Final salute to the Secret Spitfire teen who helped WW2 heroes take wing
Tributes to ‘unsung’ engineer Norman as he dies aged 98
AN “unsung hero” who secretly helped to build Spitfires during the Second World War has died.
Norman Parker, 98, was a schoolboy engineer and one of the last living workers who constructed more than 2,000 fighter aircraft.
They built parts in car garages, sheds, workshops and factories in Salisbury, Wilts.
Norman was just 14 years old when he joined a few hundred others, mainly women and children, to take part in the crucial project.
Many of the women were hairdressers and secretaries who retrained as engineers, while most youngsters were school-age.
All those involved in the project had to sign the Official Secrets Act so that the Germans would not find out. The legendary aircraft were produced in piecemeal, with the parts coming together to be assembled in one factory.
From there, they were taken to nearby airfields and flown to RAF bases across the country to battle the Luftwaffe.
The workers were so prolific they accounted for 10% of all Spitfires produced during the war. Salisbury was chosen for manufacturing after Spitfire factories in Southampton were wiped out by German bombs in September 1940.
Norman was instrumental in their story finally being told in the 2016 film Secret Spitfires and got the thrill of flying in one two years later.
Afterwards he said: “I can’t believe it happened. I sat in the cockpit, which was fairly tight, only just enough room, and then off we went. It was almost a blur.”
He then launched a successful campaign for a £75,000 memorial to be built to recognise the workers’ wartime contribution.
A 30ft fibreglass Spitfire was unveiled in 2021 at an air hangar at Old Sarum airfield.
Norman, from Amesbury, who was married to Joan and had two daughters, died earlier this month in a nursing home after a short illness. He was described as a “unique man who lived life to the full”.
The Secret Spitfire Charity said Norman had an “unwavering passion” for the aircraft. “Without Norman, it is possible that this special part of Britain’s history could have been lost forever,” it said.
“The Secret Spitfires workers were the unsung heroes of the war. Without them, we would have run out – and the consequences would have been too horrible to contemplate.”