WHO’S AFEAR’D is not just the motto on the Dorset Coat of Arms but also the name of a Spitfire which crashed near Meopham, Kent on 23rd June 1942. This fighter aircraft had been funded by local contributions from Blandford & Sturminster Newton District people and paid for in a manner which today would be called crowd funding. Many years later, Graeme Sinden was excavating for a swimming pool in his back garden near Camer Park, Meopham when he came across aircraft wreckage. Experts were called in and the plane was identified as Spitfire WHO’S AFEAR’D (P8531). It had been built at a Vickers Armstrong aircraft factory in Castle Bromwich in the Midlands.
In September 1940, the village of Shroton had raised twenty six pounds for the Blandford & District Spitfire Fighting Fund. The next month, Child Okeford held a concert in the packed village hall and sent in seven pounds. A Winterborne Whitechurch dance in November 1940 raised eight pounds, two shillings & sixpence (£8.12) while a Winterborne Stickland social resulted in three pounds & three shillings (£3.15) being raised. Also in November, ten shillings (50p) was sent to the Fund from the sale of acorns gathered by children and sold for pig food. By December 1940, Blandford had raised £3,300 and Sturminster Newton just over £1,000. Soon the nominal target of £5,000 was achieved.
The Spitfire is probably the most iconic aircraft ever designed and built in this country. Almost from the moment it took to the air it attracted almost film star attention. WHO’S AFEAR’D was one of around 20,300 Spitfires built.
Lord Beaverbrook who organised the Spitfire Fighting Fund Appeals wrote to Blandford’s Mayor (Mr J E Conyers):
‘this fighter aircraft …will I know seek out the enemy in the spirit of the motto it will carry.’
WH’O’S AFEAR’D was flown by two Polish fighter pilot aces. Marion Belc flew the Spitfire with the Royal Air Force’s 303 Sqaudron destroying German Me109 aircrafts on the 24th & 26th June 1941. Then Stanislaw Skalki, Poland’s top World War II pilot, did likewise downing Me109s on the 19th & 21st August 1941.
Local newspaper, the Western Gazette reported:
‘The WHO’S AFEAR’D, the Spitfire for which Blandford & Sturminster Newton raised the money last winter is now in the air. Photographs of the machine have now been sent to the Mayor of Blandford (Mr J E Conyers).
An official description states:
“The Spitfire is one of the fasted and hard hitting machines. It carries two 20mm cannons in addition to machine guns, has a Rolls Royce engine and attains a speed approximately 400mph.” (Friday 12th September 1941)
The Blandford & District funded aircraft was last being flown by David Lindsay Malloch who was just 21 years old and came from Otago in New Zealand. It seems he had taken off from Detling, Kent on a low level flight for the purposes of training anti aircraft gunners. He failed to pull out of a sharp turn over Camer Farm and stalled. It proved to be too low for the pilot to pull out and he crashed. A Commemoration was organised in 2007 to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the crash. His niece came over from New Zealand and she stayed with the Sinden family. David Malloch is buried in Maidstone Cemetery in Kent. Highlight of the Commemoration was a fly past of a Spitfire and Hurricane from the Battle of Britain times.
Sources: British Newspaper Library; Kent Live; Polish Spitfire Aces by Wojtek Matusiak & Robert Grudzien & Skalski and Against the Odds by Franciszek Grabowski.
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This piece was written by ‘An Old Pimpernian’ and you can find more stories about Blandford on his website: https://www.theblandfordexpress.com.