Thanks for the input chaps. The person who took the photo was a civilian professional photographer, which leads me to think that the photo was taken during a press open day at Leuchars at some point during 1940.
Although the caption (which was written many years after the photographer died) refers to the group as “RAF aircrew”, I’m wondering if this is a mistake and that some of the individuals are civilians, perhaps reporters about to be given a flight in a Hudson? A couple of them seem to be be wearing dark suits underneath their outer garments, and civilian passengers although needing to keep their ears warm, would have no other need for a flying helmet. 🙂
The photo comes from a substantial archive held in St Andrews University Library (the Cowie Collection). It consists of thousands of glass negatives of anything and everything that the late Mr Cowie thought interesting. He must have had a good relationship with RAF Leuchars because he was able to photograph many of the types that were based there from the 1930s to the 1960s – he even managed to wangle a flight in an Overstand to photograph another one over the Tay Estuary 🙂 . Unfortunately, few of his aviation shots have been digitised yet, but a small selection can be viewed at the St Andrews Library website – just type in “Leuchars” in the search engine.
Best wishes
Steve P
Sign In
