07/04/2026
Many thanks to David Biscoe for the generous donation of this Airspeed Oxford Speed Limitation Plate.
For all David Biscoe’s life the above plate has been kicking around the Biscoe household in Portsmouth England. Never knowing where it came from David thought it was great fun as a teenager to mount it on the dashboard of his first car, a Morris Mini. He knew it was his father’s and it came from an aircraft, but sadly his father died before David knew how it came into his father’s possession nor which aircraft it came from.
David’s father, Arthur E. Biscoe, gaining his Pilot’s Wings on August 1942 at RAF Estevan Saskatchewan, and was immediately commissioned to Pilot Officer. Upset at not being able to help fight the war he was creamed off and trained to become a pilot instructor before being posted to RAF Penhold. He was at Penhold from November 1942 to April 1944 when he then went on to become a pilot in a de Havilland Mosquito MKVI. During that time, Arthur logged as an instructor in the right-hand seat, 775 hours in daylight and 182 hrs at night. He taught 105 students of which around 8% were commissioned after graduating. At various times during the war, he flew 168 variants of the Airspeed Oxfords, namely Mk I, II and Vs.
Incidentally, Arthur was born in Portsmouth England and lived only a few miles away from Portsmouth’s Airfield and the Airspeed factory. He was only fifteen years old when he may have seen the Oxford when it took its maiden flight in 1937.
Recently David visited Penhold to see where his father spent seventeen months of his life during WWII. When there David met Jodi Smith who took him to visit Vern and Dave and see their re-construction of an Oxford cockpit, using as many original components as possible. David mentioned he has an unidentified tally plate and later, via e-mails, Vern established it was from an Airspeed Oxford. David was astonished as realised his father must have taken it as a souvenir from a crashed Oxford at Penhold.
After eighty plus years the tally plate will cross the Atlantic for a third time and return to Alberta, long after it was manufactured in Portsmouth. This summer Vern and his wife met David in England while they were on holiday. David showed them both the site of the original Airspeed Oxford factory and later presented the plate to Vern. David is looking forward to revisiting Vern in 2027 to see the Air Speed warning tally plate back in its original location fitted within an Oxford cockpit once more.
