Jean Millar Valentine (7 July 1924 – 17 May 2019) was born in Perth, Scotland, the only child of Mr and Mrs James Valentine of Wilson Street. Jean was an operator of the Bombe decryption device in Hut 11 at Bletchley Park in England. This was the machine designed by […]
Pilot Officer John McLaren was the pilot of RAF 166 Squadron, Avro Lancaster III, JB644, AS-A2 on the night of 12 July 1944. They were recalled before reaching their target and were attacked on the way back and shot down by a German night-fighter. Taking off at 21.20 hours from […]
Squadron Leader David Douglas Pryde DFC was born in Crieff on 17 April 1918 and was one of three brothers who died during the early years of World War Two. Squadron Leader David Douglas Pryde was the son of the Reverend John Marshall Pryde, B.D. and Jean Marshall Pryde, at […]
On 8 August 1918, the Battle of Amiens offensive opened at 4.20 am with a deafening artillery barrage by over two thousand guns. Moments later a combined assault by infantry and tanks commenced along a twenty-mile front between Morlancourt and La Neuville-Sire-Bernard (on the river Ayre to the south). The […]
Lieutenant Cyril Williams was an Observer on a Morane BB (5193) aircraft, Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Squadron No. 60 in France during WW1. Cyril was born on 5 June 1986 at Argyll Place, Edinburgh, the elder son of George Thomas Williams, Civil Engineer, and Elizabeth Fenton, of Fenton’s Shipbuilder and […]
This story is of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, “who beautiful in their lives, in death are not divided.” These beauteous lassies were said to have charmed the heart of all the local laddies. They are still fondly remembered to this day, in song and by the naming of hills […]
Of all the war graves I know about during my research of Perthshire’s aviators, the grave of Henry Anselm de Freitas, AFM (1917–1943) is the one that I often revisit and have in a way adopted. Henry is unique in being buried in Perth, so very far away from his […]
Lieutenant Peter MacFarlane on 10 August 1918 was part of an RAF 32 Squadron offensive patrol of 40 aircraft, when he was shot down whilst escorting 12 bombers of RAF 27 and RAF49 Squadrons to attack Péronne railway station, 50 km east of Amiens. Lieutenant Peter MacFarlane was flying a […]
RAF Sergeant Alexander Stewart Allan, 406711, Medaille Militaire, died of wounds on 27 August 1918. Alexander was the fourth son of Andrew Allan and Jemima Stewart, 1, South Muirton Cottages, Perth. Alexander was born on 27 March 1894 at 6 Mill Close, Perth (Mill Close was at 281 High Street). […]
Over the Western Front on Thursday 13 June 1918, during World War One, 2nd Lieutenant Alexander McKenzie, 16939 was flying as an Observer in Airco DH.4, A7466 of RAF 55 Squadron. His pilot was Lieutenant William Legge, and they were last seen under control during a bombing mission over their […]
