Toys and Mascots

Dapper in a yellow jacket, ‘Jumbo’ the elephant belonged to Warrant Officer Charles ‘Charlie’ Chambers. The hand-knitted toy had been a mascot for the crew of Charlie’s No. 51 Squadron RAF Handley-Page Halifax bomber DT568, of which Charlie was the sole survivor when the aircraft was shot down over the Netherlands on the night of 12 June 1943. Charlie subsequently spent time in Stalag Luft 6 prisoner of war camp at Heydekrug, and endured the gruelling forced march that took place when the camp was cleared.

Jumbo was spared all those horrors. The crew mascot had not been on board when the aircraft came down because its custodian, Flying Officer G. G. Adams, had been too unwell to fly. Years later, Charlie met with Adams’ widow, Elaine, who had continued to look after Jumbo following her husband’s death in the 1950s. During the visit, she entrusted Jumbo – now wearing two 1939-1945 Star ribbons – to Charlie, as the last surviving member of Halifax DT568’s crew.

‘Crazy Kiwi’ was the mascot for the No. 3 Squadron RNZAF team that flew Iroquois NZ3801 at ‘Helimeet 90’, held in the United Kingdom. As a result of new friendships forged during the competition, Crazy Kiwi was posted on exchange to No. 230 Squadron RAF, and their mascot ‘Flying Officer Tigger’ was posted to No. 3 Squadron in return.

During Crazy Kiwi’s time with No. 230 Squadron, he was deployed to the Persian Gulf for the 1990-91 Gulf War, and to Northern Ireland. He received the Gulf Medal with clasp, and the General Service Medal for his time in each theatre, while swapping his Field Service cap and Service Dress jacket for the RAF uniform that he now wears. His counterpart, Tigger, was meanwhile deployed to Australia, Samoa, Vanuatu, and Antarctica with No. 3 Squadron.

Two years later, at ‘Helimeet 92’, No. 230 Squadron returned the globetrotting Crazy Kiwi to No. 3 Squadron, who likewise handed over the well-travelled Tigger.

Captain Fredrick James ‘Jim’ Horrell served with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles at Gallipoli, then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, training as a fighter pilot in 1917. After war service that included periods of injury and hospitalisation, Jim returned to New Zealand in 1919, continuing to attend annual pilot refresher courses at Wigram as a member of the territorial New Zealand Air Force (NZAF). During one of these courses in 1926, Jim was involved in a fatal crash while flying a Bristol Fighter, becoming the first person in military aviation service to lose their life in New Zealand.

Jim’s sturdy owl mascot sports his RFC brevet in the same general area it would appear on a uniform. After Jim’s death, his widow, Alice, kept the owl. She called it ‘Bill,’ a potential nod to her own brother, Captain William Northey Lace, who died from a gunshot wound during World War One.