Wing Commander Gibson ,VC, DSO and bar, DFC and bar was the bravest of the brave. He died flying a Mosquito on a raid to Bremen in September 1944 aged twenty-six.
He was a hero; selected as a parliamentary candidate, appearing on Desert Island Discs and going to Quebec with Churchill for a conference and subsequently touring Canada and the United States to give talks and press conferences. Today he is remembered for leading the Dam Busters raid. If I might digress, I remember Barnes Wallis giving a talk at Eton. I don’t remember thinking him old, he was in his eighties, but he was only a couple of years older than my sprightly grandfather.
Guy Gibson is also remembered for his black Labrador named after the third longest river in Africa, although he inserted an extra ‘g’. The Duke of Sussex, a keen military historian since he discovered war mags at school, honours his memory by calling his beagle Guy – a munificent, royal tribute to a war hero, who otherwise might be forgotten. Guy, the beagle, celebrates British multiculturalism; black, tan and white.
Like Bertie, I expect Guy will lose his black back. I’m hoping the second Sussex child will be ginger to bolster the union with Scotland but I will not say this in Herself’s presence. Meanwhile the Duchess would like you to hear “My True Story”. (PS Azina has laid another brown egg.)
This provoked two different memories.
I visited Guy Gibson’s grave in Steenbergen-En-Kruisland in the Netherlands a few years ago, where he is buried alongside Squadron Leader Warwick, where they crashed in September 1944. This was a moving experience.
Barnes Wallace visited my school of which he was an old boy and, later on in life ,1960s, Chairman of the governors. He gave the headmaster a ticking off in the library when there were some boys present. I thought this very poor form and it has coloured my judgement of him ever since.