Originally Posted by
Ian Burgess-Barber
The contribution made by the Polish and and Czech pilots should never be forgotten, especially for their sterling performance in the BOB. My father's primary instructor at 3 EFTS in June 1942 was a F/O Meretinsky. I have never been able to learn anything about him - would love to know his story.
Ian BB
Are you sure it wasn't one of the three Imeretinsky brothers, George, Michael and Constantiine? Russian/Georgian Royal Princes who all served in the Royal Air Force , and one of whom, Prince Michael, won the AFC.
extracts from wiki
George was educated at Lancing College. In 1916 he was granted an honorary commission in the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, at the request of the Russian Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Holding the rank of lieutenant he was wounded in the Battle of the Somme in 1917, and served with the regiment until 1920. Later he was an officer in the Royal Air Force, a Cresta champion, and was well known in Bentley racing circles, being a correspondent to various motoring journals. He married first in 1925 Avril Joy Mullens, divorced 1932, and secondly in 1933 Margeret Venetia Nancy Strong. His two younger brothers, Mikheil and Constantine were also educated at Lancing, and joined the Royal Flying Corps.[4]
Prince George died in Cheltenham on 24 March 1972.
Michael Imeretinsky was born to a Georgian father, "Serene Prince" George Imeretinsky (1872–1932), and a Russian mother, Lidya Nikolayevna Klimova (1880–1956), in St. Petersburg. He descended from the royal dynasty of the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti, which had been conquered by the Russian Empire in 1810. Like his elder brother, George, Michael Imeretinsky received his early education at the Lancing College in the United Kingdom and enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps as a sub-lieutenant in 1918. He fought in both World War I and World War II, serving as a squadron commander of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the latter occasion. He was decorated with the Air Force Cross.[1] After his retirement from the military, Imeretinsky lived in the United Kingdom and France. He devoted himself to agriculture, being—as his obituary put it—"a prominent member of the Soil Association and a well-known horticulturist in France."[2] In 1975, he died, aged 75, in Nice, being the last direct male descendant of the kings of Imereti