"We do not want to be remembered as heroes, we only ask to be remembered for what we done....that's all"
"I regard it as a privilege to fight for all those things that make life worth living - freedom, honour and fair play"

DECEMBER 07 & FEBRUARY 08 DECEMBER 2007 Not for the first time, I find myself between a rock and a hard place. When some half-baked military historian, usually self-proclaimed, launches a contentious claim about the Battle of Britain my immediate reaction (call it knee-jerk, if you will) is to pile in with all guns blazing so as to do the perpetrator a severe metaphorical injury. However, I then bring down upon my head the wrath of some members (albeit a minority) who take me to task for being a bigot, insensitive oaf, Bully Bloggs, etc., etc. by not paying proper respects to a perceived luminary with a string of letters after his name. But, on the other side of the coin, if I ignore the slurs which invariably denigrate our heroes, I am accused by many hundreds more of not standing up for something they know I hold very dear, and also of not doing my job as society manager. But, at the end of the day I call it as I see it, and that’s the end of that. So, what to make of the latest nonsense? As can be seen on page 10, another ‘expert’ has thrown his hat in the ring, an arena that is already chockablock full of titfers deposited by other luminaries trying to restore a flagging career. This Dr. Cummings has decided to inform the world he has discovered that not all Battle of Britain pilots were well trained or could shoot very straight. I won’t bang on too much because you can read the article yourself. Initially I was disappointed that our old friends at the Daily Mail had seen fit to print the piece but as Cumming’s claims were first aired in a BBC publication I think we can forgive them. On top of that, of course, they were quite happy to print the fine response from Corelli Barnett, someone I should like to write to if I can find his address. But, to move on . . I cannot apologise for the lateness of the last Scramble because it was most certainly not our fault. The news-letter was with the printers exactly on time, so I leave you to work out who is to blame . . Sadly, I was a bit premature in announcing that the City of Westminster planning department was sympathetic to our request to site an information kiosk adjacent to the monument. Not so, unfortun-ately. It had support on the way upwards but when it came to the final decision the extreme power in the department decided that a small mud hut (with a window, of course) on the pavement would not lend itself to the area. We shall now return with an amended application along the lines of standing a mobile unit close to the monument. But don’t hold your breath . . The golf initiative gathers apace and we are now seeking to involve some very big hitters indeed, among them being Sir Richard Branson and American multi trillionaire Donald Trump. Meetings with the committee continue and we shall soon be inviting all 2500 golf club secretaries in the UK and RoI to join the society as corporate members. On the subject of fundraising initiatives, our old friend Colin Musson out in Canada has come up with a cracking idea. He has suggested that we contact the Football Association to moot the idea of a Battle of Britain soccer tournament. This would involve the four home countries, of course, and could well be played in September each year. As the FA is in deep mourning at the moment we shall hang fire for a little while, but as none of the countries will be involved in Euro 2008 now might be just the time to put forward the idea! We are still awaiting news of the fate of Bentley Priory before we present our plans for the construction of a Battle of Britain Educational Centre. If the negoti-ations are as painfully slow as they are regarding the disposal of RAF Coltishall we could be waiting for years . . We ran out of room in John Larder’s column so did not include a list of our heroes who are now looking down on us from the great celestial airfield, the sadly departed in 2007 being: J.A. Milne 14/02, J.H. Duart 24/1, K.B. Hollowell 14/2, J.R.C. Young 20/2, P.G. St.G O'Brian15/4 J.D. Anderson 25/4, I. Hutchinson 27/4, P.C. Webb 10/7, C.H. MacLean 19/7, V.R. Snell 14/8 E.W. Wright 5/11 Let us sincerely hope that we don’t have to add further to the list before the next Scramble . . . Finally,although covered fully on page 7, I should just like to touch on the idea of commissioning a memorial to A.V.M. Sir Keith Park. It does tend to be overlooked somewhat, in the grand scheme of things, that Keith Park’s input was vital, almost as much as that of his boss, A.C.M. Sir Hugh Dowding, so his disgraceful treatment at the end of 1940 was all the more reprehensible. The machinations of various factions within the Air Ministry have been well documented over the years but a statue of Sir Keith will go a very long way to setting the record straight. I notice that there is no groundswell in favour of similar recognition for A.V.M Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory. As a result of his involvement with the conspirators in the A.M, history has not been too kind to L-T . . . Take care, and have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. FEBRUARY 