Mr Mitchell's Masterpiece
At Christmas, I had the pleasure of chatting to a 90+yr old gentleman, the uncle of a friend of mine. He grew up in the Southampton area in the inter-war years, and is blessed with totally clear recall of those halcyon days.
So there we are, he with whiskey & small cigar in hand (myself lending assistance on the whisky front), when he casually mentions that the father of his male playmate next door (in Southampton) was a jolly nice chap called Mr Mitchell, who designed aeroplanes. Mr Mitchell was kind enough to allow him to sit in the cockpit of the of the Supermarine S6B racer when it won the Schneider Trophy (he had been allowed to go to Calshot Spit with Mitchell junior on that most auspicious day).
As you can imagine, my chin is firmly on the floor by now, when he follows up with the killer punch by telling me about a thoroughly decent Spanish gentleman, who often visited the Mitchell home. He used to make rather good paper aeroplanes for these two boys. His name was Juan de la Cierva (google 'Autogyro').
I'm now in full-blown seizure & he starts talking about the RAF Marine Craft Unit at Calshot Spit. I knew that Aircraftman Shaw (aka Lawrence of Arabia) was based there, but thankfully the Old Boy had never met him, or I fear I would not have survived to bore you with this tale.
I am trying to persuade his niece (delightful popsie) to record the old gentleman's recollections; he is truly a living archive. I subsequently brought a book about Spitfires for him to view; he was transported back to his youth for a happy hour or so.
Ad Astra!
HB
Last edited by Halton Brat; 7th Mar 2011 at 11:59.