THE PETER FARRAR COLLECTION

A tribute to Peter Farrar (1920-October 1991)

Peter Farrar established a large collection of 1=72nd scale model aircraft,culminating in 1956-57 as the worlds biggest single collection of model aircraft  he gave exhibitions up and down the country mostly in aid of charity,here are cuttings from my collection describing both him and his models.

I had the great pleasure in corresponding with him during the fifties when he lived at 107 Barton Road,Torbay,we used to exchange wooden aircraft recognition models to mutual advantage,my 1=72nd scale Avro Vulcan B.1,Vickers Valiant and tiny Auster A.O.P.6 came from his surplus stock,in return went recognition models of the Savoia Marchetti SM.84,Bristol Brigand which I discovered at Riddy's Army Surplus store in Coventry,all obtained at a remarkable 5/- yes five old shillings each !

Enjoy looking at the numerous examples in the pictures and see how many that you can identify ?

Peter Farrar inspired me as a youngster to build up a like collection of scale models which was eventually achieved and now eclipses several thousand models,Peter reached the 1,000 mark before his untimly and sudden death in 1991,but that was a lot for its time as they were mostly hand built from wood as solids,or converted from those black basic recognition models.

The 'Reveille' newspaper June 17th 1957  did a centre spread,here it is-

And the 'Flying Review' magazine November 1957 reported the collection like this-

Likewise the 'Aeromodeller' gave some excellent insights into this collection-

If you have any memories or cuttings or photographs of this historic collection then I would like to hear from you,thank you.