Peeps

The cartoon character was called ‘Gruffie the Gremlin’ and Bob Beaumont painted it everywhere. His grandson (who occasionally frequents this forum) has a letter to his dad from Bob featuring Gruffie.

The aircraft was probably P7056. Certainly that was as close to a ‘personal aircraft’ as Bob Beaumont got – His Whirlwind ops read:

20-Jul-43 P.7056
03-Aug-43 P.7111
13-Aug-43 P.7056
15-Aug-43 P.7092
17-Aug-43 P.7056
08-Sep-43 P.7056
09-Sep-43 P.7056
18-Sep-43 P.7056

Yes, P7056 was ‘Pride of Yeovil’ when it left the factory, and there is a photo of it with the legend under the cockpit – pre-delivery and no codes. However, don’t forget that it would have been repainted from brown/green to grey/green between being new and 1943. Any inscription would have gone.

That ‘Bellows’ below the cockpit was chalked on. As it happens, 263 got itself named the ‘Bellows Squadron’ and there were a whole bunch of ex-pats in Argentina (the Fellowship of the Bellows) who thought they had funded an entire RAF Whirlwind Squadron (They hadn’t). This didn’t matter until a Gaumont News crew turned up to film something for Argentinian release – all 263 aircraft had to have ‘Bellows’ hurriedly added under the cockpit, which you can see in the footage. This probably accounts for HE-W carrying ‘Bellows’.

I do not know that it WAS P7056, but there’s nothing to indicate that it wasn’t. I have done a lot of research, too long and boring to put here. The reason for this effort being it is currently the intention to put our replica in this very scheme, in honour of Jeff’s granddad and also John McClure, a supporter of the project who flew the same aircraft when with 137.