SPITFIRE PS 888 a.k.a. ‘THE LAST!’
Historic photo’s taken on the day the last Spitfire flew operationally with the Royal Air Force
Daily Mail July 2002
The above photo was used by the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in 2004 in their plans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the last Spitfire sortie.
Spitfire PS915 currently performs with the Flight appearing as ‘THE LAST!’
R.A.F. SELETAR, SINGAPORE
1953-
In April 1954 while serving with the RAF in Singapore, George was in the right place at the right time when he unwittingly took some unique and historic photo’s of the last operational RAF Spitfire, as detailed below in the newspaper clipping.
The following photographs are others from his albums and capture an interesting era, so it seems a pity to keep them stashed away for ever. Like thousands of others at the time he spent a mandatory 2 years in the services, and as a keen photographer he produced many images depicting an interesting era now long gone.
They are mostly labelled by the author and speak for themselves. Unfortunately the aircraft ones below were taken often from some distance and with no specialised lense, they are of poorer quality than others to come.
Any comments or suggestions welcome. C. Yallop
‘Ready to go to...’
Ready to leave for Singapore -
JULY 1953
K9@sunpixi.com
All images © CGY 2011
While based at RAF Seletar George was lucky enough to witness the passing of an aviation legend into history.
April 1st 1954 was the day a Spitfire last flew operationally with the R.A.F. and he took a set of 3 close up photographs depicting the moments after the flight when ground crew painted ‘THE LAST!’ onto the port engine cowling.
The one below as it appeared in the Daily Mail in 2002, directly resulted in the ‘revival’ of this historic aircraft by the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. These images were used as reference material to recreate the look of PS888 on their Mark 19 Spitfire (PS915).
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