Jacko, I don't recall the Vimy but I do remember how they tried to illuminate the Valiant basket. IIRC the bought some bicycle dynamos from Halford and strapped them on.
There was also a cartoon in the 60s about a further IFR embellishment. This would have involved the in-flight transfer of rations for the crew as well as fuel for the aircraft
The big difference, IIRC, between the Valiant and the Victor 1 was the greater off-load ability in the Valiant. I also think it had the ability to transfer all its fuel!
A Valiant could escort a Javelin from UK to Singapore on 4 legs whereas the Victor needed a post take-off top up and even a possible pre-landing prod as well.
In the early 60s I don't think the AAR doctrine for the bombers had been thought through. We were not planned for operational IFR possibly because of the difficulty of ensuring that both tanker and receiver could launch within the warning period and meet up. By 1963 the plan to have the ability to mount an airborne deterrent had also been dropped.
In the reinforcement case it was certainly possible to 'flow' a stream of bombers from UK to Singapore but the tanker force would have had to pre-position down the route first. The bombers could actually flow down the route earlier if they double staged en route and without the heavy financial and training burden of maintaining an IFR capability.
Note: I use IFR for In-flight refuelling as that was the term in the 60s.