My father, Stanley R. Britton, was employed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Hatfield in Hertfordshire. During the Second World War the government decided that no civil aircraft should be permitted to operate east of a line drawn from Southampton to Edinburgh. This meant that no civil aircraft could fly into Hatfield to use the repair and service facilities. Accordingly de Havillands were obliged to find somewhere in the ‘free’ zone to continue providing the services. A senior staff member of the company, C.S. Thom, knew of the Witney aerodrome, it currently being the home of a flying club and was used during the previous war as a base for the RAF, so Philip Gordon Marshal who was later to be in charge made a reconnaissance and declared the site suitable, it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry on 27th September 1939.

By the following month a small team of Hatfield staff were transferred to Witney among these was my father who was involved in the stores department which was responsible for providing all the tools and replacements parts for the servicing of aircraft as well as my mother who was a fabric worker.

In 1945, many of the staff who had been pressed into service and had been exempted from military service because of their skills - some 1,200 were on the payroll during that period - were returning to their pre war jobs and homes. Because of the close-knit community it was suggested that a social organisation be formed, so the “DH Witney Association” came into being. This continued for many years after the war with regular annual re-unions usually in Oxford or Witney.

As time and age took its toll on the membership the Association was finally wound up in 1986 with the balance of funds being donated to the Witney hospital and all the memorabilia that was thought appropriate to preserve being passed on to British Aerospace at Hatfield. Much of the personal memorabilia that my father kept was passed on to me when both my parents died. The bulk of the original documentation was handed over to Witney Library who in turn I believe lodged it with the library in Oxford. It is all available for public access.

I have taken the following extract from some notes he made in his final newsletter to members at the time of the wind up in 1986. He was Secretary/Treasurer for the whole period of the organisation's existence and maintained close correspondence with its members who dispersed throughout the world and also compiled a regular newsletter which was sent to all members. He included it in a chapter under the heading of "Social Activities" - hence the comment in the second sentence.