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Shepley, Douglas Clayton (Entry 38- 39)Born in July 1918 in Carlton-in-Lindrick, Nottinghamshire Shepley moved to Woodthorpe Hall, Holmesfield, Derbyshire when he was eight years old.%u00a0%u00a0After attending Oundle School (1931-1935) he joined his father's business before following his older brother George into the RAF in 1938.%u00a0%u00a0He entered Cranwell and received his commission in late 1939.%u00a0%u00a0He was posted to 152 Squadron at RAF Acklington, Northumberland.%u00a0%u00a0The squadron received their first Spitfire Mark 1s in December of that year and were operational by early 1940.%u00a0%u00a0152 Squadron flew south to RAF Warmwell in Dorset with the task of protecting the naval base at Portland.%u00a0%u00a0During the Battle of Britain he claimed two confirmed victories, both Bf109s, on the 8th and the 11th of August.%u00a0%u00a0On the 12th, Douglas Shepley and Flt Lt Latham Withall were both reported missing after a sortie off the Isle of Wight.%u00a0%u00a0Douglas was flying Spitifre K9999 and Latham Spitfire P9456.%u00a0%u00a0Both pilots were reported lost at sea.After Douglas's death, his mother Emily and his widow Frances started raising money to buy a Spitfire for the RAF.%u00a0%u00a0They both worked energetically towards their target and with the help of citizens of North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, they organised a variety of fund raising events such as dances, concerts, jumble sales and house to house collections as well as collections in public houses, theatres and cinemas.%u00a0%u00a0Contributions came in from the Sheffield A.R.P who gathered donations from all their local posts.%u00a0%u00a0After 15 weeks of hard work they had achieved their target of %u00a35,700.Spitfire W3649 was selected for the family, and the name 'SHEPLEY' was placed on the panel below the cockpit.%u00a0%u00a0Spitfire W3649 was a Mark Vb and was issued to 602 Squadron on the 16th August 1941, just over a year after the death of Douglas.%u00a0%u00a0The aircraft also served with 303 (Polish) Squadron before ending up with 485 (New Zealand) Squadron, and became the personal aircraft of Group Captain Victor Beamish DSO, DFC carry the code FV-B.%u00a0%u00a0Beamish was reported missing in the aircraft on 28 March 1942 over the Channel.http://www.152hyderabad.co.uk/html/shepley_spitfire.html

