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Sure-fire hit
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| MORALE BOOSTER: John Levesley proudly holds up the Spitfire song |
SPITFIRE. The very word is redolent with the bravery and heroism of the pilots who flew the aircraft into battle against the might of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.
People still look up in awe when a beautifully preserved Spitfire roars overhead at an aviation event or summer fête.
Designed by R J Mitchell at Supermarine, a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong in Southampton, the Spitfire achieved legendary status during the Battle of Britain.
To help pay for the 22,000-or-so built, Spitfire Committees were set up around the country.
"Nowhere was this more popular than in Hampshire, for the Spitfire was a Hampshire aircraft born and bred," said John Levesley of the Friends of New Forest Airfields. "Many were the methods contrived to raise money to pay for the fighters and local entertainers, professional and amateur, were often at the forefront of these events.
"Well known Bournemouth entertainer H M "Doc" King was one of them and he wrote a stirring fund-raising song called the Hampshire Spitfire Song."
The words and music were on sale for 6d, with all profits going to the Hampshire Spitfire Fund.
Dr King then lived at 109 Holdenhurst Road in Bournemouth. As Dr Horace King he went on to become an MP for Itchen, Southampton, was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1965 until his retirement in 1971 and then was made Lord Maybray King. He died in 1985.
The Friends of New Forest Airfields have recently been given a copy of The Hampshire Spitfire Song by Tangmere Aviation Museum. On the front cover it reads: "Dedicated to all airmen - especially Frank".
Inside, there were two stirring verses with the chorus:
There's music in the sky
Don't you hear the engines humming
Prepared to do or die,
The Hampshire 'Planes are coming,
Steadfast, reliant,
Spitfire or Defiant,
So give a rousing cheer,
The HAMPSHIRE 'PLANES are here!
Mr Levesley said: "The Friends of the New Forest Airfields would be happy to provide copies of the song sheet to anyone, or any group, who likes to perform music of the Forties so as to restore Hampshire Spitfire Song to its rightful place as part of our social and musical history."
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10:20am Tuesday 22nd April 2008
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