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WW2 plane crash seat looking for new home

Laura Stopforth An older man and woman standing next to a grass verge. On the verge is a green piece of metal, which is the shell of a seat.Laura Stopforth
Jack Bartley's plane was shot down on the French-Belgian border in 1940

The daughter of a man whose plane was shot down over France during World War Two is hoping to put the pilot's seat in a museum.

Laura Stopforth, from Tilehurst in Berkshire, now owns the Bristol Blenheim seat, which was found by a French farmhand following the crash.

Her father Jack Bartley, the aircraft's gunner and wireless operator, survived the event and was reunited with the item decades later on a trip to the Ardennes.

Ms Stopforth said she wanted the piece of history to be preserved for future generations.

A green, battered piece of metal with holes in. It roughly resembles the shape of a chair. It is sat on some blue carpet.
The holes in the seat are thought to have been caused by shrapnel or bullets

Aged 19, Mr Bartley was part of No. 21 Squadron, based out of RAF Watton in Norfolk.

On 14 May 1940, during the bombing raid on a convoy of German tanks in northern France, his plane was shot out of the sky.

"My dad thought he was a goner I think," Ms Stopforth said.

"In his memoirs, he describes being able to see the trees beneath him brushing the fuselage, and truly thought he was going to die."

Crash-landing in woodland, Mr Bartley sustained multiple shrapnel wounds, but survived along with his two crew members.

The trio were assisted by a local young farmhand named Gilbert Taton.

Getty Images A World War Two plane flying through the sky. It is painted in green camouflage colours.Getty Images
Mr Bartley was flying in a Bristol Blenheim, a British light bomber

The veteran was offered a chance to return to the site near L'Échelle in 2005, and met with a local historian who reunited him with Mr Taton.

"Gilbert took my dad to a barn around the back of his house, and took out from there this chair," Ms Stopforth said.

"He told my dad how he had managed to squirrel it away from the plane on the day that it had crashed."

'A living piece of history'

Mr Bartley kept the seat, which had lost its upholstery and was full of, thought to be from bullets or shrapnel.

He donated it to a World War Two aviation museum in France, where it was displayed for 15 years.

The museum closed down earlier this year and Ms Stopforth inherited the seat.

She said she was appealing for another museum or heritage site to house the item, which had become even more precious since her father died in 2014.

"To me it's a real living piece of history so it needs to be somewhere where other people can appreciate it and understand the story," she said.

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