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Spitfire week.

During my time in the infants school I have memories of nation savings drives to encourage the population to buy saving stamps to help the war effort. Warship week was one of many devoted to various parts of the military machine. The one I remember most was spitfire week when all the savings stamps were to help the R.A.F.

Our head teacher, miss Chesterfield told us in assembly one morning that we were to have a visit from a Spitfire pilot to tell us all about Spitfires and encourage us all to do our up most to collect money to buy saving stamps to buy a spitfire. His talk with poster showing all the working of a spitfire, and probably because he had one arm in a sling inspired us with great enthusiasm to collect all the money we could.

For the whole week we knocked on doors though out the village, stopped pedestrians, and took all the pennies, halfpennies and farthing collected to the head mistress who purchased the savings stamps. The village residents must have been delighted when the week was over.

However some time later the headmistress told us in assembly that the school had received a letter from Buckingham palace, signed by King George 6th, thanking all of us school children for our efforts during the spitfire week savings drive and informing us that we had collected enough stamps to buy a tyre for tha tail wheel of a spitfire. Thereafter, throughout the war, every time I saw a spitfire , I always wondered if that one had our tyre on its wheel.

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