About the Archive

Before 1975, if you visited the St George and Dragon Inn, Clyst St George and turned your eyes upwards you would have noticed that the entire ceiling in the lounge bar was covered in the signatures of wartime service men and women, The ceiling was taken down in July 1975 as part of a refurbishment project. Fortunately, a number of panels were rescued by the quick thinking Gordon Taylor of Taylor Paints, Bishops Court, Clyst St Mary and kept in storage. In 1997, Tom Harcus relocated them to the RAFA in Exmouth where they were displayed for a while before once again going into storage. In 2010, we visited the RAFA Exmouth and with their kind permission took the remaining panels away to begin a 12 year labour of love research project. There are now 20 frames under glass containing fragments of the ceiling panels together with a collection of frames of accompanying research information.
The very sorry state of the ceiling panels, which we acquired in 2010, meant that it was a miracle that it was possible at all to preserve any signatures beyond photographic evidence. It really was a case of photographing the names before the surface literally flaked away.
Our website has been compiled by Suzannah and Robin Holwell as a tribute to all those brave wartime personnel who fought to secure a good future for us today. If you have found this site interesting or personally helpful, please consider a donation to the RAF Benevolent Fund
Suzannah and Robin Holwell