Da COSTA – Huntley

1259994 – Flight Lieutenant

Correction: DA COSTA – Huntley, Service no. on enlistment: 1259994.  After commission from Flt Sgt to Pilot Officer (on 29 November 1943) service no. became 182287

[Source: CG/AD]

Joined RAF in 1939
First tour was in Europe
Fought in the Battle of Britain
His squadron was deployed to the sinking of the Bismark. However arrived to see it sinking
He was a rear gunner on bomber.
aircraft.
Second tour was the Middle East.
Bombed Rommel
Third Tour
Far East
Stationed in India
Bombed Burma Rangoon etc
He was involved in three plane crashes
Shot down 3 planes

[Source: Christopher Da Costa]

Huntley da Costa pictured on V-day (with mascot)
[Photograph possibly published in newspaper in 1945;
courtesy Christopher Da Costa]

Mention in Despatches: 14 January 1944  [Courtesy Christopher Da Costa]

Huntley’s Medals [Photo courtesy Christopher Da Costa]

Wedding, June 10th 1945 [Photo courtesy Christopher Da Costa]

BOURNE – Ian Desmond (Don)

1386300

Ian D. Bourne – Pilot Officer – Pilot – Spitfire X – POW

Son of Bertram H. Bourne (from Trinidad?) – educated QRC – volunteered ETS – trained at Piarco 2nd in class – flying a PRU Spitfire from Benson – first operational flight – reported missing July 1942 – POW – Joined regular RAF post-war, killed 26 July 1953, Squadron Leader, flying Gloster Meteor

[Source: CMHA]
ATS, Piarco, Trinidad. 2nd Course – Standing: F.W. Farfan, K. Rostant, T.H. Meyer – Sitting: I. Bourne, R. Williams (instructor), Lieut. J.F. Carroll (chief instructor), W. Brown (ground engineer), J.D. Lenagan/Lennigan? (senior cadet) [Source: CMHA]

Read more about his crash here at aviation-safety.net

BURKE – John Edwin

Flight Sergeant

[Source: CG]

 Service no. 1800673

[Courtesy AD]

RICHARDSON – William Stanley Augustus (Ricky)

1800665 – W.S. Richardson – Jamaica – attested 29.12.41 – Ach/Pilot
P/O

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]

Flight Lieutenant

[Source: CG]

1800665 / 178936 – William Stanley Augustus Richardson – Jamaica – Navigator – Flight Lieutenant

Ricky Richardson joined the RAF in 1941 after seeing an advertisement in a Jamaican newspaper.  He arrived in Britain in November of that year.  Qualifying as a navigator, he began operational flights in late 1943.  He took part in bombing raids that sunk the German battleship Lutzow and on Hitler’s Eagle Nest retreat at Berchtesgaden, in Bavaria.  For more of Ricky’s story, see his obituary at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/14byKY33Kc1CFC8b52rzRcj/flt-lt-william-stanley-ricky-richardson

Commissioned Pilot Officer July, 1944  (see London Gazette supplement: 36674, 25 August 1944)

[Courtesy AD]

Flt. Lt. William Stanley (Ricky) Richardson (cropped)

CHANCE – David Errol

Flight Lieutenant

[Source: CG]

1394826 – D.E. Chance – Jamaica – attested 11.8.41 – P/O Pilot
commissioned 16.4.43

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]

Service no. on Commission 151818

[Courtesy AD]

Flt Lt Chance

[Picture published by kind permission of the Trustees of the RAF Museum]

In 1944, Flight Lieutenant David Errol Chance flew Beaufighters for Coastal Command with 603 Squadron against enemy shipping in the Aegean Sea. The Jamaican joined 248 Squadron in January 1945, and piloted Mosquito fighter-bombers for Coastal Command on anti-shipping strikes in the North Sea in the last weeks of the war.

[Source: RAF Museum, Pilots of the Caribbean]

DUNDAS – Alvin Trevelyan

Flight Lieutenant

[Source: CG]

Service no. on enlistment 1800675.  Service no on Commission 183307

[Courtesy AD]

STRACHAN – William Arthur Watkin (Billy)

Flight Lieutenant – wireless operator/air gunner – 99 Sqn, Waterbeach (one tour) and 101 Sqn (half tour) then pilot training: pilot in 156 Sqn, Wytton Cambridgeshire (pathfinders)

[Source: CG, AE]

Service no. on enlistment  1375058
Service no. on commission  115567

[Courtesy AD]

Entry Memorial Gates Trust (with picture)

Pilots of the Madras Squadron.  Group including Sgt. (later Flt. Lt.) Billy Strachan (extreme left).  Billy’s plane was named Vizagapatam after the town in India which paid for it.

