Yes 'By George', as you say, funny old world. My father was boss of a Wimpey squadron at the beginning of the war, so he did the odd sortie to Heligoland and the like.
And Amos, I used dayglow loosely, the orange seemed to match the colour of the bands around the booms of our Vampire T11s, and the nose if I remember right, which we called Dayglow Orange, but maybe that was more reflective when first applied. The Canberras were orange when I first flew them in mid 1973.
Goudie, hello again, I think the orange colour was to show up better than silver, for instance, particularly in low visibility, like the dayglow orange on training command aircraft at the time. Had to behave yourself though, could be recognised anywhere!