Lest We Forget…

On 3 September 1940, during the Battle of Britain, Pilot Officer Robert Henry Shaw was just 24 years old when his Hurricane crashed at Park House Farm in Chart Sutton.

For many years, he was remembered simply as the “Unknown Airman”, until his identity was eventually discovered.

We recently attended the annual memorial service at Chart Sutton, which continues to honour Robert and all those who gave their lives during the Battle of Britain. Robert’s family attend the service each year, remembering the young man they knew simply as ‘Uncle Bobby’.

This year, Di and I were privileged to attend with our wonderful Circle of Friends member, Iris, who is now 103.

Iris joined the WAAF at just 18 in 1941. Her service took her from Northern Ireland to the Far East, including Colombo.

Her training began in Gloucester, followed by Cranfield and then RAF Lyneham. Although her trade was secretarial, her work in Flying Control gave her the opportunity to become something of an unofficial passenger on numerous test flights. She still has the ‘flying logbook’ the pilots made for her to prove it.

But Iris’s greatest loss during those wartime years was her fiancé, a Canadian pilot known to everyone as ‘Mac’. He was shot down over Cairo, aged just 22.

When Iris was due for demobilisation, she was offered a post on the staff of Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia. She became a civilian and a member of the Foreign Office.

To stand beside Iris, one of our own Circle of Friends members, someone who herself played a part in those wartime years, while remembering those who never came home, was a moment I will treasure.

As the air cadets played the Last Post, I watched Iris and wondered if she was remembering her ‘Mac’. I knew she was remembering so many friends who were lost forever.

It was an incredibly personal moment, and one that is difficult to put into words.

Iris, as in previous years, was rather like a VIP. Everyone wanted to see her, speak with her and have their photograph taken with her. Her presence seemed to mean so much to those attending.

Perhaps my favourite photograph is the one of Robert Shaw’s nephew standing on the balcony to wave Iris off as we left.

As I looked back at him waving, I found myself thinking about all those young pilots who were waved off during the war, but never returned.

Iris was there yesterday because of the life she lived during those years. Robert’s family were there because of the life he never got the chance to live.

And for a few moments, their stories came together.

Lest we forget.

In the words of Winston Churchill:

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”