Pilot Officer George Lawrence Eyles

George Lawrence Eyles

George was born on the 3rd August, 1922 and was a pupil at Dulwich College from September 1936 to July 1939, having previously been at Clare House Primary School in Beckenham. In his time at Dulwich College he was in Raleigh House (athletic house, not boarding house) and was a member of the Officer Training Corps, which explains his early commission.His family lived in Bromley.On leaving school he went to work in his father's chartered accountancy office until November 1939, when he joined the staff of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China. As soon as he was eighteen years of age he joined the R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve, subsequently being posted for training as an observer (navigator). He obtained his observer's wing and officer's commission early in October 1941 and was posted to Number 5 Operational Training Unit of Coastal Command for the final stage of training before being posted to a front-line squadron.

He died while still at 5(C) OTU in a Bristol Beaufort I, registration number W6478 piloted by Pilot Officer Alexander George Murray-Smith. The aircraft was lost at about 8:45 on the evening of 7/12/1941. It appears that the aircraft stalled or suffered a catastrophic failure on approach to base at RAF Chivenor while returning from a night navigation exercise. It is believed that a wing was seen to drop and the aircraft dived into the water.His body was washed ashore a few miles from Chivenor and he was buried in Barnstaple cemetery with full military honours. He was only nineteen.This link opens George's Commonwealth War Graves Commission record. A Court of Inquiry would have been held but any record of this, like so many others, has been destroyed. The only member of the crew to survive the crash was Wireless Operator/Air Gunner Sergeant Les Miles, who may have escaped from the aircraft by swimming out when the gun turret broke open. The name of the other Wireless Operator/Air Gunner is not yet known to us.

We thank Soraya Cerio of Dulwich College for much of this information and the photograph of George.