The long road to recovery
It had buried itself deep into a field at Greenway Court, Hollingbourne in Kent.
The picture shown is that of an identical Spitfire Mk 1a to P9364.
They had tried many times to get Sergeant Scott recovered, but the farmer at that time had been told that it was the wishes of the pilot's family that he be left where he crashed, (we know now this was not true).
Al Brown was adamant it was Sgt Scott, but the problem was they could not trace his family and desperately needed the backing of his family if they were to get anywhere.
This went on for years.
(They were looking for a Scott family in Mansfield. The Scotts were in Balby. His Mother in Mansfield, was now called Kent).
Then in 1990, Al had a break-through.
He put an ad in the Nottingham Observer asking for any information on the whereabouts of Sgt Scott’s family.
They soon had a reply from Sgt Scott’s half-brother Albert Kent. They wrote back giving Albert the telephone number of Malcom Pettit.
A couple of days later Pettit got a phone call from Albert.
When he was told they knew where Ernest was, Albert broke down and cried, he then told Pettit that his Mother had been informed that her son had gone missing over the Wash, off the East Coast. In fact, Al Brown had a copy of the Kent Police reports of downed RAF Fighters, which clearly stated Spitfire P9364 had crashed at Greenway Court, Hollingbourne.
The sad thing is Sgt. Scott’s mother died in 1971, not knowing what had really happened to her son.
Two days later, Albert came down to see Pettit, who took him to Greenway Court and showed him the field where he was convinced his brother’s remains were buried.
Albert was in tears, he could not believe it, how cruel the authorities had been to his mother, after all, her son had given his life in defence of his country. Pettit took Albert to the farm house to see the land owner, Hughie Batchelor, who was not the easiest of men to deal with.
They knocked on his door, the door opened and there stood a rough and ready looking man.
Pettit explained who he was and told him who Albert was.
Albert put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a photo of his brother and said, "Please sir, can you let this man recover my brother's Spitfire and his remains?".
Batchelor replied, “Have you got a JCB?”
They replied that they didn't.
He said, “I have, you can use that and I have a driver who can do it tomorrow Saturday.”
They both left very happy, when Pettit got back to Tonbridge, he dropped Albert off at his hotel and went home.
As Pettit walked in to his front door, his wife said Hughie Batchelor had phoned and said you are not to go anywhere near that field on Saturday.
Pettit then had to phone Albert and tell him what Batchelor had said - he was heartbroken.
Pettit told Albert he could do no more, Albert would have to write to the powers that be.
Albert went back home to Mansfield and started writing, initially without success.
In the end, he wrote to the then Prince of Wales, (now, of course, HRH King Charles III).
A few days later, things started to happen, the Police cordoned off the whole area and an RAF recovery team moved in.
So, on 15/16th December 1990, a team from the RAF's Aircraft Salvage and Transportation Flight at RAF Abingdon finally started to dig up the wreck of Spitfire P9364.
As was policy, they stopped extracting wreckage when they found the remains of the pilot. Documents found, confirmed that it was indeed, Ernest Scott.
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(Note: Most of the above information was taken from the Tonbridge Battle of Britain Museum site.)
