Harvard Nose Art Find

I am an admin on a T-6 page on Facebook ‘T6 Harvard SNJ Pilot Maker‘ and this morning one of our members from Goodwood, showed two pictures of a Harvard part that his CFI had in his collection of junk. One luckily had the airframe’s serial number on it and so I managed to find the history of the actual aeroplane and then was so lucky to find two photographs of the Harvard in Royal Navy service. Topping that the part can be seen in both photographs. The motif seems to be of Mighty Mouse. Does anyone have any idea how this came to be on this Harvard?

EZ316 was a Harvard Mk.III which initially served with the Royal Navy at Lee-on-Solent in November 1945 before going onto Rattray from February 46 to August 47. Then to 1831 Sqn where it was coded 203:JA and then in February 1951 to 799 Sqn. She finished up with the Station Flight at Gosport where the marking can be seen directly under the handhold. Was scrapped in September 1959.

Best wishes,

Martin