Your two links seem to confirm that
some T4's (prior to 1963) did not have ejection seats, and this would tend to support my memory of the experience. The following points are also relevant, I think:
- There were no ejection handles at the seat tops above our heads.
- A conventional Irvin parachute was put on before entering the aircraft, exactly the same as those I wore for the Chipmunk flights. (I believe that MB seats have special built-in parachute packs as part of the escape system).
- No instruction at all was given before the flight regarding operation of ejection seats.
I find it very difficult to consider that despite my strong recollections, I might actually have been sitting in a primed bang seat without knowing it! The potential danger of such a situation is obvious; as one scrambled into the right hand seat it would have been possible to grab a handhold and inadvertently fire the damned thing! And there was no red safety disc and removable pin to guard against such a catastrophe. No, I am as certain as I could be, that there were no such seats fitted in that particular aircraft.