HISTORY

Fundraising drawing board in the Bank of England.

cessary amount between August 8th, 1940

and February 3rd, 1941. The very next day,

the Bank of England Spitfire Fund transferred the money to the Ministry of Aircraft

Production. The staff of this banking institution still hold two fund-raising events a

year.

With the funds thus raised, a Spitfire Mk.

IIb with serial number P8509 was acquired

and in early September 1941 it was taken

over by No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF.

The Spitfire, of course, bore the donation

inscription THE OLD LADY (Bank of England). In December that year it was given

to No. 277 Squadron, which was engaged

in rescue operations over the sea. In April

1944 it was written off after a collision with

another aircraft at No. 61 OTU.

Eric Sidney Dicks-Sherwood

This aviator, whose name is also given as

Sherwood or Dick-Sherwood, was born on

January 6th, 1917, in Salisbury, Southern

Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). He

worked as a plumber before the war and

joined the RAF in July 1940. While serving

with No. 266 Squadron he was promoted

to officer rank and in May 1942 was posted to No. 603 Sq. in Malta. In August he

served briefly as an instructor in Egypt, but

The £5,000 cheque from the Bank of England Staff Spitfire Fund. Thanks to this effort RAF financed the Spitfire

Mk.IIb P8509 "THE OLD LADY (Bank of England)". Wing Commander Jameson flew with her on September 15th,

1941 and claimed one Bf 110 as destroyed.

INFO Eduard - June 2021

Photo: Bank of England Museum A280

Photo: Bank of England Museum 745

The Old Lady

As in many countries and eras, the UK

and the Commonwealth had a fundraising

initiative during the Second World War to

purchase weapons, especially aircrafts. It

involved municipalities, businesses, societies, whole communities living abroad or

individuals. Ordinary miners as well as the

Indian Maharajah contributed. To purchase

a fighter in 1940, £5000 had to be raised, a

twin-engined machine costed £20000 and

a four-engined aircraft came up to £40000.

The aircraft then bore an inscription chosen by the donor. The £5000 needed to buy

a Spitfire is roughly equivalent to a quarter of a million of this currency today. The

exact number of Spitfires so funded is still

unknown, but there were more than 900.

The Bank of England staff, unofficially

known in Britain as "The Old Lady", decided

to fund one Spitfire too. They raised the ne-

Photo: Bank of England Archive 17A26/1

One Bf 110 shot down was claimed by Sgt

Stanley Brooker. Another was claimed

jointly by F/Lt Arthur Vokes and Czechoslovak Sgt Vojtěch Lysický. The same pilot

reported another Bf 110 damaged and one

damaged was also claimed shared with his

compatriot F/Sgt Jaromír Stříhavka. 3)

The only loss on the Luftwaffe side, however, was the 30% damage to a Bf 110 E-2

that landed on its belly at De Kooy base.

The gunner Gefr. Alfred Bunke was wounded in the battle.

The claimed victories on the German side

exactly matched the British losses. The

names of some of the gunners are known

from the reports as well. One victory each

was claimed by the crews of Ofw. Lambert

Spitzer / Uffz. Zimmer, Ofw. Heinz-Wilhelm

Kornacker (his gunner is unknown),

Gefr. Max-Ottmar Bopp / Gefr. Zimmermann and Lt. Martin Drewes / Uffz. Fritz

Hrachowina. 4)

Commemorative plaque presented to the Bank of England in 1941.

eduard

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