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Name: |
Stella Taylor | |
Biographical Details: | |
Stella Taylor comes from one of the families whose members worked for the Sopwith/Hawker companies down the generations. Her mother’s eldest brother was on of the first Sopwith Aviation carpenters and her cousin – Colin Bedford – was working at Richmond Road when it closed in 1992. She herself worked for the company between 1941 and 1945 where – based in the Drawing Office – she operated the filing for all the technical drawings and committed much of the index system to memory. | |
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Name: | |
Ron ‘Dick’ Pullen | |
Biographical Details: | |
Ron Pullen was a native of Byfleet, Surrey, whose early interest in aviation was sparked by the proximity of Brooklands airfield. He joined Hawker Aircraft at Brooklands in 1936 aged 13 initially as a timekeeper’s boy and as a general dogsbody and teaboy. Within a few years however he was working on Hurricane production in the Brooklands Flight Sheds and got to know all the Hawker Test Pilots of the day, including Chief Test Pilot ‘George’ Bulman. He left Hawkers to join the Royal Air Force during the war, serving in North Africa, but afterwards returned to Brooklands and had a long career in aviation with Vickers. He now lives in Wales but remains very proud of his early association with the Hurricane and the role it played in the victory of the Battle of Britain. |
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