Chocks away! New exhibition in Leeds celebrates RAF's links with M&S

But the achievements of Simon Marks, the Leeds-born son of the founder of M&S, stretch way beyond the world of retail.

He also played a key role in the formation of the RAF Cadets in 1938, personally donating £18,000 – around £700,000 in today’s money – to get the organisation up and running.

And now a new exhibition at the M&S company archive in Leeds is celebrating the historic links between the retail giant and the Royal Air Force.

Items on display include copies of the Forces Bulletin, a publication produced by M&S to keep employees up to speed with events back home while they were serving their country in the Second World War.

Also on show are an M&S fire bell and a melted coin float recovered from the wreckage of the company’s Plymouth store after it was destroyed in an air raid in 1941.

The opening of the exhibition came as M&S announced plans to raise £500,000 to commemorate this year’s centenary of the founding of the RAF.

Money raised in stores up and down the country for the RAF100 Appeal will be used to provide scholarships, training and university bursaries for air cadets and school pupils from underprivileged backgrounds.

M&S chief executive Steve Rowe said: “M&S and the RAF have made a mark on one another’s histories since 1938 when Simon Marks helped create the RAF Cadets.

“But our connection with the RAF runs deeper than our shared history – the RAF’s values of integrity and service mirror our own.

“The RAF’s spirit of relentless innovation, that has led it to flourish 100 years after its inception, reflects our own transformation from our entrepreneurial roots as a Leeds market stall to becoming a British retail institution.

“On behalf of our customers and colleagues we are proud to be celebrating 100 years of the RAF and its vital contribution to our nation.”

Mr Rowe attended yesterday’s opening of the Marking RAF100: M&S and the Royal Air Force in WWII exhibition with Air Vice-Marshal Mike Wigston, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff.

To help the RAF100 Appeal fundraising, M&S has produced a limited edition men’s leather flying jacket that went on sale online and in selected stores yesterday.

The jacket has been called The Marksman as a tribute to the M&S staff who raised £5,000 in 1941 to fund a new Spitfire which also had that name.

M&S began life as a penny bazaar at Kirkgate Market in Leeds in 1884.

The bazaar was opened by Michael Marks but it was his son, Simon, who spearheaded M&S’s greatest period of change and expansion.

He was chairman of the company for 48 years and developed its famed St Michael brand as well as other innovations such as a staff welfare service.

The M&S company archive has been based in the Michael Marks Building at the University of Leeds since 2012.