In the 1960’s teenager Dave Mace was a keen and dedicated cadet member of 42F (King’s Lynn) Squadron of the Air Training Corps. By 1967 he had risen to the rank of Cadet Flight Sergeant and, in addition to the available activities locally, in 1966 attended an overseas camp at RAF Wildenrath, Germany and in 1967 represented the Corps at an International Air Cadet Exchange (IACE) in the USA.
At the Squadron’s 1967 awards ceremony, Dave’s total commitment saw him presented with the annual ‘Best All Round Cadet’ cup. Shortly after this he left the cadets to join the ranks of the nation’s wage earners.
Fast forward almost half a century and we find Dave in a family attic where he comes across ‘his’ trophy. Realising that it should have been returned 47 years ago he contacted his friend Mike Lister, who just happens to be the current chairman of 42F’s civilian committee, and returned it to him.
The cup is now safely back at the Squadron Headquarters, but as yet the final amount of the ‘late return fine’ has not been fully calculated!!!
This is the second ‘historic’ cup to return to the Squadron in the last two years, the first one being the Inter Flight Cup last presented in 1941. Commenting following this latest recovery Mike Lister said “Over the last few years we have been able to recover a number of important items from the Squadrons history, either being returned to us or from auctions and even eBay, including photographs and items belonging to one of the Squadron’s founding fathers, Claude ‘Pop’ Freestone. If anybody out there has any historical items connected with 42F Squadron we would dearly love to acquire them for the Squadron’s archive”.