... appropriately enough, the long-time Beeb presenter and Second World War Spitfire pilot, Raymond Baxter, died in hospital at Reading today - Battle of Britain Day - aged 84.
He was a lovely presenter, warm and always willing to have a bash at a variety of physical challenges, in spite of not being in the first or second flush of youth. South Today has shown a brief clip of him looking very well last year, when he recounted how he met his wife. It transpired that at one of the many Sussex airfields where he was based, the Spitfire boys were taking on the Americans in their Thunderbolts for a few spontaneous dogfights for fun. Baxter's boss got a call from his oppo in the American camp, saying that maybe they needed another outlet for their energies, and proposing a party night 'before someone gets their butt shot off'.
Baxter and his co-pilots attended, where he says he saw 'this most beautiful young woman - an American nurse', to whom he became engaged and married 'just as soon as they stopped shooting at us', a union which lasted a very happy 51 years.
He was a lovely presenter, warm and always willing to have a bash at a variety of physical challenges, in spite of not being in the first or second flush of youth. South Today has shown a brief clip of him looking very well last year, when he recounted how he met his wife. It transpired that at one of the many Sussex airfields where he was based, the Spitfire boys were taking on the Americans in their Thunderbolts for a few spontaneous dogfights for fun. Baxter's boss got a call from his oppo in the American camp, saying that maybe they needed another outlet for their energies, and proposing a party night 'before someone gets their butt shot off'.
Baxter and his co-pilots attended, where he says he saw 'this most beautiful young woman - an American nurse', to whom he became engaged and married 'just as soon as they stopped shooting at us', a union which lasted a very happy 51 years.
