The earliest document I have of my family’s association with Shorts is a letter dated 15 May 1915 from the company responding to my Grandfather Frederick Quittenden for the position of storekeeper at the Eastchurch Aeroplane works, Isle of Sheppey. The letter originally stated a weekly salary (subsequently cut out by my Grandmother) and requested that my Grandfather travel to Sheerness Dockyard Station where a representative would meet him about obtaining a pass, which was necessary for the District. My Grandfather must have replied on 24 May requesting a higher salary as we have a second letter stating we “shall be pleased to engage you at the salary you name.” As with the first letter the figure was carefully removed (no doubt my Grandmothers doing)! Whilst he worked at Eastchurch my Grandparents lived in Danley Terrace, Sheerness East and were issued with Defence of the Realm Permit Books (see image).These books were passes which allowed them to travel to/ from the island, which was a German target. My mother was in her teens and recalled one frightening episode where she was playing on her father’s allotment behind the house and a man ran out of the power station and shouted “Run for your lives!” A German Gotha then dropped a bomb where she had been standing. My Grandfather then relocated to Rochester, eventually rising to the position of Foreman of Stores. My Mother Margaret Louise Quittenden and my Aunt Rose Quittenden both worked as office clerks after leaving school but it was Company Policy that women had to leave when due to marry, so my Mother left in 1927. We have a list of fellow employee signatures who contributed to her wedding present.

My Uncle Hugh Boddy  also worked at Shorts in the Drawing Office is the 1920’s-30’s as a Costing Clerk and my Uncle Percy Shepherd (husband of Rose) also worked at Shorts in management role. In fact both my Grandfather and Uncle Perc appear in the 1936 Flight magazine photo of Shorts employees titled ‘The Short Team: some of the men who have made the firm world famous’ alongside Oswald Short, Arthur Gouge and John Lankester Parker OBE. Uncle Perce was part of the team who visited Japan in 1930-31 to help them build flying boats.

Their time at Rochester coincided with some major pioneering events including Sir Alan Cobham’s survey flights to Australia and back (26,000 miles), departing Rochester on 30 June 1926, and around South Africa (20,000 miles)  departing Rochester on 17 November 1927 (he became the first man to achieve these feats). They also witnessed the development of the Short Mayo Composite – the piggy-back plane. The survey flights to Australia used a DH.50.J seaplane with Short Brothers floats and the South Africa flight used a Short Singapore I flying boat. We have my Aunts scrap books which include drawings, photos and newspaper articles of the survey flights as well as Annual Dinner brochures (see the gallery section).

My father Edward Hubbard had served as a Shipwright’s Apprentice at Chatham Dockyard and then worked at Rochester Gas Works. By the late 1930’s he had transferred to Shorts and was working as an Aircraft Inspector at the Rochester Airport factory building Short Stirlings. Uncle Perc by this time was General Works Manager at Rochester Airport in charge of Stirling production. On 14 March 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the Short Brothers works at Rochester and Uncle Perc was one of the members presented to them. We have a copy of the Royal Visit Brochure. In 1940, Rochester Airport was bombed and part of the Short Stirling operations was moved to Swindon, Wiltshire with Uncle Perc and my Father and family moving there. A while ago we purchased a DVD which included a WWII Ministry of Information documentary produced in 1942 titled ‘Speed Up on Stirlings’. This was filmed at South Marston, Swindon and can be watched in the ‘Film’ section of the website. Uncle Perc (Percy Shepherd) features prominently and explains how Stirling production was sped up by producing parts of the planes in different factories with the planes then assembled at the main erection works in South Marston (the hangars still remain at Thornhill Industrial Estate, South Marston). I was born in Swindon – put down to a change of bed! When heavily pregnant my mother and sister were walking along Marlborough Road when a German Heinkel bomber flew low with machine guns blazing forcing them to dive behind a brick wall. This was the second close shave my my Mother experienced with the Germans, and my Brother-in-law to be witnessed the episode as well from his school. 

Another story relates to Uncle Perc who had a short temper and either as a result of a disagreement or as a joke John Lankester Parker (Shorts Chief Test Pilot) flew a Stirling low over his house during the early hours of the morning frightening the life out of everyone! Towards the end of the war Mum and Dad moved back to Medway where Dad was employed as an Inspector in the plate shop at Wingets. The only direct recollection I had with Shorts was being able to watch the flying boats taking off and landing on the River Medway in the late 1940’s from a high vantage point at my house in River Drive, Strood.