Beverley or Hasting tales please

[Warmtoast]

I was at Gan in 1958 and photo'd the first Beverley to visit Gan on 14th February 1958.


My photo taken at Gan 14th February 1958

This 47 Sqn Abingdon-based Beverley, serial number XB263, pilot F/Lt Peter Dudley, detached to FEAF flew in from RAF Negombo in Sri Lanka the advance contingent of Pakistani workers who were to do most of the construction work to convert Gan from a sleepy island with a short crushed-coral landing strip to a busy RAF staging post with an 8,694ft/2,650m long concrete runway.

The interesting point is that the nose of the aircraft sports the arms of the town of Abingdon (where it was based) and above that the arms the ribbon of the GSM annotated underneath "Malaya".

Beverley landing at Abingdon 1959

RAF Abingdon 1959. Hastings returns to Abingdon after a drop at nearby Weston-on-the-Green drop zone. Parachute door left open as Weston is about 10-miles up the road from Abingdon and just north of Oxford.
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