2008 Firstly, a belated but most sincere thanks to all members who sent Christmas cards to Steve and myself. There were, as usual, many scores of kind well-wishers, please forgive for not responding personally. There has been some excellent news recently on our fund-raising initiatives. Meetings are taking place very regularly with reference to our annual golf tournament and progress is definitely well worth a mention. I know that there are many members not the slightest bit interested in the sport but it will doubtless prove to be a wonderful means to an end, which is what counts in the long run. The latest astonishing news is that His Grace the Duke of Bedford has agreed to provide us with his prestigious Marquess golf course at Woburn for our Pro/Am tournament in September. This is something of a coup as the course has, as far as we know, never been closed to the club members and the general public on a Sunday before! We are indeed honoured and owe a debt of gratitude to Jackie and Peter Alliss for their influence in this direction. As we progress we shall let you know the names of the celebrities and professional golfers who will be supporting the event. All things being equal, your Society stands to make a very sizeable profit on the venture, one that will allow us to proceed vigorously with a number of our designated initiatives. In addition, we are delighted to report that the Society’s ‘Royal’ Maquette is soon likely to be sited in a very prestigious position in London. Currently in storage after its long sojourn in the RAC Club in Pall Mall, Maurice Djanogly has, with a little luck, found a wonderful new home for it in the Museum of London - fingers crossed, and more news later. The sale of the superb maquette should take place sometime in spring so, as ever, watch this space . . . I have been severely taken to task by ‘him-who-must-not-be-named’ (it’s actually our slave-driving Chairman of Trustees, Stevie Gleeson) for neglecting to inform the membership that our old friend Mark Andrew has stepped aside as School’s Plaque Manager. We are indebted to Mark who, over the years, has done a superlative job. When the idea was first conceived I would have been happy to see a couple of our plaques positioned every year but in the event we are rapidly approaching 40! This has been a wonderful achievement and is due entirely to Mark. Many congratulations on a fine job, Mark, thanks to you many hundreds of thousands of school-children, present and future, will be reminded of the debt owed by the whole world to ‘our heroes’. Happily, Mark has not entirely abdicated and, as can be seen on the back cover, is still involved occasionally. As can be seen from page 14, the scheme is still in excellent hands, with Chris Brooks taking over. On page nine of this Scramble you will notice a letter from the Hon. Sec. of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, Group Captain Patrick Tootal. It is a really an excellent idea and one that we shall all be delighted with, I am sure. The letter from Pat makes mention of our old friend, Society President Peter Brothers. And so shall I. As you are aware, we asked Pete if he would be so kind as to sign copies of the famous photograph of himself and 32 Squadron colleagues to raise some funds for the Society. Pete was only too willing to oblige and I am pleased to say that recipients are delighted with their personalised mementoes. I must make mention of a little matter of the postage of October’s Scramble. Owing to the delay in its printing (NOT our fault), we cast around to see if we could effect a rapid means of packaging and posting, so as to minimise the delay. We were advised by our printers to contact a company that specialises in swift bulk mailing, which is what we did. Sadly, although they promised an immediate turnaround of the newsletter, they then sat on them for another eight days. But, (forgive the long-windedness but I am nearly there!) they do in point of fact save clients such as us money by posting their overseas copies from abroad, in this case Sweden. By the indignant tone of the remarks (made publicly) by a couple of overseas members about the foreign postmark, you would have thought we had just advocated the return to sweeping chimneys by stuffing small children up them! No matter, but in future if you do receive a Scramble with an exotic postmark you will know the reason why . . . The campaign to erect a monument to Keith Park continues apace and it should not be too long before a press conference is arranged to broadcast the initiative to the world. Terry Smith and Karl McCartney are determined to make this thing work and the Society is pledged to do all it can to help. If any member has any information regarding family, friends or people who worked for the great man, please contact this office a.s.a.p. Finally, our old friend Steve Saunders of ASA Productions has completed his documentary, ‘A Day to Remember’. It is a very fine account of the construction of our Monument and very worth the asking price of £14.95 inc. p&p. All enquiries to Steve, please, on 020 8464 7929. Sadly, none of the TV companies that Steve has approach-ed has agreed to air the film, which is a great shame as the film is great. Bill Bond Melton Constable. England