There is a brass plaque in Newtimber church, W Sussex, commemorating a squadron leader who died in , I think, 1926, in a race to fly to South Africa from the UK. Will try to take a note of his name when I am next there.

The vicar objected.....
 

......to a suggested epitaph. Think excited Malaysian officer who felt that the RAF pilot who (he said) had saved his life "Thank you, you shi' ho' pirot".
Eventually it was sneaked onto the plinth at a later date. (and yes, he was).

The Ancient Mariner

There is(was) a plaque on Thorney Island which read(s)

"In September 1933 the pilot of a Fury Aircraft of No 1 Fighter Squadron crashed at this spot. Representatives of the RAF who came to investigate the crash observed the unique suitability of the adjoining land as an airfield and their recommendation subsequently resulted in the building of this aerodrome.

He died not in battle yet not in vain."

Why Not
 

' Why Not. '

Further to my post on 3rd September:
There is a brass plaque in Newtimber Church, West Sussex, (just north of Brighton) commemorating the death of Squadron leader Arthur Gordon Jones-Williams, MC. He died on 17th December 1929, aged 31 , in Tunisia, while attempting to break the world long distance non-stop record by flying from the UK to Capetown. According to Wikipedia, he was an RFC ace in World War 1, having shot down 11 enemy aircraft, and, after the war, was the first pilot to fly non stop UK to Karachi.

Not an aviator, but there is a grave from 1917 in New Irish Farm Cemetery outside Ypres of Gunner OB Gentle of the Royal Garrison Artillery. With a name like that, who needs an epitaph?

Next to the highway alongside Richmond RAAF there was, in the 1960s, a small group of WW II graves where we were taken as a group of Offr. Cadets. I believe they were from a single crash. When I've been past since I've kept an eye out, but haven't seen them. Does anyone know if they are still there, or have they been quietly moved, possibly when the highway has been widened?

Was it John Le Mesurier, (Sgt Wilson, 'Dad's Army'), who has on his headstone, "Can I have a Second Opinion?"

CFIT incidents still take lives, in spite of all the modern AIDS to prevent it. EGWPS, for example.

In an early chapter of "Wind, Sand and Stars" St.-Exupery decries the early aviators technique of dead-reckoning that the Aeropostale pilots sometimes used in their Breguet biplanes en-route to North Africa and beyond.

"Navigating by the compass and the stopwatch above the clouds over Spain is all very well, but remember, below the sea of cloud lies eternity"

Sends a chill down one's spine. May it never be an epitaph for me or anyone I know.

parabellum

No - his headstone just says "resting" - as actors do when not working.

See here: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/f...1349967390.jpg

Re Post No: 3.

In the Daily Torygraph on 1 December each year is the (almost) identical inscription: "To the world you were but one, to us you were the world".

It's a tribute to Major Richard Pirie, who died in an accident in France whilst on an SAS exercise in 1971.

Old Duffer

"P.O.Prune is dead and gone
his face we see no more
For what he thought was H2O
was H2SO4"

Here lies the body of Michael Day
He died defending his right of way,
He was right, dead right
But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.

In the grounds of Petwood Hotel there is a memorial to Flt Lt John A Saunders DFC and Bar, Pilot, 1919 - 2000.
I have not been able to find the connection with Petwood or indeed 617 squadron, if any.

Langley,

I think you might have the wrong spelling. John Alfred SANDERS DFC*

DFC with 49 Sqn April 1944, Bar with 617 Sqn December 1944 as P/O and F/O respectively.

I'll check for a citation later.

Old Duffer

Many thanks for the correction and the look-up. I have a photo of the memorial.

One of my own (in the style of Tee Emm's P/O Prune):

Here lies the body,
Of Pilot Officer Meek,
The spirit was willing,
But the mixture was weak.

Not exactly an epitaph, but I recall seeing a photo of a dejected looking Lightning pilot trudging back to the ops shed in the pouring rain while 2 technicians stared into the back end of his aircraft with torches. The photo was captioned with an excerpt from "High Flight".

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings

Wasn't that a Wren cartoon in an old RAF Yearbook, ca. 1980? Unfortunately, I don't have my collection to hand to check.
Can anyone confirm/deny?