Presentation Spitfires
Flt Lt Barrie Heath of 611 Squadron stands on Spitfire IIa P7883 "Grahame Heath" donated by his parents in memory of his brother.
Flt Lt Barrie Heath of 611 Squadron stands on Spitfire IIa P7883 "Grahame Heath" donated by his parents in memory of his brother.
There has been a tradition of presenting warriors with weapons and armour dating back to the Middle Ages (and probably before). The logical development of this was for the gift to clearly carry the mark of the donor. From World War 1 onwards, this came to include donation of aircraft and tanks. While most donations were for one or two aircraft only, on occasions the donor was more generous- the Nizam of Hyderabad donated a whole Squadron of DH9s. In 1939 he enquired as to how "his" Squadron was getting on, and after discussion, and more donations, 152 (Hyderabad) Squadron was named. The idea of donation caught on, organised by Lord Beaverbrook, who moved the project onto an industrial scale. An individual, organisation or town could present the cost of an airframe (for a Spitfire this was set at £ 5 000 although the real cost was nearer £ 12 000!) and an aircraft would be allocated to bear the name of the donor (or any caption they chose instead) in (officially) four inch high yellow characters on the fuselage. The official style was not always adhered to, however.
Other aircraft types than Spitfires were also presented, but there were more "presentation" Spitfires than any other aircraft type. Many towns and organisations had "Spitfire Funds" and went to great lengths to raise the money required. Although the total number of "Presentation Spitfires" is not absolutely clear, around 1500 presentation Spitfires have been identified in a recent book on the subject. Since the vast majority of Spitfires presented were either Mk I, II, or V (or originally ordered as such) this represents around 17% of the total production.
Perhaps your company or town (or one of your rich relatives) raised the money to pay for a Spitfire or two. If they did, I believe that they will be included in the table below. If you know anything more of any of these aircraft, please send me an e-mail, as I would love to hear about it.
Sometimes the names were moved from aircraft to aircraft as the original was destroyed, or where a connection with a particular Squadron was needed, but the original aircraft was being transferred to another Squadron. This tradition has recently been renewed by 72 Squadron, who have started renaming some of their Tucano trainers after presentaion Spitfires. Members of the Spitfire Society were present for the roll-out of "Winged Victory" and "City of Leeds", but others have also been named after Spitfires originally donated by Basutoland (now Lesotho), a small country who provided 17 Spitfires (of the 70 named airframes) that flew with 72 Squadron.
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