Geoffrey D. Stephenson

CBE
Birth nameGeoffrey Dalton Stephenson
Born(1910-01-19)19 January 1910
Died8 November 1954(1954-11-08) (aged 44)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchRoyal Air Force
RankAir Commodore
Commands heldCentral Flying School
Central Fighter Establishment
Battles/warsSecond World War

Air Commodore Geoffrey Dalton Stephenson, CBE (19 January 1910 – 8 November 1954) was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as Commandant of the Central Flying School and Central Fighter Establishment, and Aide-de-Camp to the monarch.

Commanding a squadron during the Dunkirk evacuation in May 1940, Stephenson was shot down, crash-landed his Spitfire on the beach and was taken prisoner. Stephenson was killed in an air crash on 8 November 1954 while on a tour of the United States.

Background

Stephenson's Spitfire, 'N3200 QV', performing at an air show in 2017

The 44-year-old pilot had flown several thousand hours in fighter aircraft, both conventional and jet, during his 20-year RAF career. He had piloted virtually every type of British jet fighter including Meteors, Venoms, Hunters and Swifts, as well as USAF F-86s. He was considered one of the most experienced and capable fighter pilots in the RAF. Commodore Stephenson was married to Anne Lucy Farrer (b. 1908), the daughter of Thomas Farrer, 2nd Baron Farrer[1] and father of three children.

External videos
video icon Dunkirk, the Ending scene. Pilots from 19 squadron like Stephenson, Kenny Hart and Alan Deere force landed their planes on the beaches.

Before the Second World War, Stephenson had been a member of the Royal Air Force aerobatic team. As squadron leader of 19 Squadron based at RAF Duxford, he was shot down on Sunday, 26 May 1940, in Spitfire Ia, N3200, coded 'QV', while covering the evacuation of the Dunkirk beaches during Operation Dynamo, crash-landing his fighter on the sands at the shoreline. According to the Imperial War Museum, Stephenson was captured on the beach in France shortly after crashing.[2]

RAF mess at Colditz. Stephenson is sat second from the left. Also shown, F/Lt Albert van Rood (fifth from left, standing), F/Lt John Patrick 'Bag' Dickinson, (first left sitting), F/Lt Vincent 'Bushy' Parker (sitting 3rd from left), Douglas Bader (sitting, center), also shown Dominic Bruce (sitting, furthest right)

Multiple escape attempts led to his transfer to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle where he would participate in the creation of the never-flown Colditz Cock glider. Following the war, Stephenson served as the personal pilot for King George VI.[3]

Remarkably, Spitfire N3200 was rediscovered and salvaged from the beach in 1986, and restored to flight in March 2014, with the markings worn when it was downed.[4][5]

Fatal crash

Air Commodore Stephenson headed a six-man team from the central fighter establishment, RAF, whose headquarters are at RAF West Raynham near Fakenham, Norfolk. They were at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, home of the Air Proving Ground Center, on an exchange tour.

On 8 November 1954, Air Commodore Stephenson was flying a USAF F-100A-10-NA Super Sabre, 53-1534,[6] near Auxiliary Field 2 of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He was flying at 13,000 ft (4,000 m) as he joined formation with another F-100, flown by Capt. Lonnie R. Moore, jet ace of the Korean campaign, when his fighter dropped into a steep spiral, impacting at ~14:14 in a pine forest on the Eglin Reservation, one mile NE of the runway of Pierce Field, Auxiliary Fld. 2.

Funeral

Memorial services were held at 0900 hrs. at the Eglin Base chapel on 10 November 1954, conducted by the Rev. Johnson H. Pace of St. Simons on the Sound church, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and attended by Air Vice-Marshal R. L. R. Atcherley, chief of the Chief Joint British Services Mission to the United States, who arrived from Washington on the night of 9 November; Major General Patrick W Timberlake, commander of the Air Proving Ground Command; Brig. Gen. Daniel S. Campbell, deputy commander of the APGC; six Royal Air Force officers who were touring the U.S. with the Air Commodore; and key staff officers of the APGC. At 1200 hrs., the party of Air Commodore Stephenson, accompanied by 30 RAF and USAF officers, flew to Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, for interment at the Royal Air Force plot there. British armed forces traditionally bury their dead where they fall. There has been an RAF squad at Maxwell since World War II.[7]

References

  1. ↑ The Aeroplane and Commercial Aviation News, vol. 61, 1941, p. 109
  2. ↑ "The Spitfire lost for almost 50 Years". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  3. ↑ http://www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/raf1939/stephenson.html
  4. ↑ Editor (31 March 2014). "Spitfire Mk.Ia N3200 Flies Again". {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  5. ↑ Cha 4 programme Guy Martin's Spitfire, The rebuilding of Geoffrey Stevensons Spitfire Date of Programme 12 October 2014
  6. ↑ "1953 USAF Serial Numbers". www.joebaugher.com.
  7. ↑ Special, "British Pilot Dies in Crash Of F-100 Jet", Playground News, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Thursday 11 November 1954, Volume 9, Number 41, pages 1, 10.
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