We’re often privileged to receive some quite remarkable visitors to the Museum, all with a unique and special link to the de Havilland story. Non more so than 100-year-old Stanley Hills who – along with family members – recently visited from his home at Walton-on-the Naze.
Born in 1926, Stanley grew up in the Kings Cross area and joined the de Havilland Aircraft Company in June 1940, aged just fourteen. Living in London Colney, he was sent to Salisbury Hall where he worked as an assistant/tea boy to the Mosquito Design Team, remaining there for over a year until transferred onto Mosquito production at Hatfield. As such (and as far as we’re aware), Stanley is now the last surviving member of the Salisbury Hall Mosquito design/production team, it was therefore fascinating to hear his memories of life during this period!
Working within Salisbury Hall itself, Stanley also manned the telephone switchboard and clearly recalls senior staff members including chief designer Ronald Bishop, head of aerodynamics Richard Clarkson, M. Herrod-Hempsall, Tim Wilkins, experimental shop superintendent Fred Plumb plus the redoubtable Mrs D. Ledeboer, secretary to Ronald Bishop. Frequently negotiating the infamous rope bridge spanning the Salisbury Hall moat, he witnessed the prototype Mosquito under construction within the ‘Barn’ hangar located in the grounds of the house. However, on one such visit the rope bridge got the upper hand and Stanley accidentally dropped some valuable plans in the moat! He remembers the design and production teams working long hours to complete the initial Mosquito prototypes, all while the Battle of Britain and the Blitz were in full force. It is well known that a German parachute mine landed in a tree close to Salisbury Hall, Stanley clearly remembered this incident and the devastation it could have caused.
Perhaps Stanley’s most remarkable recollection concerns the maiden flight of Mosquito Fighter prototype, W4052, from a field at Salisbury Hall during the evening of 15 May 1941. To quote Stanley:
“It was after work at around 6.30pm. My friend Ken Simpson and I were standing at the bottom of the field behind the hangar (today this would be on the concrete hardstand forward of the Walter Goldsmith Hangar) and the Mosquito took off down-hill and directly towards us. It was a close thing, but it lifted off and sounded tremendous as it passed directly overhead!”
Stanley later assembled bomb doors on the Mosquito production line at Hatfield, before enlisting in the army at the age of eighteen. He served during the Second World War and went on to enjoy a remarkable and varied career.
It was an absolute privilege to host Stanley and his family; we very much hope to see them again soon.
Ian Thirsk
de Havilland Aircraft Museum
8th July 2026
Stanley visits the Mosquito prototype, and stands in the same spot where he witnessed W4052 taking off from Salisbury Hall in 1941