World War Two fighter pilot James Harry "Ginger" Lacey is being honoured with a blue plaque this weekend at his birthplace - now the site of a German-owned supermarket. While WW2 pilots like Douglas Bader and Guy Gibson became household names, Lacey's story is less well known. James 'Ginger' Lacey: Battle of Britain pilot remembered - BBC News
Well I suppose you have to smile that the building is now the site of a German owned supermarket! He had quite an interesting life story and wartime career.
Local boy - there is plaque to him at the school in crossley street, wetherby. I remember these Villas but did not realise it was his birthplace, now demolished, thanks to Leeds Council and (bankrupt) Nidd Vale Motors. So it takes a German store, Aldi, to honour his memory! Flypast of spitfire, hurricaine and lancaster due at 1.55 pm today, low cloud permitting. I am going along.
That was the value of the AAF squadrons and the original RAFVR...weekend flyers for the future of their country....many would not have been able to afford to fly but found the RAF provided the means to fly. Ginger Lacey also was one of the many NCO pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain which dismisses the claims of some that the overwhelming majority were commissioned. As it was the AAF squadrons were absorbed into the RAF on 3 September 1939 along with their RAFVR .No 501 Squadron was first formed as a Reserve Squadron in 1928 and later became an AAF squadron when the RAF AAF structure was introduced. Sent to France on the outbreak of the Blitzkreig,by 19 June 1940 it was withdrawn from France to Croydon after a couple of daya at St Helier before the decision was taken to abandon the defence of the Channel Islands. Well remembered.........Per Ardua Ad Astra I note that the flypast is not on the BBMF programme but it looks like there is a window available either travelling up to, or returning from the Sunderland International Fair....with a bit of luck we might see the LHS returning down the Trent Valley en route to Coningsby....a little overcast at the moment... 1430hrs
Dark sky and low cloud so only the Lancaster turned up - still magnificent. Unfortunately public address system was not good but did hear that "Ginger" had taken on 50 Heinkels head on and received 87 bullet holes and still survived, shot down 9 times, twice from burning aircraft and managed on one occasion to land his Hurricane with its tail completely shot off. Awarded the Croix de Guerre for shooting down 5 German aircraft during Battle of France, was the highest scoring British Ace during the Battle of Britain with 18 kills and second largest number of kills of any British WW2 pilot. Famously shot down the German aircraft that had the audacity to bomb Buckingham Palace. In 1943 was supporting Gurkha troops in Burma where he shot down one Japanese plane. I noticed this well decorated Gurkha soldier in the crowd who beamed with delight when Burma was mentioned.
A few days ago, I passed by wet farmland beside the River Humber that had once been Paull Airfield. Today, there is little evidence that it was ever there, but I recalled a sunnier day some 50 years ago when it was being promoted for development by the then East Yorkshire Aero Co. One of its directors was the renowned JH Ginger Lacey and in the margins of conversation, the name Mutt Summers cropped up. Exactly why, I cannot remember. Lacey clearly knew him from Battle of Britain days - discussed below. The visitor in our party had met Summers (who had died in 1954) twenty or so years earlier in a memorial dedication event for those former pupils of Hull Grammar School who had been killed in the War. They had evidently both sat at the same desk (upper right classroom) albeit some years apart: Whichever, Ginger Lacey then recounted the time in the Battle of Britain, when Summers was attached to No11 Group in a non-combatant role, jisted below using another source: Summers' job was to test fighter aircraft used by the Group, visiting all their airfields. His status was such that if he said that an aircraft was not airworthy, it did not fly until specific maintenance was done to it. Pilots had to be given another aircraft until work had been completed on theirs. Testing aircraft was no easy option. Ginger Lacey had complained that the engine on his Hurricane was not working correctly and that he believed that the lack of acceleration was due to a faulty propeller (seemingly a not uncommon issue). After Lacey had landed his Hurricane, Summers took it up, levelled and tried to accelerate. The propeller sheared off, ripping off parts of the engine nacelle. Summers had to glide the stricken aircraft down to the ground - a 'Dead stick' landing. This was not an altogether rare procedure - but Summers had few options; he was seemingly not wearing a parachute. In addition to the worthy memorials for Lacey cited above by Gage, CL1 and Peccavi, there is also another - a memorial bench - at Flamborough, East Yorkshire, which seems to have been needing some attention, now sorted, as evinced by a recent (12 June 2023) decision from the local Parish Council: 34/23 To agree actions re the Ginger Lacey memorial bench - Resolved that the bench be now put in place. I presume this will be beside the parish war memorial in Tower Street. In May, I mentioned Mischief Night, pre D-Day spoofing operation validating, under the Landscapes thread: At the time, I didn't know that Ginger Lacey's last posting was seemingly as OC of the then RAF Bempton radar station: RAF Bempton - Wikipedia but sort-of knew that he continued to live in Flamborough after he retired and was also involved with a local parachuting club at Grindale Field, with an interesting Subject anecdote offered at: Grindale - UK Airfield Guide I only read that piece yesterday, but it set me thinking and ....... yes, you don't forget the date of your first parachute jump: It was actually the following day, postponed due to high windspeed. Well, if you're going to stand apprehensively outside the fuselage and waiting for the signal one footed on a wheel, holding a wing strut at 3000ft, it's good to have full trust in the pilot. Members might be interested to note: Flying ace’s wartime memorabilia sold at auction Had I known, the items might have gone for a tad more. So, one on the list for the ww2talk Local War Memorial thread - unless someone else is passing before me - and separate follow-up on the former Hull Grammar School memorial plaques, for requests/corrections to: Hull Grammar School WW2 I hope they're at Tranby. Just on a vague 'what if', I've just looked at a couple of scruffy old schoolbooks from Hull Grammar and noted: the rather illegible pencilled name top left. Bonkers! This is from a Blackie & Son school Shakespeare (Richard II). Text books had to be bought by pupils at the time, so were often re-sold on. Tricky for some. In the 20's, I think a good third of scholars had lost their fathers in the Great War. Anon, could it have been Joseph's/Mutt's, or his brother Maurice's - I am presuming he also went to the Grammar? Both eventually became test pilots, Maurice (on the left) also ferrying the first Liberator across 'the Pond': and in due course becoming the Governor of the New York Stock Exchange, inter alia.
