Southend Harvards

[davebasing]

While digging out the old logs for the Lasham yard I was reminded of a trip to Southend even further back in 1961. Freddie Laker's Aviation Traders had bought a job lot of 252 ex RAF Prentices for civil conversion (reportedly bought for £5 a go, for sale when civil converted at £2,000). He transported these to Southend and Stansted but the type was heavy on fuel and the timing coincided with the development of more modern light aircraft in the US so hardly any were,  actually converted and the rest (despite having G- registrations allocated and in most case daubed on by hand) were scrapped at the two locations. On that day in 1961 we were able to crawl all over the lines at Southend, logging 87 unconverted RAF examples (we probably missed reading some). However, we also noted a few ex RAF Harvards also derelict there which were piled tightly together and, with one exception, defied identification (although some codes were read off). Also I logged another type coded CX which (in my youthful inexperience) I noted as a Typhoon (of the Hawker variety), though this now seems probably unlikely?

Over the years I have never come across any lists of these Harvards or the mystery CX, other than simple references to the Harvards being there. So, if you don't ask you don't get, is there anyone out there who knows??

[chrisj]

Dave , I can not recall hearing of these Harvards at SE , usually only the Prentices are mentioned . Now there are quite a few scans of Club magazines available from this period as you probably know . The milaviation site has had several including the WLAG and Anglia Aviation / Southend aviation all available to down load . Then there is the Air Britain cds but these can take a time to go through to find anything . Finally Air Pictorials are becoming available but I think not yet this far back . Oh , LAAS are slowly scaning their magazines but available only to members . May be worth a troll through during the next wet and dull day ? Chrisj

[davebasing]

Thanks Chris. I used to subscribe to those 3 back in the day but so far drawn a blank other then references to the pile of Harvards but with no serials given. Its only been 62 years after all!

[chrisj]

I know what you mean . I constantly go over old logs as various bits of information pop up . Chris

[graham]

I took a look and on PlaneBase, it lists all of the Prentices that were sold to Aviation Traders, it seems that most, if not all were allocated a civilian registration although some may never have actually worn it. As you say, many were shipped to Stansted but the list gives those that were definitely scrapped at Southend and those definitely scrapped at Stansted and a few other locations. I'm still trying to find the Harvards, you guys may already have this Prentice list but if not, then here it is. These were all scrapped at Southend in the very late 50s.

AOKA
AOKB
AOKE
AOKG
AOKI
AOKJ
AOKP
AOKR
AOKS
AOKM
AOKV
AOKW
AOKY
AOLB
AOLC
AOLD
AOLE
AOLF
AOLG
AOLH
AOLI
AOLJ
AOLL
AOLN
AOLS
AOLT
AOLV
AOLW
AOLX
AOLY
AOLZ
AOMA
AOMB
AOMC
AOMD
AOME
AOMG
AOMH
AOMM
AOMT
AONI
AONJ
AONL
AONN
AONO
AONX
AOOB
AOOC
AOOF
AOON
AOPG
AOPJ
AOPK
AOPN
AOPT
AOPU
AOWU
APJD
APJG
APJI
ARGA