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Some other related items available from this site. | ||||
  Last of the Luck by Ivan Berryman. |   Beware of the Lion by Geoff Lea. |   Lancaster by Frank Wootton. |  Malta Spitfire Aces. | |
| Signatures on these products | |
| *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature and is for the unmatted version where available. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
| Name | Info |
  Chief Test Pilot Alex Henshaw (deceased) Died : 2007 *Signature Value : £70 Editions signed : Flight Commnders edition of 400 prints. Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | Henshaw, Alex (Chief Test Pilot Alex Henshaw (deceased)) Alex Henshaw perhaps understands the Spitfire better than any other pilot - for he was Vickers Chief Test Pilot on Spitfires at the new Spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich during World War II. By the end of the war he had personally test flown a total of 2360 different Spitfires and Seafires - more than ten per cent of the entire production. It is often stated that those lucky enough to have seen Alex handle the Spitfire in flight, that it is an experience that can never be forgotten, he was acknowledged as a virtuoso in aerobatics. Alex Henshaw died 24th February 2007. |
  Wing Commander Bob Foster DFC (deceased) Died : 2014 *Signature Value : £55 Editions signed : Flight Commnders edition of 400 prints. Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | Foster, Bob (Wing Commander Bob Foster DFC (deceased)) Wing Commander Bob Foster, who has died aged 94, flew Hurricane fighters during the Battle of Britain, when he was credited with destroying and damaging a number of enemy aircraft; later in the war he destroyed at least five Japanese aircraft while flying from airfields in northern Australia. For much of the Battle of Britain, Foster was serving with No 605 Squadron in Scotland; but in September, 605 moved to Croydon to join the main action over the south-east of England. It was soon heavily engaged, but it was not until September 27 that Foster achieved his first success, when he damaged a Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter over Surrey. During this encounter his Hurricane was hit by return fire, and he was forced to make an emergency landing on Gatwick airfield. On October 7 he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Lingfield racecourse, and on the following day he shared in the destruction of a Junkers 88 bomber. By the end of the month he is thought to have destroyed another Bf 109 and damaged a third. In 1941 No 605 moved to Suffolk, from where on one occasion Foster chased a lone German Heinkel bomber well out to sea. His gunfire knocked pieces off the enemy aircraft, but it escaped into cloud before Foster could follow up with a second attack. In September 1941 he was transferred to a fighter training unit as an instructor. Robert William Foster was born on May 14 1920 at Battersea, south-west London. After leaving school he worked for the joint petroleum marketing venture Shell-Mex and BP, and in March 1939 - six months before the outbreak of war - he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve to train as a pilot. He was called up in August to complete his training before joining No 605. Foster's spell as an instructor lasted six months, and in April 1942 he was posted as a flight commander to No 54 Squadron. Within weeks of his joining, it was sent to Australia to join two other Spitfire squadrons to form No 1 Fighter Wing of the Royal Australian Air Force. The Wing was ready for action by the beginning of 1943, and moved to airfields in the Darwin area to counter Japanese bombing raids mounted from captured airfields in the Dutch East Indies and Timor. On February 26 Foster intercepted a Mitsubishi Dinah reconnaissance aircraft (all Japanese wartime aircraft types were given British names) and shot it down. It was the squadron's first success in Australia, and the first time a Spitfire had shot down a Japanese aircraft. Enemy bombing raids against Darwin continued, and on March 15 Foster was engaged in a fierce fight during which he downed a Mitsubishi Betty bomber and damaged a second. The three squadrons of No 1 Wing were in constant action throughout the spring of 1943, but Foster had to wait until June 20 for his next success. This came when he was leading No 54 Squadron as his formation intercepted a raid by 18 Betty bombers which were accompanied by a fighter escort. Foster attacked the leading bomber and sent it crashing into the sea. A Japanese Zero fighter broke towards him, and in the ensuing encounter Foster damaged the enemy aircraft. In June, the raids on Darwin became even more intense, and on June 30 Foster claimed another Betty destroyed as well as a probable. A week later he achieved his final successes when 30 bombers were reported to be heading for the city from the west. Foster led his formation to intercept the force, and he shot down a Betty and damaged a second near Peron Island, west of Darwin. He was the third pilot to claim five successes over Australia (earning him the title of ace) and a few weeks later he was awarded a DFC. After returning to Britain in early 1944, Foster joined the Air Information Unit with the role of escorting war correspondents. He arrived in Normandy soon after the Allied landings, and was one of the first RAF officers to enter Paris, joining General de Gaulle's triumphant procession down the Champs-Elysées. Foster spent the final months of the war at HQ Fighter Command and as the adjutant of a fighter base in Suffolk. In 1946 he left the RAF, but joined the Auxiliary Air Force on its re-formation in late 1947. He served with No 3613 Fighter Control Unit until its disbandment in March 1957, by which time he was a wing commander commanding the unit. He received the Air Efficiency Award. After the war Foster had rejoined Shell-Mex and BP, where he worked as a marketing executive until his retirement in 1975. In 2004 he was reunited with the Hurricane he had flown during the Battle of Britain. The aircraft, R 4118, had been rescued as a wreck in India by the printer and publisher of academic journals Peter Vacher, who brought it back to Britain in 2002 and had it restored to full flying condition. The aircraft now flies regularly as the only surviving Battle of Britain Hurricane and is the subject of a book by Vacher, Hurricane R 4118. Foster was a keen supporter of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, becoming its chairman in 2009. He was a life vice-president of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, and a dedicated supporter of its initiative to erect The Wing, a new building at the National Memorial to The Few at Capel-le-Ferne, on the Kent coast. Designed in the shape of a Spitfire wing, the museum and educational facility will tell the story of what the Battle of Britain pilots achieved in the summer of 1940. Foster took the controls of the mechanical digger to turn the first turf and start the work. In recent years he had accompanied some of the tours, organised by the Trust, of Battle of Britain sites in east Kent. Wing Commander Bob Foster, born May 14 1920, died July 30 2014. |
