Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 7th January 2025
Spitfire Makers plaque no 12
was unveiled today at the University of Southampton.
Generously funded by the University the plaque commemorates the association between Supermarine and what was then University College, Southampton.
The unveiling was carried out by University Vice-Chancellor, Mark Smith, and Biology Department lecturer, Lex Kraaijeveld, who had been instrumental in promoting the plaque.
A short piece about the event was put out on the local BBC lunchtime news and a longer, different version will be screened tonight on BBC South Today during the half hour programme at 6.30pm.
Among the guests at the unveiling was Shirley resident Christopher Tong, whose father Cyril Donovan Tong was one of the design office team. When Cyril returned to the office after the bombing attack on 26th September 1940, he found it had been holed by a bomb that had come through the roof and then his desk before exiting the side wall of the building and landing in the mud of the River Itchen below!
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 14th January 2025
More from the unveiling event last week
A bit of background to our unveiling event last week, put together by the two BBC reporters who came.
Click here to view on BBC.com
It also gives me the opportunity to add something left out by the reporters…our thanks, once again, to Brian and Carl from the Shirley Men’s Shed who installed the plaque for us. Great job!
Posted on Facebook by Alan Matlock – 16th January 2025
That’s TV Solent interview
After last week’s BBC South Today coverage of the plaque unveiling at The University of Southampton, our chair, Alan Matlock, was invited to do an online interview with That’s TV Solent.
He explained how The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust have been unveiling blue plaques around Southampton to commemorate the sites of Spitfire production and to honour those who became Spitfire Makers in these places.
The news item went out on Freeview Channel 7, on the 15th January 2025.
The Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust 