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  A wonderful reminder of days gone by. At our recent reunion, we were delighted to find that Ken Bruce has kept the box which once adorned his scooter. This was made circa 1959 and still looks, pretty much, as it did then. Thank you Ken!

 The story of the cat begins in November of 1957. Wing Commander Oakley had been replaced by Wing Commander (Tubby) Baker as C/O of 138 Squadron. He was given the unenviable job of ‘cleaning up’ the unit. The cat’s arse had been around the crewroom for some time and it assumed the role of symbolism for the ground-crews’ objection to the change of command and all that went with it. When the C/O went on night flights it would be drawn in the condensation of his cars’ windscreen, and only become apparent when he switched on his headlights. Yours truly (Nobby) made a superb linocut of the cat and set it into the lino of the Wingco’s office, under the mat in front of his desk. In 1959, while the Squadron was on a Sunspot Exercise in Malta, Nobby ‘acquired’ a building block of sandstone and spent the next several days, in the bottom of a bomb crater, carving the cat in 2inch relief into the stone. When it was completed it was shipped back to Wittering in a pannier on WZ389. From this point on it made numerous appearances at station events such as Football Games, Sports Day etc. Later, in June of 59, the squadron went on detachment to RAAF Butterworth in Malaya and Nobby wasted no time in getting a small stamp carved in Penang. This was then used widely back at Wittering. Nobby was posted off the squadron in October ‘59 and lost touch with the cat at this time. However,he has been assured that it’s popularity never decreased until the disbandment of the squadron in April of 1962. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know what it’s final resting place is. If ANYONE knows,please inform the Webmaster.

 This is, currently, the only photograph that

 shows ‘The Cat’ in all its’ glory.

 The fellow on the right (Trog Bailey) is

 wearing Nobbys’ long pants as his shorts.

 This is the sign of the spirit

 of us ‘Old Farts’. Ken Bruce’s 

 daughter, Michelle, has had

 this tattoo on her shoulder to

 to show her devotion to her Dad

 and also to the ‘Friends’.

 The revelation of this really

 caused a sensation at our

 recent reunion at Elvington.

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