RNAS Lee-on-Solent, 1951, at age five. To be honest I don't remember much about it, but there's a family snapshot somewhere of me (full school uniform including cap) and my father (besuited, trilby-hatted, raincoat on arm) posing in front of a Seafire F.17. I have much clearer memories of the Open Day at Lee that preceded the 1953 Coronation Review of the Fleet, with masses of Fireflies, Sea Furies, Sea Hornets, Attackers. I also remember an FAA solo aerobatics pilot of the time named Kelly, who gave superb demonstrations in a Sea Hawk, including immaculate point-rolls. I believe he was later killed in a Sea Hawk accident near Basingstoke.
SPIT: On the day you posted your message about the French birdman at Speke (his name was Leo Valentin) I was shifting some heaps of books prior to redecorating and came across a long-forgotten copy of his biography, ‘Bird Man’, published in 1955.