[Source: AD – Copyright  Imperial War Museum, ref. CH 4361]

BUNTING – Vincent Allenby

Service no. on enlistment 1259311.  Service no. on Commission 195389

[Courtesy AD]

Flight Lieutenant – fighter pilot – 611 Sqn – Spitfire
Warrant Officer – 132 Sqn – Spitfire / 154 Sqn – Mustang
Pilot Officer – No. 1 Sqn

More ond MOD/AHB

[Source: CG, UC, MOD/AHB]

Vincent Bunting flew in 611 Sqn during the Battle of Britain. Several pictures in the IWM.

The photograph shows Flight Sergeant Vincent Bunting with  Station Commander
RAF Biggin Hill – Group Captain A.G. ‘Sailor’ Malan – with No 611 Squadron in January 1943.

Bunting

[Photograph: Air Historical Branch; courtesy of Mrs. Audrey Dewjee]

Melissa Gordon adds to the listing of E.A. Gordon and the group-picture on the home-page:
The 2nd row 1st on the left is my Dad, F/O Egbert A Gordon from Jamaica. He left Jamaica to join the RAF with his lifetime friend, Vincent A Bunting and they flew and served with distinction together. Both married British ladies and had British born children, Dad had 3 in England 1 in New York, Vin had 1 in England, 1 in Antigua and 1 in Jamaica. At the end of the war, Dad took his family to New York where his Mother had migrated, and Vincent Bunting moved to Antigua, and then later back to Jamaica. This photo has always been in our family along with many more from Dad’s RAF days and we are proud of his service and to identify our loving Father on this site. [posted: October 13th, 2013 at 9:30 pm]

De SOUZA – Ivo Seymour

1384441 – I.S. de Souza – Jamaica – attested 3.2.41 – Pilot – commissioned 8.9.44

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]

Service no. on Commission 185192

[Courtesy AD]

Ivo De Souza

KENT, ENGLAND. 1944-06-07. Aircrew standing near their Mosquito aircraft of No. 464 Squadron RAAF which operates with the Allied Expeditionary Air Force at RAF Station Gravesend, after landing from a night intruder operation over the invasion areas where road convoys and a rail junction were successfully attacked. Shown: Sergeant E. Dean, RAF, Wembley, England, Navigator, and Flight Sergeant I. S. De Souza, RAF, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, Pilot (facing step ladder).

[Photocredit: Australian War Memorial Collection, accession no. AWM UK1432. (Courtesy of Mark Johnson)]

The London Gazette lists his service number per 8 March 1945 as 185192. Promoted Flying Officer per 8 September 1945.

He is mentioned several times in The Gestapo Hunters: 464 Squadron, RAAF 1942-1945, by Mark Lax and Leon Kane-Maguire

Born 24/08/1918.

In 1960 he contributed a chapter to The West Indian Comes to England, published by Routledge & Kegan Paul.

After the war, Ivo De Souza became a diplomat, serving as Permanent Secretary of the Jamaican Ministry of External Affiairs and the Ministry of Defence.  He also served as High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Guyana, and as Ambassador to Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.

The Royal Air Force Museum, Archive, Library and Research Department, holds his Memoir (1940-1974).

Ivo De Souza died 19/01/1997, aged 78.

[Courtesy AD]

WINT – Arthur Stanley

Flight Lieutenant – based in Yorkshire

[Source: CG, AD]

605497 – A.S. Wint – Jamaica – attested 28.10.42 – P/O Pilot UK 25.3.44
55645 – F/O – commissioned 28.1.44

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876]

605497 – A.S. Wint – Jamaica – P/O – commissioned 28.1.44 – Pilot G.D. Branch

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]

Arthur Wint, Jamaican Olympic runner who served in the RAF from 1941 to 1945

Copyright © Arthur Wint, Estate. 2003 All rights reserved.

More: Arthur Wint, a Jamaican hero

F/Lt Authur Stanley Wint (May 25, 1920 – October 19, 1992) was the first Jamaican Olympic gold medalist, winning the 400 m at 1948 Summer Olympics. In 1942 he joined the Royal Air Force and set the Canadian 400 m record while training there. He was sent to Britain for active combat during the World War II as a pilot. He left the Royal Air Force in 1947 to attend St Bartholomew’s Hospital as a medical student.Wint, known as the Gentle Giant, was born in Plowden, Manchester, Jamaica. In 1937 he was the Jamaica Boy Athlete of the year, the following year he won a gold medal in the 800 m at the Central American Games in Panama. In Helsinki 1952 he was part of the historic team setting the world record while capturing the gold in 4 x 400 m relay. He also won silver in 800 m, again coming second to Mal Whitfield.He ran his final race in 1953 at Wembley Stadium, finished his internship, graduated as a doctor and the following year he was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1955 Wint returned to Jamaica eventually settling in Hanover as the only resident doctor in the parish. In 1973 he was awarded the Jamaica honour of the Order of Distinction. He served as Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Britain from 1974 to 1978. He was inducted in the Black Athlete’s Hall of Fame in the US (1977), the Jamaica Sports Hall of Fame (1989) and the Central American & Caribbean Athletic Confederation Hall of Fame (2003).

[Source: Wikipedia]

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