YOUNG PILOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 44, 21 February 1940, Page 8

YOUNG PILOT.

AUCKLAND OFFICER. DEATH IN ENGLAND. ! INJURED WHEN FLYING. ( After lieinp severely injured in a flying accident. Pilot-Officer Robin Delamore. R.A.T".. aged 10, of Auckland, died in hospital at Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England, on Sunday night. Xews of his death was received by cablegram to-day by his grandmother, Mrs. Frank Rhodes, of 21, Clonbern Road, Remuera, by whom the young officer was brought up. The son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Delamore, of Kuala- Lumpur, Malaya, PilotOfficer Delamore was on old hoy of Wanganui College. He was admitted to hospital last Saturday, dangerously injured.

Since the declaration of war PilotOfficer Delamore had been engaged on patrol duty over the Xorth Sea. He was one of the most junior officers in the Royal Air Force. On leaving college in

Xew Zealand he was successful in securing a nomination for the Air Forte training school at C'ranwell, England. As the only Xew Zealand nomination in 1938 was not available, he took advantage of the fact that, he had been born in Malaya to compete for the annual nomination offered to candidates in Crown colonies, and this he secured against wide competition. The course at C'ranwell was to have been for two years, but war was declared when he had been there only -18 months. However, he had made such rapid progress with his studies that the younc New Zealand candidate, who had" just celebrated his 19th birthday, was immediately granted a permanent commission, his "wings." and the rank of pilotofficer. He then underwent a special course of bombing and gunnery instruction and was immediately posted to a twin-engine night fighter squadron. This squadron operated entirely by night, taking over the duties of the day fighters.

In an article written from letters received from Pilot-Officer Delamore, and published in the 'Star - ' last November, it was related that his squadron did not expect to go to France for several months. However, the North Sea patrol work was most arduous. With the approach 6i winter the squadron got more and more work, as the nights lengthened. The pilots were off duty onlv from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m. A sixteen-hou'r tour of duty was the daily routine. Pilot-Officer Delamore, who had a gift for words, described in vivid terms "the rigours. of night flying in winter conditions. In the darkness it was essential to take off and fly by instruments, aided by the radio. "Below is blackness. Above is blackness. Nothing but blackness. The pilot is glad of the company of the radio," wrote the young officer. "He keeps hoping for Bosche bombers! At last his time is up and he returns to his aerodrome, glad o! that coffee waiting for him in the crew loom/' Over the North Sea. Pilot-Officer Delamore was posted to a course in parachutes, on joining his squadron. "It's damned boring," ho wrote, "but I suppose someone has to be parachute officer in the squadron. I was to have done a test descent, by being pulled off the wing of an aeroplane. Unfortunately, the pilot crashed the bally aeroplane before I arrived, so the fun is off. As the parachute officer, 1 shall always be able to demand a jump some time in the future, so it matters little now." ' Later letters were written from the officers' mess at a station in Cambridgeshire, and the young New Zealander told of a wonderful Christmas, followed by pa-trol duty over the North Sea, in foggyconditions, which added to the hazards of flying. A younger brother, Adrian Delamore, is a pupil at Wanganui College. To-day, the Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, sent Mrs. Rhodes a telegram of sympathy on behalf of the City Council and citizen* of Auckland*