Header image: Ron Gould photographed during his visit to the BBMF in March 2017 (here with Spitfire P7350) and inset in wartime.
Regular readers of our email newsletters may recall an item in the April 2017 issue about a visit to the BBMF in March 2017 by a World War Two veteran Spitfire pilot, Ron Gould, to be reunited with a Spitfire he had flown 72 years before.
We are sad to report that Ron passed away on 28th January, aged 94.
We’re pleased to be starting the year by giving away a family ticket to The Scramble Experience at the National Memorial to the Few, Capel-le-Ferne, Kent.
All current members of the RAF Memorial Flight Club have been automatically entered into this month’s ballot. If you’re not already a member, please join the Club before 1 February 2018.
Header images: Left: Vic Watts painting the original Kangaroo nose art onto Lancaster W5005 ‘AR-L’ in July 1943 when the aircraft had completed 12 ‘ops’. Right: The nose art replicated on BBMF Lancaster PA474 today, with 30 ‘ops’ recorded on the bomb log (as at 9th September 1943).
The man who painted the original cartoon of a Kangaroo in wellington boots playing the bagpipes, onto the nose of 460 Squadron Avro Lancaster W5005 ‘AR-L’, in July 1943, was the then Flying Officer Thomas Victor Watts RAAF. Vic, as he was known, came from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and was a navigator on 460 Squadron, which was based at RAF Binbrook in the Lincolnshire Wolds from 1943. As well as being a courageous airman, he was also a brilliant artist and painted many of the 460 Squadron nose art pictures on to the unit’s Lancasters, with style and humour, often signing them with his initials “V.W.” Vic was also a gifted musician and a fine singer, who played several instruments and fronted the squadron’s dance band.
