowse. However, he was without a ring, and thousands of miles away from both start line and fi nish line, where Peejay, 27, was due to meet him. “It was a spontaneous decision,” said James, who moved to Odiham in 2010. “There was a few hundred miles of not very
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@BasingstokeNews • James Kingham and fiancee Pamela Jane ‘Peejay’ Prowse (Picture courtesy of DPR)
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much, and I had a lot of time to think. “And I just decided then and there that I had to propose at the other end – but at that point I had no idea how I was going to get a ring. “My initial plan was to buy one in Russia, but I ended up getting cold feet from that idea, and so tried to get a company in England to make a ring and send it out to me. “That turned out to be a bit of a challenge, because many businesses, understandably, don’t like to make a diamond ring and send it to an unspecified address in Mongolia!” However, The Diamond Store were willing, and sent the item across to the fi nishing line in Ulan Bator. James and his colleague, Chinook crewman Chris Pratt, suffered puncture after puncture, as well as waiting seven hours trying to cross the Russian border, as they made their way across the world in their 1.0-litre Daewoo Matiz. “We had an interesting time getting into Russia,” said James. “We spent seven hours at the border trying to convince them to let our car through, as it had a big elephant on the top.” Not a real elephant, of course, but the model was significant, as it is homage to their squadron • Continued on page 2
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