Suburban bliss with a Super Seven

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Several months ago, we published a little article about the wife of an R.A.F. officer from suburban west London, and her antics with his MG while he was away. The story was entirely a work of fiction from our fertile imagination, but we flatter ourselves to say that it might have been quite close to the truth.

We say this because we've just acquired this lovely picture of a suburban Shangri-La on the north-west fringes of London, which really does show a squadron leader's wife with a nifty little VSCC-eligible car. The location is 22 Harman Drive, a cul-de-sac close to the centre of Cricklewood, although it's hard to think of it as a part of London. With its tile-hung, cottage-esque æsthetic, it conforms very much to the interwar suburban ideal of 'the country in the town'.

The car is a charming little Triumph Super Seven fabric saloon of c.1930 vintage, and the presence of a blackout lamp shows that the picture was not taken before the outbreak of war. That leaves us to wonder, then, about the people concerned. A name has been jotted on the back of the picture: Sqn. Ldr. Downes, D.F.C.

While there were some woman pilots who served during the Second World War, we're pretty sure none would have been appointed as squadron leaders, so we suppose the woman by the car must be Sqn. Ldr. Downes's wife. Now, we confess that we've only done some amateurish Wikipedia sleuthing, but it transpires that there was (almost) such a man as described.

Nocturnal navigations in Mosquito fighters

Johnny Haddon Downes (1920-2004) grew up in Leicestershire and joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve when war broke out. He flew as a flight lieutenant navigator in the de Havilland Mosquito night fighters of 604 Squadron, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, he settled in London to pursue a career as actor and later stage manager in the West End, before joining the B.B.C. and becoming probably best-known for creating the children's television show Crackerjack. In 1951, he married singer and actress Barbara Whiting (no relation to her contemporary Hollywood namesake).

We admit that we might be completely and utterly mistaken, because although Downes flew as navigator to Sqn. Ldr. Dennis Furse, we have not actually seen any evidence that Downes himself was appointed squadron leader. It may be that the caption is mistaken, but it's more likely that we are...

Even so, supposing ourselves to be correct, this photograph could not have been taken too much before Downes's marriage to Miss Whiting, and we must say that the approximately 20-year-old Triumph looks like it's been cared for very well. Sadly, unless it's been exported or lost it's original registration number, we don't think it still exists.

This story made for some interesting research, even if the airman Downes we investigated isn't the same one referred to in the photograph.

Words: Zack Stiling; photograph: Stiling Collection
 

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