In the mid 1990s, I was commissioned by the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden Aerodrome in Bedfordshire to produce a number of small paintings to help commemorate the collection’s 50^th anniversary and to celebrate the name of Shuttleworth in engineering excellence.

The centrepiece of my tribute was a painting that we called Shuttleworth Salute depicting the collection’s magnificent Spitfire Vc in ‘Vic’ formation with their Hawker Hind and Gloster Gladiator over Old Warden aerodrome. So pleased were they with the finished painting that it was suggested that the Shuttleworth family be approached to ask permission to ‘lift’ Richard Shuttleworth’s signature from his flight log book and have it printed, as if in his own hand, on each print. To everyone’s delight, permission was granted, citing that Richard would dearly have loved to have signed the prints himself were he alive to do so.

Shuttleworth Salute by Ivan Berryman.

The engineering firm of Clayton and Shuttleworth was founded in Lincoln in 1867 and almost immediately began producing steam engines and steam traction engines of which they built some 10,000 examples. My painting shows a typical Clayton and Shuttleworth steam traction engine about to start work on forestry duties, hauling logs and providing the power to saw them. One such machine was being lovingly restored at Old Warden at the time that I produced my painting.

Iron Workhorse by Ivan Berryman.

It was between the wars that the young Richard Shuttleworth began to form what is now the collection that is so admired all over the world. Only he had the foresight to preserve machines that were quickly being superseded and becoming obsolete. He was a man obsessed speed and built himself an enviable reputation as a racing driver, frequently taking part in events at Brooklands as well as many overseas events. He frequently practised his driving skills by thrashing has Alfa Romeo racing car around the perimeter tracks of the family estate in Bedfordshire – much to the chagrin of the many groundsmen and animals that shared the trackways. My painting shows Richard in the British racing green Alfa at Donnington.

Bravo Shuttleworth by Ivan Berryman.

In 1928, Richard purchased the Panhard Levassor motor car that still runs regularly today - even though it was almost thirty years old when he bought it!

This unique car regularly took part in the London to Brighton rally and it is at the start of this event that I chose to depict this historic vehicle for it was this very machine that sparked the entire collection that we see today. Visitors to Old Warden flying days will enjoy seeing this landmark vehicle trundling along the flight line as if 100 years had barely passed.

London to Brighton by Ivan Berryman.

For Richard, sadly, his time was short. At the outbreak of World War Two he joined the RAF as a service pilot, but lost his life in a flying accident whilst piloting a Fairey Battle in 1940. But his legacy, thankfully, lived on due to the foresight of his mother, Mrs Dorothy Shuttleworth OBE, who founded the Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Rememberence Trust.

During the war, the collection was put into storage and the airfield at Old Warden pressed into service as a maintenance facility. In many ways, it is still such today, as well as being a fine museum and education centre.