A?COMMEMORATIVE dinner at Langrish House hotel near Petersfield to mark the 80th anniversary of the first flight of a Spitfire fighter aircraft on March 5, 1936, was attended by East Meon nonagenarian Margaret Armitage, whose late husband flew one of the legendary planes during the Second World War.

The dinner, hosted by hotel owners Nigel and Robina Talbot-Ponsonby, also commemorated the hotel’s role during the war. In 1939 the house as it was then was commandered by the War Office and New Zealand troops were housed there, and in tents in the grounds. A small engineering works in stables next to the house, then owned by Nigel’s father, Edward Talbot-Ponsonby, was used to make munitions and Spitfire parts. Before the dinner, expert Colin van Geffen gave a talk on the aircraft, which was instrumental in winning the Battle of Britain, and preventing a German invasion.