Memories of an ex-Launton boy: August 2025

This month the ex-Launton boy has just been to a Battle Proms concert at Burghley House - a Christmas present. He loved the music, but for him the high point was a fly-over by a Spitfire, and a precision parachute drop. These, of course, brought memories from his youth: of Brass - or were they Silver - Bands, of planes and parachute drops, and of learning to play recorders at Launton School.

Wow! Have Julie my wife and I had, over these last couple of days as I write, an absolutely fantastic weekend! Julie’s grandson, Jordan, gave us a fabulous Christmas gift last year - a trip to Burghley House in Lincolnshire for an evening of Battle Proms and a garden picnic.

The live outdoor orchestral music was brilliant with the 1812 Overture backed with real cannon fire (over one hundred) firing at the appropriate moments. We had a display from the Worcestershire Cavalry with the backing of orchestral music, then from the air the Red Devils Parachute team free-falling before chutes opened, trailing different coloured smoke, one carrying a fully-opened enormous Union Jack, and landing smack on the marker on the ground. Absolutely incredible!

But then, oh boy! The Spitfire came onto the scene with double cockpit doing, I lost count of the number of ‘victory rolls’ in the sky, timed to perfection with the orchestral music playing in the background. But nothing could beat that throaty roar of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine of the Spitfire as it spent at least ten minutes flying above us in various aerobatic moves. Such power and such beauty, you cannot watch it without a tremendous welling-up of emotion from deep inside. To watch it is one thing, to fly it, I just cannot imagine, but boy, would I love to go up in one.

There were wartime favourites sung by a duet in the style of The Andrews Sisters (young ones, you won’t have a clue!), and then of course the Last Night of the Proms favourites and sing along with a great big, and I mean a great big finale of fireworks, choreographed with the music.

My dad would have been thrilled to witness this as he adored this kind of thing, along with Silver Bands and Brass Bands. If there was notice of a band playing in the bandstand at Garth Park in Bicester, he would be there listening. I seem to recall from childhood, and a bit later, there used to be a village band from Marsh Gibbon. I have a sneaky feeling it was a Silver Band and I know they were very good and extremely popular around the local villages. To quote a poet and playwright of some considerable distinction, “If music be the food of love, play on . . .”

Those of my era at Launton School will remember when Mr Holtham the Headmaster left and Mr Clive Bond arrived, from the Reading area I think. I had never been taught to read music or play any instrument, so was excited when Mr Bond had delivered to the school a full range of recorders - descants, trebles, tenors and maybe a bass also. Many of us took these up in an effort to learn to play. As I recall, the first tune we learned to play was Greensleaves. Not satisfied with recorders alone, Mr Bond had some of us building from tea chests and broom handles a kind of one-stringed double-bass. We began to look and sound like a skiffle group . . . eat your heart out Lonnie Donegan!

But going back to the Battle Prom, the vision that keeps swooping through my mind is that of the Spitfire performing its aerobatics in the air, swooping down towards us all on the ground. It was quite sensational, leaving the memories of my childhood in Launton quite tamely behind, when we used to watch and hear the Chipmunk light aircraft flying solo or tugging gliders to gain more height than if they were being launched by a winch at the Stratton Audley stone pits end of the airfield. Somehow those Chipmunks didn’t have the ability to stir the emotions that the Spitfire can so clearly do. That said, not living far from Rochester airport, we constantly have light aircraft flying overhead which is a constant reminder of ‘home’ for me.

And then of course, watching the Red Devils freefall parachute team, albeit rather more theatrical, reminded me of how in my childhood in Launton I would watch Argosy, and then later Beverley RAF transport aircraft, circling towards the end of West End, part of their flying circuit to drop paratroopers over Weston-on-the-Green airfield. These would be their first aircraft drops, having previously jumped from baskets slung beneath air balloons.

The Battle Proms at Burghley House were sponsored by SSAFA, (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association) for whom I am a Caseworker. The first prize in the raffle was a tandem freefall parachute drop from an aircraft over Netheravon in Wiltshire, strapped to a member of the Parachute Regiment. I purchased £25 worth of raffle tickets (all in a good cause for SSAFA) in the hope that I might win, never having jumped from a fixed-wing aircraft during my military career, although I had jumped in full battle-order from a hovering helicopter. (It should have been hovering at six feet, and so I gauged my jump accordingly, but at the precise moment I jumped, it lifted to ten feet and I landed in a heap on top of my Troop Sergeant). Needless to say, as far as the raffle was concerned, I did not win.

Before Covid, Julie and I managed to get up to a summer fete in Launton at the Playing Fields with a fly-over display from a WWII Hawker Hurricane, which was in itself pretty stupendous. That said, if there is one aircraft I would dearly love to see doing a demonstration flight, it is the De-Havilland Mosquito, sporting not one but two Rolls Royce Merlin engines: the body was mainly made of wood so was very light and very fast.

On the way home we drove past the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, with a tremendous array of aircraft down the ages, both military and commercial. I have been promising to visit the place for some years now, but have yet to get around to doing so. It’s on my bucket list, along with umpteen other things.

Keep healthy and stay SAFE!

TonyJeacock, MInstRE | The ex-Launton Boy | August 2025