had served three years with 41 Squadron as a young officer, following his graduation from RAF College, Cranwell in 1925. However, no amount of nostalgia would save the unit from the Government's budgetary axe. On 15 January 1958, as a part of a scheme to reduce the size of RAF Fighter Command, 41 Squadron fell to the same fate as 600 and 615 Squadrons had before it, and were also disbanded. With the departure of 41 Squadron from RAF Biggin Hill ceased to be a Fighter Command airfield, its infrastructure now deemed out of date for the requirements of modern warfare. The runways had become too short for the RAF's newest generation of aircraft and, as a result of encroaching development and civil air paths which now passed above, the base was no longer in a practical location. Fighter Command officially departed from the airfield on 1 March 1958. This gave 41 Squadron the curious distinction of being the last fighter squadron ever to be based at Biggin Hill. The departure of the unit marked the end of an era for the Station in every sense of the word, as thereafter it was relegated to non-operational status and only used by the London University Air Squadron. However, as with 41 Squadron's 1946 disbanding, this, too, was a mere technicality. On 16 January 1958, just a day after being disbanded, 141 Squadron, based at RAF Coltishall, near Norwich in Norfolk, dropped the '1' at the beginning of its number and was thus reborn as 41 Squadron. In doing so, they automatically absorbed 141's all-weather Gloster Javelin FAW.4 fighters and personnel. 41 Squadron's standard, originally presented only six months previously, was handed over to 141 Squadron on 16 January 1958 in a short ceremony attended by Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Fighter Command, Air Chief Marshal Sir Thomas Pike, and by 11 Group's Air Officer Commanding, Air Vice-Marshal Victor Bowling, himself a veteran 41 Squadron pilot from 1935. Only remaining at Coltishall six months, the squadron moved to RAF Wattisham, near Ipswich, Suffolk, on 5 July 1958, where the Gloster Javelin FAW.4s were replaced by FAW.8s in January 1960. By this time, 56 Squadron had also joined them at the station. Whilst there, they hosted French Air Force Dassault Super Mystère fighters during President Charles de Gaulle's state visit in April 1960. 41 Squadron called Wattisham home for approximately five-and-a-half years, before the unit