Above: A picture of Butch Bester SAAF pilot in the 1950s, standing in front of one of South Africa’s Spitfire Aircrafts

I received a call a few years back, saying someone had bought a watch in to one of the pawn shops he deals with, wanting to find out what value his watch was worth. The shop owner gave him an estimate of gold value and then remembered he knew a guy that dealt in watches too. “My” guy then asked for a few pictures and, on receiving, saw there was an engraving on the back. The engraving read………

Knowing i had a bit of a military watch obsession, my guy called me and explained the situation. When he forwarded the pictures, that the pawn shop had taken, i nearly fell off my seat! This was really a piece of history…and exactly what gets me excited. I told him i was excited and would love to buy the watch. He asked for 5 minutes and was to call the shop owner back and make an offer to the owner…..”Mr Bester”. After approximately 15 minutes i became impatient and called my guy back again. Apparently Mr Bester had already left!!!!! Well, this shouldn’t be a huge problem………..i’m sure we could just call him back and explain that there was now a collector who attached more than just gold value to the watch and would then be able to make a substantially higher offer. Unfortunately the shop DIDN’T take his number and we had no other details apart from his name. I was gutted! Looks like i had just missed out on a real piece of South African Airforce history.

ABOVE: The first pictures i received of the watch

The next few days were consumed by trying to find the missing PILOT. I was running into dead end after dead end. Finally, through another contact i knew in the South African Airforce, i had a lead. The lead was someone involved in the Spitfire restoration project. In true fashion…….as always seems to happen……..we got chatting……and chatting………..and chatting……..Turns out i knew someone who had a warehouse of KUDU aircraft parts that they would be able to offer to someone who had Spitfire Aircraft parts that they needed!! …..It was a match made in heaven!!

The gentleman agreed he would let Butch know that i was trying to get hold of him. A few days went by and I heard nothing……… I was starting to worry. I decided to call my contact back again and let him know. We chatted a bit and he then agreed to give me his number so i could call him myself.

I called, but there was only a generic voice mail……..Over the next few days i called numerous times but over and over again i got the same voice mail.Then a few days later I received a call………..It came up on my phone as “BUTCH TEST-PILOT” as i had stored it in my phone. This was the call i had been waiting for!

We chatted for sometime and then agreed to meet up a week or so later.

We met at his house approximately a week later. I went there with my son James who also shares an interest in Vintage watches and militaria. The meetup lasted around 6 hours………..What an honour it was to meet this true Gentleman, who was now in his late 80’s.

He enrolled in the South African Airforce in the late 1940’s. He lived in South West Africa (Namibia) and wanted to study at the University in Pretoria and had read that this could be done through joining the South African Airforce. So he wrote a letter to them and posted it off. A month later he received a reply to say that he had been accepted to join the Airforce and would be able to study at TUKS university at the same time. He replied and accepted to start at the beginning of the next academic year, and was sent Railway tickets and food vouchers for the long trip to Pretoria.

In summary, he joined the South African Airforce in the late 1940’s, and was in the air and flying Spitfires in the early 1950’s. By the age of 21 he had shaken Winston Churchills hand and met the Queen of England. (Apparently the South African Airforce presented themselves to the United Kingdom in the 1950’s).

He flew Spitfires, F-86 Sabre Jets, Impala (Aermacchi) jets, Kudu’s, Vampires and just about every fixed wing the SAAF had to offer!

South Africa obtained a license to produce the MB-326M (similar to the ‘G’ model), as the Impala Mk I in 1964 with production starting in 1966. It received 40 Italian-built aircraft followed by about 125 built locally by the Atlas Aircraft Corporation, using them both as trainers and in an armed configuration. Butch’s task, and the reason for the awarded watch, was to “Test Fly” each airplane that cam off the production line. He was sent to Italy in the early 1970’s as he recalls, and attended a dinner with the head of the Aermacchi company. It was at this event that they presented him with the Vacheron Constantin watch in its lovely presentation box. The caseback was engraved to thank him and also aknowledge the 1000 hours he had flown as a test pilot for these aircraft. SEE IMAGE BELOW

Butch also Test flew the prototype Atlas AL60-C4M Kudu, that flew for the first time on the 16 February 1974 from Lanseria Airport. At this stage he was now officially the Test Pilot for the Atlas Aircraft Company.

ABOVE: The watch and presentation box awarded to Butch Bester at a Gala Dinner in Italy in the early 1970’s at Aermacchi.

ABOVE: Butch’s promotion to Second Lieutenant in 1954.

“You must at all times train the officers and men placed under you well and competent in the use of arms and do everything in your power to maintain good order and discipline among them. And I command that they obey you as their superior and that you take into account and carry out the orders and directives that, in terms of the trust placed in you, you receive from time to time from me or from every officer who is your superior, in accordance with the rules, orders, directives and regulations established or to be established for the management and discipline of the said”

ABOVE: A certificate to confirm a flight of over 1000km/h in an F-86 Sabre Jet……in 1956!!

An amazing project undertaken by some amazing guys. Click on the image above to follow the Start to Finish restoration of the South African Airforce Spitfire.