Squadron Leader Preston-Potts and his wife
Photograph of Squadron Leader Preston-Potts and his wife.
Courtesy of Ms Annabelle MacNeill
The Station Commander of the RAF base on Tiree between 1943 and 1945 was Squadron Leader Preston-Potts. A fighter pilot who had been injured in the Battle of Britain, he was left with a burned face and had to travel regularly to the mainland for treatment.
He was quite fearless and won a pilots’ bet as to who could fly lowest over the Officers’ Mess; he flew so low he cut the telegraph wires with the wheels of his plane. Once he swam out to defuse a mine bobbing offshore.
A great lover of speed, he would career along the narrow Tiree roads in an open-top jeep offering lifts to locals, who were left shaking in their shoes at the end of the journey.
Black and white photograph of Preston Potts and his wife, from Annabella MacNeill`s collection.
The Commanding Officer of RAF Tiree Preston Potts and his wife sitting on a jeep. (Original stored in filing cabinet 8 drawer 4)