Thanks to all for these very useful replies, which have indeed filled in several historical gaps for me. I can remember meeting Monique Agazarian at Heathrow; I was a child of about five and not surprisingly she seemed rather daunting!
Penny Washers: my great uncle was one Group Captain Gordon V Carey. He learned to fly in WW1, joined the RAF, did transports in WW2, IAS in the early fifties and ended his career as an Instructor at the Surrey and Kent Flying Club at Biggin Hill, where he taught me to fly Aircoupes and Chipmunks as a teenager in the 60s. Incidentally whilst at Biggin he also used to fly the club's Rapide for twin training. It was G-AKIF, which is of course now based at Duxford. It was a huge delight to fly in her again (with my own teenage sons) recently after a gap of nearly forty years!