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Cranston Fine Arts  Aviation Art World War Two Veteran Signatures UK and Commonwealth B  Baxter, Raymond |
Raymond Baxter
Spitfire pilot, and the voice of British aviation broadcasting. Raymond Baxter was born on January 25, 1922 in Ilford, Essex. In 1940 at the age of 18, Baxter joined the Royal Air Force and became a Spitfire pilot with the celebrated 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron, rising to the rank of Flight Lieutenant and being mentioned in despatches for his part in Operation Big Ben, when six of 602s Spitfires, converted to carry small bombs, attacked the Bataafsche petrol company in Holland to try to wipe out the headquarters of the German V2 rocket forces, which were the plague of London at the time. Baxter was also twice mentioned in despatches. In 1945 Baxter joined Forces Broadcasting in Cairo. After the war he was deputy director of the British Forces Network in Hamburg and went on to the BBC. Raymond Baxter is probabaly best known for being in the Tomorrows World TV series which he was involved with since the beginning in 1965. Raymond Baxter stayed with Tomorrows World for 12 years. A regular participant in the Monte Carlo Rally - he competed in no fewer than 14 of them - he showed his professionalism in the 1954 event when the car in which he was travelling skidded into a ditch in central France. Although shaken by the incident and sustaining a cut over his eye, Baxter immediately recorded a description of what had happened. On three occasions he was a member of a winning rally team. He was also an accomplished Formula 1 commentator. Baxter would also commentate at many major historical moments, the funerals of Sir Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten of Burma, the 1953 Coronation and the the annual Festival of Remembrance. He also commentated at many aviation events and also is know for his commentary for Concorde's first flight. A favourite recreation was boating. He served on the management committee of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and was vice-president from 1987 to 1997. As honorary admiral of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships he took a prominent part in events to mark the 60th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation in June 2000. Baxter was appointed OBE in 2003. Sadly Raymond Baxter died on September 15, 2006, aged 84.
| Raymond Baxter - Signed Aviation Art |
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| Text for the above items : |
Summer of 44 by Stuart Brown. MkIX Supermarine Spitfires take off for evening patrol of the Normandy coast, June 1944. |
Winter of 41 by Nicolas Trudgian. With the Battle of Britain won, and the first chinks in Goerings armour exposed, RAF Fighter Command is at last able to carry the war to the enemy. It is the bittersweet winter of 41. Mk Vb Spitfires, having taken off as the first streaks of dawn spread across the morning sky, return to a snow-covered airfield after a dawn patrol over the Channel. Inhabitants of the sleepy English village begin to stir with the familiar sound of Merlin engines, counting each and every one of their fighter boys home. |
Clipped Signature - Raymond Baxter. Flew as a Spitfire pilot with No.602 Sqn from 1940, but is best known as a television personality - he was the first host of Tomorrow's World on the BBC from 1965. He took part in the Monte Carlo Rally on several occasions, and frequently commentated on motorsport and aviation events. He died in 2006. |
Spitfire Special Delivery by Michael Turner. Flt. Lt. Raymond Baxters Spitfire Mk. XVI narrowly avoids a church spire as 602 Sqn. make a precision low level attack on the V1/V2 headquarters in The Hague on March 18th 1945. |
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