| Flight Lieutenant Ted Hall *Signature Value : £35 Editions signed : Flight Commnders edition of 400 prints. Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | Hall, Ted (Flight Lieutenant Ted Hall) Flight Commander, 452 Squadron. Ted Hall joined the RAAF in 1940 and went to England where he was posted to 129 Squadron at Tangmere flying Spitfires. As Flight Commander he claimed his first victory on 24th July 1942. In the next month he destroyed two more and one shared. He returned to Australia, joining 452 Squadron in Darwin again as Flight Commander. In March 1943 he claimed two Japanese aircraft damaged and on 30th Jun destroyed a Zeke. |
| Flight Lieutenant Don MacLean DFC MID *Signature Value : £45 Editions signed : Flight Commnders edition of 400 prints. Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | MacLean, Don (Flight Lieutenant Don MacLean DFC MID) Flight Commander, 457 Squadron. In mid 1940 Don Maclean joined the RAAF, arriving in the UK in April 1941. Commissioned two months later he joined 457 Squadron, which, based at Redhill, became part of the Kenley Wing. By the time the squadron departed for Australia in July 1942, when he was made a Flight Commander, he had claimed 3 Fw190s destroyed. His tour of operations in Darwin began on 16th January 1943 and during the next 12 months his total score had risen to 4 destroyed, 3 probables and 5 damaged. After a short tour as an instructor, Don finished the war back with 457 Squadron in Borneo, and was acting C.O. until disbandment. Don was awarded the DFC. |
| Flight Lieutenant W R Cundy DFC DFM MID *Signature Value : £40 Editions signed : Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | Cundy, W R (Flight Lieutenant W R Cundy DFC DFM MID) Ron Cundy commenced flying with 135 Sqn before being posted to the Middle East with 260 Sqn flying Hurricanes and later Kittyhawks. Returning back to Australia he flew Spitfires in defence of Darwin with 452 Sqn RAAF. In North Africa he survived an encounter with Marseille, and ended the war with 5 confirmed victories. |
 Flight Lieutenant John Bisley *Signature Value : £50 Editions signed : Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | Bisley, John (Flight Lieutenant John Bisley) Fl Lt John Bisley DFC Royal Australian Air Force, fighter pilot joined the RAAF in 1940 and was posted to England where he joined 122 Sqn RAF. On 29 March 1942 he flew a Spitfire off HMS Eagle and landed at Malta as part of operation Picket II. On 5 April 1942 Plt Off John Bisley was flying one of three Mk VB Spitfires of 126 Sqn RAF who intercepted 100 German aircraft attacking Malta. He was then attacked by 12 Me109s from JG-53 who took it in turns to attack two at a time to try and shoot him down and he was hit by 55 cannon shells. Fl Lt John Bisley DFC said I would flick the aircraft over, standing it on its wingtip just 5 or 10 feet above the water and pulll into a tight turn go part way then flick back the other way. He then made a wheels up landing at Ta Kali and watched from a slit trench as two of the 109s then strafed what was left of his Spitfire. This was the intense aerial air battles over Valetta in April 1942. Between the summer of 1940 and the end of 1942, Malta became one of the most bombed places on earth. The RAFs desperate fight to retain control of the diminutive Mediterranean island, and the defiant courage of the people of Malta, is one of the epic stories of World War Two. Bisley was awareded the DFC on the 7th July 1942. From April to early July, Bisley shot down a Junkers Ju88, a Ju87, two Me109s a Macchi MC202 and a half share in a Savoia-Marchetti SM.84. He returned back the England and then to Australia in August 1942 joinming 452 Sqn in Darwin flying Spitfire MKVs. On 20 June 1943, Flight Lieutenant John Henry Eric Bisley (402720) shot down a Nakajima KI-49 (Helen) (Squadron Leader R. S. MacDonald, and Flight Lieutenant D. Evans also each shot down a Japanese Helen or Sally.) John Bisley became a test and ferry pilot from 1944 and then a instructor at the Central Flying School. He left the Ryal Australian Air Force in August 1945 and after the war established an import export business. |
| Air Commodore Ken James *Signature Value : £40 Editions signed : Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | James, Ken (Air Commodore Ken James) A native of Victoria, Squadron Leader Ken James first served in the UK before going back to Australia in August 1944. He became CO of No.85 Squadron RAAF from September 1944 to March 1945, then No.790 Squadron RAAF in May 1945. Squadron Leader Ken James made the first Spitfire flight in Australia just before midday on the 25th August. He demonstrated the aircraft to an audience of assembled VIPs and film-camera men. After assembly the six aircraft were ferried up to RAAF Richmond, near Sydney, NSW. Leader Ken 'Skeeter' James later took charge of 457 squadron and ended the war with 2.5 victories. |
| Squadron Leader Ron MacDonald *Signature Value : £40 Editions signed : Commanding Officers Edition of 150 prints. Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | MacDonald, Ron (Squadron Leader Ron MacDonald) |
| Rt Hon Sir John Gorton (deceased) Died : 2002 *Signature Value : £50 Editions signed : Guardian Top End Edition of 75 prints. | Gorton, John (Rt Hon Sir John Gorton (deceased)) Sir John Grey Gorton (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002) was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia. He was elected Liberal Party leader after Harold Holt disappeared. |
| Aircraft Related to This Print |
| Spitfire |
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Signature(s) value alone : £205
Signature(s) value alone : £375