05/15/2020. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "In 1955 ten D.H.104 Doves (serialed XJ319 to XJ324 and XJ347 to XJ350, c/n 4420, 4441, 4415, 4421, 4409, 4410, 4392, 4406, 4401, 4453), all but one ex-civil, were delivered to the Fleet Air Arm of the RN under the designation Sea Devon C.Mk. 20 for operation by part of No. 781 Squadron at RNAS Lee-on-Solent as the Southern Communications Squadron.

Three more newly-built Sea Devon C.Mk. 20s (serialed XK895 to XK897, c/n 04472 to 04474) were added in January 1956 for scheduled services to naval air stations and special flights abroad which earned them the Boyd Trophy for efficiency in 1959.

When replaced by Sea Herons in May 1961, the Devons soldiered on in various roles for a number of years and subsequently stored. Eventually all were disposed of on the civil market.

Serialed XK895, the pictured aircraft was delivered to the RN at RNAS Lee-on-Solent on April 17, 1956. After a short time in storage at 5MU RAF Kemble, it was transferred in 1981 to RNAS Culdrose Station Flight, where it spent the remainder of its military career.

It came on the UK register as G-SDEV on March 29, 1990, but was registered as a D.H.104 Dove Mk.6, the equivalent civil version of the Sea Devon with de Havilland Gipsy Queen 70 Mk.2 engines.

It was reregistered four times, the last was to the Aviation Heritage Ltd. at Baginton, Coventry, on June 20, 2005. On February 13, 2013, the aircraft was transferred by road to the Classic Air Force museum at Cornwall Airport near Newquay. The museum closed in 2015 and the aircraft was transferred, again by road, to the South Wales Aviation Museum near Saint Athan in June 2018. The registration was cancelled on January 4, 2019."