Donald Victor Francis born 5th July 1919
Celebrating his 90th birthday earlier this week was a well-known Exmouth personality, Don Francis, who spent the whole of his working life in the aviation industry. Son of a Metropolitan Police Officer, then an instructor at the Hendon Police College, on leaving school Don started his career with the nearby Handley Page aircraft company. Joining the staff of its technical office he was soon working on calculations for the company’s Harrow, Hampden and later, Halifax bombers.
Picture above is taken after ‘Wings’ Parade reading a letter from wife to be Joan.
In 1937, with Hendon airfield nearby, Don enlisted in the R Aux AF, joining No 604 County of Middlesex Squadron as an aero-engine fitter. In 1938, as the storm clouds of WWII gathered, his Squadron was mobilized and later Don decided to leave the Auxiliary to join the mainstream RAF. For the first two years of the war he served in his ground trade but when, in 1942, a shortage of aircrew gave him an opportunity to fly, he immediately volunteered and was accepted for training as a Navigator.
Pictures above shows Don in an Anson, Navigator training, Winnipeg area,1943
Successfully completing his training in Canada, Don returned to the UK where he joined No 23 Squadron based at Little Snoring, Norfolk. It had recently been reformed and was equipped with the highly versatile Mosquito. At this stage the Squadron’s main tasks were ‘intruder missions’ which involved flying at low-level deep into Germany and attacking enemy airfields and transport targets such as barges and railway locomotives. Don once described their role as ‘shooting at anything we fancied and making ourselves a bloody nuisance!’
Successfully completing his first tour of thirty-five ops, Don became an instructor on ‘night fighter techniques’ and, now a warrant officer, was offered a commission as the war ended. However, he decided to return to Handley Page and resume his career in aeronautics. This progressed rapidly, moving first to de Havilland and then to English Electric where he rose to become Chief Draughtsman.
It was now the era of guided missiles and another opportunity opened for Don when he rejoined de Havilland as their Chief Draughtsman for the ‘Blue Streak’ project. Even today, Don is still registered as a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Finally retiring from British Aerospace in 1981, Don decided to settle in Exmouth. Keeping many of his service links, in 1991 he founded the Exmouth (later East Devon) Branch of the Air Crew Association and has watched it grow into one of the country’s most successful branches. He remains active as their Vice-President and is also a keen supporter of the town’s RAFA Club.
For Don, a widower for many years, approaching his ‘four score years and ten’ has seen no lessening of his zest for life, particularly foreign travel which in recent months has included visits to the Far East, Mexico, the USA and Canada as well as a number of European destinations. Even the computer age has not daunted him and within the last month he has purchased his first computer and is happy to tell his friends how he has broadband and is mastering ‘the web’. Don’s many friends, joined by his three sons, wish him good health and the ability to continue his enjoyment of life for many years to come.
The photograph below is of No 23 Squadron, Little Snoring, Norfolk. Don is immediately under the port inner cannon. Don says Joan, his wife to be, wrote every day (as did he). They lived out unofficially when he was on ops and if asked ‘I could bore you with a few stories of that time!’
No 23 Squadron, Little Snoring, August or September 1944
The following article has also been sent in by Don Francis aware that many members, such as himself, may find the article entitled: ‘Flight of the Mosquito’ interesting.
This article is from the Winter 2009 issue of Confound and Destroy
