A terraced house in Cardiff has been turned into a giant Remembrance Day tribute
A poignant mural that has appeared on a terraced house in Cardiff was put there as a memorial to a RAF pilot who was killed in World War Two.
The mural, showing RAF Hurricanes swooping over a field of poppies, was commissioned by Jack Hussey, 31, at the home he moved into in Elm Street, Roath, in January.
"It's a tribute to my great uncle who was shot down over Dunkirk in World War Two. He managed to swim to a paddle steamer and was rescued that time but not long after he went up again," said Jack.
"Him and two other pilots met a mass of German aircraft, radioed back to base to warn them and then went into battle."
Jack's great uncle Samuel Leslie Butterfield, known as Leslie, failed to return that day after engaging the Luftwaffe on August 11, 1940.
He was 27 years old.
Leslie Butterfield was born in Leeds in 1913 and joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1929 after being educated at Watford Boys Grammar School.
It wasn't until Jack's grandfather started to dig deeper into their family history that Leslie's incredible story came to light in full.
"Leslie was a childhood hero of my grandad and his older sister remembered him vividly.
Apparently, Leslie's wife used to follow him round to the different bases in a camper van and he used to tip his wings to her when he returned to let her know which plane was his."
Jack wanted this touching detail included in the mural and the leading plane can be seen tipping its wings slightly. The serial numbers on the aircraft in the painting match those of the aircraft flown by Leslie and his fellow pilots the day he didn't return home.
It seems that an interest in aviation is in the blood as Jack trained as an engineer and works in the civil aviation industry.
"I did all my education in Africa and we moved to the UK when I was 18 and I started an apprenticeship in engineering. I didn't know then but it was at the same airport that my great uncle used to fly out from," he said.
Jack also wanted to add the mural as testament to Elm Street in World War Two after talking to the landlady at the Croft Pub nearby.
"I got talking to the landlady and she told me the current pub is a replica of the original one that got blown up in the war.
"Elm Street and Croft Street were heavily bombed during the war and the area took a lot of damage. A mine was parachuted into the street and that flattened all the houses where the new builds went up on Croft Street.
"A lot of the houses on Elm Street were damaged too and you can see the cracks from the damage coming through the mural," Jack said.
He added that a lot of people in the area had complimented the mural and stopped to talk to him about it.
The painting took four or five weekends to complete and is the work of Newport-based artist Billy Windsor, from Fugly Art Society.
Billy said: "It was a bit of a juggling act going up the ladder and using two cans of spray paint at one time but I'm thrilled with the result and it's much better than I anticipated."It took between 40 and 50 hours to do in total and it's the biggest canvas I've ever worked on."
The mural was painted using spray paint and will stand as a permanent memorial to Leslie Butterfield and the people affected by the bombing of Elm Street and the surrounding area during World War Two.