Antony Verdon Verdon was born 1 July 1915 at the Caundle Marsh Rectory in Sherbourne, Dorset, England to Everad and Mary Edith Dorothea Verdon. In 1944, he married Phyliss Ella Impett of 12 Kinfauns Crescent, Perth. (Kinfauns Crescent is now 93 Needless Road).
Verdon was the nephew of Humphrey Verdon Roe, the brother of Sir Edwin Alliot Verdon Roe, aircraft manufacturers, and founders in 1910 of the Avro company. Sir Edwin Alliot Verdon Roe in December of 1933, changed his surname by deed poll to Verdon-Roe (with a hyphen) – following his knighthood in 1929 and in honour of his mother.
Antony Verdon was a day boy on the training ship TS Mercury in the mid 1920s. The Mercury was both a school and a training ship – between 1885 and 1968, around 5,000 boys were prepared for a life at sea in conditions that were usually hard. Verdon then attended Sherborne School (day boy and Abbeylands), May 1929-July 1933. He joined Barclays Bank straight from school. At the outbreak of war, Verdon joined the army and was later evacuated from Dunkirk. He transferred to the RAF and trained as a pilot, joining the RAF 612 Coastal Command Squadron.
For the second half of 1943 and the early months of 1944, the squadron concentrated on night missions over the Bay of Biscay, hoping to attack German U-boats. Several Vickers Wellingtons, Consolidated Catalinas, and Consolidated Liberators were fitted with powerful searchlights, Leigh Lights, which were used to illuminate U-Boats recharging their batteries on the surface at night. Coastal Command Wellingtons were fitted with a powerful 24-inch-diameter, 22-million-candela carbon-arc searchlight. U-Boats were forced to recharge during the day when they could at least see the aircraft approaching.
Humphrey Verdon-Roe invested in Alliot’s aeronautical inventions, and in 1913, the firm of A V Roe & Company was formed – better known as Avro and went on to produce many of Britain’s best military and civilian aircraft, such as the Avro Lancaster, Avro Vulcan, Avro Shackleton, Avro York, Avro Manchester, Avro Anson, and the Avro 504. Verdon-Roe was a prominent member of the British Union of Fascists, formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet.
Humphrey Verdon-Roe was married to Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes. Born in Edinburgh, Marie Stopes was a family-planning pioneer, author, palaeobotanist, and campaigner for eugenics and women’s rights. The Marie Stopes charity exists to this day and works in 37 countries worldwide.
During the war, two of Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe’s sons were killed in action whilst serving with the RAF: Squadron Leader Eric Alliott Verdon-Roe, aged 26, in 1941, and Squadron Leader Lighton Verdon-Roe DFC, aged 22, in 1943.
Anthony Verdon
R.A.F. CRESTS AND MOTTOES (CH 9076) Original wartime caption: The crests and mottoes of various R.A.F. Squadrons, Schools and Commands. No.612 Squadron, Auxiliary Air Force: VIGILANDO CUSTODIMUS (We Guard by Watching). Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205448907
ROYAL AIR FORCE 1939-1945: COASTAL COMMAND (CH 12719) Wellington XIV HF385 of No 612 Squadron, under tow at Chivernor, April 1944. The WAAF tractor driver is 20-year-old LACW Felicity Lambert. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205218996
