A LUCKY mascot that joined a Second World War pilot and former Marlborough College student when he flew over enemy territory has been rediscovered after 60 years.

Sally-Anne Greville-Heygate found the black cat amongst her father David Greville-Heygate’s other possessions hidden in a box while researching material for the biography she has written on his military career.

As a fitting tribute she took it up in the skies for the last time in a Boultbee Spitfire to celebrate the launch of From Sapper to Spitfire Spy which charts her father’s military career using his pictures and letters. He died in 2003 and is one of the few men who served in both the army and the Royal Air Force.

“It was a perfect day with a brilliant blue sky,” Ms Greville-Heygate said. “I was amazed how responsive the Spitfire was to the lightest touch on the controls.

“After performing a victory roll, we flew along the Sussex coastline at 500 feet just as David would have done when taking photographs of Normandy before the D-Day landings.”

Mr Greville-Heygate, who lived in Salisbury, was the youngest of three brothers and went to Marlborough College with his brother Charles.

After a year of studying at Cambridge University in 1939 he was called to the Army to operate a searchlight. During this time he would often visit Marlborough stopping at the Polly Tea Rooms in the High Street.

He was then posted to Portsmouth and in January 1941 was lucky to survive one of the worst nights of bombing in the city.

After ‘a bit of a row’ with his Brigadier and being labelled a rebel he transferred to the RAF and trained as an Army co-operation pilot at Old Sarum. Reconnaissance photographs he took of Northern France were used to plan the D-Day landings and he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for his work.

Out of the 36 boys who started at Marlborough with Mr Greville-Heygate, two were killed before the war, one died in a motorbike accident, six were killed on active service and two were taken prisoners of war.

Mr Greville-Heygate’s brother Charles also went missing and he never found out his brother’s fate. Years later his son and Marlburian Jeremy Greville-Heygate discovered Bletchley decoded signals sent from German vessels in the Bay of Biscay.

The Enigma messages reported they had shot down two aircraft which had attacked them. One of these proved to be Charles’ Blenheim.

From Sapper to Spitfire Spy is published by Pen and Sword books and illustrated using Mr Greville-Heygate’s own photographs and can be bought on Amazon.

A Facebook page from From Sapper to Spitfire Spy is also regularly updated with information, links and photographs.