De Havilland Dove/Devon

Ive just remembered that the last Devon I ever saw was the BBMF one, it did some circuits at Barkston Heath one day.

There was another Devon; XA 880 was operated by RAE Llanbedr under a 'Nugget' callsign then when Llanbedr became a T & EE, the callsign changed to 'Tee -bird'. Don't know what happened to it when T & EE ceased operations at Llanbedr.*
I'm not too sure it was originally procured by MOD as a Devon though as it had the fully transparent cockpit canopy whereas 'Devons' had opaque tops to their canopies to keep the sun off the pilots. Always looked very strange when it visited Farnborough and was parked alongside the Transport Flight aircraft.
* Found a photo of it parked outside a Lamella, so maybe it went to Wroughton?

Some interesting information on VP961 This aircraft was built at Hawarden Cheshire UK in 1948 for the De Havilland company. Initially it was delivered to the Air Ministry
and then the Royal Air Force. It spent sometime with the Air Attach with the British Embassy in Jakarta Indonesia. It was taken into the Queens Flight shortly after her accession to the throne.

In 1952 was designated the personal aircraft of His Royal Highness Prince Philip who learned to fly twins in this aircraft at RAF White Waltham and flew it subsequently on 67 occasions. Whilst with the RAF it was placed with 207 Squadron at RAF Northolt and RAF Wildenrath.

After discharge from the RAF it was purchased by a group of enthusiasts at North Weald and registered as G-ALFM. It was acquired by Roger Byron-Collins of Welbeck Estate Group in 1996 whose father as a Master Navigator served with 207 squadron in the early 1950s at RAF Waddington on Avro Lincolns and RAF Marham on B29 Washington. He re-joined 207 squadron at RAF Northolt in the 1960s and flew VP961 with 207 Met Comm squadron.

After it's sale in 1996 it was reregistered as G-HBBC to be operated by Roger Byron-Collins' company BBC Air. It underwent a GBP 300,000 overhaul resulting in it being acknowledged by the aviation community at that time as being the best presented Dove in the world. It was initially based for 6 years at Bristol Filton together with Roger Byron-Collins' other aircraft a Sea Devon G-RNAS from Yeovilton and from 2003 to 2011 at Compton Abbas. It won many trophies since it was discharged from the RAF. It travelled on a multitude of occasions to Oslo Norway and the south of France. HRH Prince Philip revisited his former aircraft at RAF Northolt in 1999 and was delighted as it's restoration and condition.

In 2011 it was sold to a Norfolk Architect Roger Gawn the owner of the former technical and domestic site at RAF Sculthorpe. The aircraft was removed by road from Compton Abbas to RAF Sculthorpe so hopefully it will be airborne once again.