Links . . . to fame and glory

Not for me, but for those whose time and place I shared, from childhood and into my teens.

The toy spitfire (arguably the most famous warbird of its era) reminds me of the real aircraft piloted by brave men - not only British but also gallant allies who came to our aid to fight for this country in a conflict rightly known in history as The Battle of Britain, of which I was privileged to be a spectator from my parents' garden in London.

The paperback book, now torn and crumpled, tells the story of Biggin Hill, "the most famous fighter airfield in the world", from where many of those planes operated and where I served my two years of National Service in the RAF a decade later. The war had been over for five years by then but the last of the Spitfires only flew out on the day I moved in, to my great disappointment, and Biggin Hill was now the home of two Meteor jet squadrons - 615 "County of Surrey" and 600 "City of London", in which I served and was at last able to claim a link to history -- or more precisely a pair of cufflinks bearing the RAF coat of arms and the City of London heraldic shield, which I wore with pride on my shirt.

Hmm . . . shirts with cufflinks are also history now. Doesn't time fly?