Page 65 - The Old Ratcliffian 2013
P. 65
The Old Ratclifan 2013 | IntroductionThe Old Ratclifan 2013 | Nostalgia
Paul Baillon’s (32) Spitfire is Retrieved!
Paul Baillon (32) is one of Ratcliffe’s It wasn’t Pilot Officer Paul Baillon’s
war heroes; his name is on the War first brush with the Luftwaffe. A
Memorial on the back wall of the month earlier, he had been at the
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception controls of one of the iconic fighters
at Ratcliffe College. when it was shot from the skies of
South-West England by a German
Rosemary Baillon never knew her bomber’s machine guns. On that
father. A pilot who flew Spitfires in occasion, the RAF ace bailed out
the Battle of Britain, he was tragically safely, but his stricken aircraft crashed
killed, aged twenty-six, in a dog-fight on Salisbury Plain. In an upbeat letter
over the English Channel in November to his wife, Peggy (Miss Baillon’s
1940, four months before she was mother), he recalled the episode as
born.
Paul Baillon (32), whose Spitfre has
been found
‘all very exciting, especially coming
down by parachute, which really was
not at all unpleasant!’
His words from beyond the grave
were among the little Miss Baillon
knew of the incident, until recently.
The seventy-two year old, a research
fellow in Geopolitics, was present
when wreckage from the Spitfire
Mark 1 (from which her father ejected
unharmed) was dug up by soldiers
wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
physically and mentally-injured troops
and veterans excavated the remnants
of the plane, buried for seventy-
three years, as part of Operation
Nightingale, an award-winning
Ministry of Defence project which uses
archaeology to aid their recovery.
During a highly emotional day, Miss
Baillon was handed buried artefacts
from the stricken, mangled plane
(number P9503), including part of a
propeller, a crumpled fuel gauge, a
piece of windscreen and buckles from
the parachute release mechanism.
The trinkets were small, but meant
the world to the pilot’s daughter.
She said: ‘Seeing the Spitfire being
excavated meant a great deal to me.
It is remarkable to touch something
that my father would have touched so
many years ago.’
Rosemary Baillon, daughter of Paul Baillon (32), at the recovery site
65
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Paul Baillon’s (32) Spitfire is Retrieved!
Paul Baillon (32) is one of Ratcliffe’s It wasn’t Pilot Officer Paul Baillon’s
war heroes; his name is on the War first brush with the Luftwaffe. A
Memorial on the back wall of the month earlier, he had been at the
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception controls of one of the iconic fighters
at Ratcliffe College. when it was shot from the skies of
South-West England by a German
Rosemary Baillon never knew her bomber’s machine guns. On that
father. A pilot who flew Spitfires in occasion, the RAF ace bailed out
the Battle of Britain, he was tragically safely, but his stricken aircraft crashed
killed, aged twenty-six, in a dog-fight on Salisbury Plain. In an upbeat letter
over the English Channel in November to his wife, Peggy (Miss Baillon’s
1940, four months before she was mother), he recalled the episode as
born.
Paul Baillon (32), whose Spitfre has
been found
‘all very exciting, especially coming
down by parachute, which really was
not at all unpleasant!’
His words from beyond the grave
were among the little Miss Baillon
knew of the incident, until recently.
The seventy-two year old, a research
fellow in Geopolitics, was present
when wreckage from the Spitfire
Mark 1 (from which her father ejected
unharmed) was dug up by soldiers
wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
physically and mentally-injured troops
and veterans excavated the remnants
of the plane, buried for seventy-
three years, as part of Operation
Nightingale, an award-winning
Ministry of Defence project which uses
archaeology to aid their recovery.
During a highly emotional day, Miss
Baillon was handed buried artefacts
from the stricken, mangled plane
(number P9503), including part of a
propeller, a crumpled fuel gauge, a
piece of windscreen and buckles from
the parachute release mechanism.
The trinkets were small, but meant
the world to the pilot’s daughter.
She said: ‘Seeing the Spitfire being
excavated meant a great deal to me.
It is remarkable to touch something
that my father would have touched so
many years ago.’
Rosemary Baillon, daughter of Paul Baillon (32), at the recovery site
65
Register online at www.ratclifanassociation.co.uknline at www.ratclifanassociation.co.uk
Register o 65
