Not only was there a publicity driven collection of metals "to build Spitfires", but public donations of money were often centred about towns, Chatham was an example. With the planes often named for their donors.
I have 15 receipts given to my Aunt, Winnie Smitherman, in respect of money collected around Castle Road, where she lived. The first is dated 5th September 1940, and then weekly until 12th December, with a single 1941 collection on 2nd February. I do not know if more was collected, this is the only evidence that I have.
The total of these receipts was £43 4s 2d. There was an interesting few moments adding them up, it's 50years since I did that form of addition, and rusty doesn't describe it! Win was a cashier (at the Co-op?) so like my paternal grandfather would have breezed through such addition. Watching my 80year old grandfather simply run a pencil down the side of the three columns then write the total at the bottom was a party trick that I marvelled at as a teenager.
The newspaper cutting was in with the receipts, I would have been proud to have got such a public mention.