THE inclusion of the facsimiles of the Yorkshire Evening Press for May 8 and May 10 1945 certainly got the old memory banks kicked into action!

I was eight years old at war's end.

Being ex-New Earswick it was the article on the front of the May 10 issue brought memories back.

Entitled "Earswick Goes Gay" (not a headline you could use these days I would doubt!), I recognised so many of the names in the "event winners - flat races" paragraph as they were all my contemporaries.

One of them, John Daltry (mis-spelled as his name was Dealtry) was my next-door neighbour in Cherry Tree Avenue.

Many years later John went on to run the Post Office in Clarence Street, opposite Fentons Bike Shop.

While going through a load of old photos in an equally old suitcase which had belonged to my Mother I came across a small envelope.

Inside were a couple of cuttings from the Evening Press and a receipt from the Mansion House dated October 2, 1940, with the heading "Spitfire Fund". It thanked my brother, Malcolm Roe, and myself for the donation of five shillings (25p in modern terms) towards the purchase of a Spitfire.

One of the cuttings, which lists all the money various people had donated, says, "with the latest donations the fund now stands at approximately £6,600 and a cheque for £6000 has been sent to the Minister for Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook.

"This leaves £600 in hand towards the purchase of the city's second machine, which is to be a Hurricane fighter."

Could any readers answer two questions?

1 Did the aforementioned aircraft have "Donated by the people of York" painted on them, or something similar, and

2 Which squadrons did the aircraft go to and what happened to them?

Philip Roe,

Roman Avenue South,

Stamford Bridge,

York.

Updated: 09:46 Saturday, May 07, 2005