Memories of Capt D.F. O'Sullivan BOAC Test Pilot

[tamjk]

Evening.

I write this to ask if anyone on this forum has any information, online articles, photos, videos, etc involving one D.F. O'Sullivan of BOAC.

Capt. O'Sullivan would have been born around 1915 - 1920 and, after serving in the RAF during WW2, joined BOAC. Despite having the third commonest surname in Ireland, he was born in the UK and very much RAF in his way of doing things. My understanding is that he served as a longhaul pilot before becoming a test pilot at the latter stage of his career. He contributed technical articles and reviews to reputable flight journals.

He was active in BALPA and provided a share of support to Capt Thain of Munich Crash (1958) until his eventual exoneration in 1968.

Unfortunately, like so many WW2 veterans, his later middle years were blighted by health matters and he could not therefore be involved in the Concorde programme that was the excitement of the late 1960s.

This may or may not be true, but I have a vague recollection of someone saying that there was a plaque that has his name in the underground chapel at Heathrow.

[OvertHawk]

I regret that i cannot contribute.

You might benefit from posting this on the Aviation history and nostalgia forum.

Best of luck
OH

[tamjk]

OvertHawk

Thanks - that's a better forum for this sort of thing all right.

[Bergerie1]

I knew him as Mike and flew with him many times. He was a lovely man to fly with and very knowledgeable:-
https://www.vc10.net/Memories/DailyMailRace.html

[browndhc2]

Captain O'Sullivan contributed a number of technical articles to the BOAC Flight Crew magazine "Horizion". They are extremely well written and his technical knowledge and humour shine through. I gather he retired in 1969.

[tamjk]

Originally Posted by Bergerie1

I knew him as Mike and flew with him many times.

I was going to put his used name in quotes after his initials but wasn't sure if it was self-adopted, imposed by wartime fellow pilots (as his surname was the third commonest in Ireland and all Irishmen were either Paddy or Mick) or a bit of both.

I wonder if there was an obituary in the national press (Times, Telegraph) or perhaps in Horizon.

[Squipdit Fashions]

Hi Tamjk,

As you mention D. F. O'Sullivan's service in the RAF in WW2. and that he was 'very much RAF in his way of doing things', you may already be aware; but best match in the London Gazette seems to be as follows:

• 14th Jun 1944 - GENERAL DUTIES BRANCH Appointment to commission As Plt. Offs. on probation. (emergency): Flt Sgt [...] 1549408 Donal[?] Francis O'SULLIVAN (177841).
• 14th Dec 1944 - ROYAL AIR FORCE VOLUNTEER RESERVE. GENERAL DUTIES BRANCH. Confirmation and promotion. Plt. Offs. (probation.) confirmed. in appts. and to be Flg. Offs. (war substantive.): D. F. O'SULLIVAN (177841).
• 1st Sep 1945 - Award of Distinguished Flying Cross - Acting Flight Lieutenant Donald Francis O'SULLIVAN (177841), R.A.F.V.R., 78 Sqn.
• 14 Jun 1946 - Promotion. Flg. Off. to Flt. Lt. (war substantive.); D. F. O'SULLIVAN, D.F.C. (177841).

So the records above would suggest pre-commissioned service as a Sgt, then Flt Sgt, prior to 1944; and posted to 78 Sqn during 1945; therefore probably flying Dakota IVs from Cairo, as part of 216 Group of Transport Command, after the end of the war. Demobilization of RAFVR pilots following cessation of hostilities began in earnest in Aug 1945, and continued throughout 1946-7, which would tie in nicely with a move to BOAC post-war, IMO. I've yet to find a DFC citation though.

(for clarity - there is also a Desmond Francis O'SULLIVAN (151430) listed in the Gazette but he was killed in the crash of Lancaster LM127 into the North Sea on a raid to Kiel 27th Aug 1944 and buried in Esbjerg, Denmark )

Hope that's of help,
Squipdit Fashions.

[Squipdit Fashions]

Hi again Tamjk - once again, you may already be aware;

Also from The London Gazette: 12th Jun 1965 - Queen's Commendation for valuable service in the air - Captain Donal Francis O'SULLIVAN, Senior Captain, British Overseas Airways Corporation

From 'The Log' (Official Journal of BALPA) Vol 20: "Vice-Chairman... Captain D. F. O'Sullivan, DFC"

And from 'Aircraft Engineering' (1965) Vol. 37 (10): (Page?) 330: "On September 15, 1965, Minister of Aviation Mr Roy Jenkins presented three Queen's Commendations and five British Empire Medals on behalf of the Queen. The Queen's Commendation recipients were T. R. Pigden (BEA), D. F. O'Sullivan (BOAC), and S. P. Jenkins (Royal Aircraft Establishment), while recipients of the British Empire Medals included L. J. Ralls."

Which together, seem to indicate that your BOAC senior captain, Vice-chair of BALPA and DFC recipient with RAF Service No 177841 are one and the same; and named Donal (rather than Donald, as per the - seemingly erroneous - Gazette entry for the DFC in 1945).

From your other research, do you have any more crumbs to feed the search - perhaps any details of the events leading to the awards of the DFC or QCVS ?

[Squipdit Fashions]

And following the Munich/James Thain link; from Hansard, Vol 753, debated on Thursday, 9 November 1967: "Aircraft Accident, Munich (Captain Thain)"

11.29; Mr. W. R. van Straubenzee (Wokingham): "...Through the initiative of the captain of the aircraft—Captain Thain, who is my constituent—these additional statements, or certainly some of them, are available. The documents which I have with me, the work of Captain O'Sullivan and Captain Thain, have been put together in a careful and readable form and have not, as far as I know, been seen by the Minister."...

11.45; Mr. F. V. Corfield(Gloucestershire, South): "I, too, have read the document, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. van Straubenzee) has referred, which has been prepared so painstakingly by Captains O'Sullivan and Thain. I have no doubt, having done so, that there are some very grave question-marks over the validity of the findings of the German Commission...."

[tamjk]

Squipdit Fashions

Nothing much.

I know of his relentless work for Thain from other sources.

I believe that he died rather young, say in the '70s or early '80s. Not unusual for the RAF's glorious generation - the strains of WW2 and the hard years of post-war work took their toll on these chaps.

You know, the problem one has with these chaps is that each and every one of them was quite remarkable: heroic, self-sacrificing, modest to a fault, kind and would run a mile from any sort of public fuss about them.

So to ask one of this generation to provide biographical detail on another would hardly produce much that would show them as anything other than what they were: ordinary chaps dragooned into national defence from their late teens and living a much quieter though no less heroic life thereafter.