Rank & Name: P/O L.D. Sandes DFC
Date of Death: 26/03/1941
Details:

 

P/O Sandes was pilot when he and his crew failed to return from a mission to France. view details The members of this crew had all been operational with 59 Sqn during the Battle of Britain.

 

 

 

Lancelot Dalrymple Sandes (1913 - 1941)

He was born 1913, son of Robert Dalrymple Sandes and Ruby Hilda Lamb. To his friends and family he was affectionately known as 'Mike'. He had two elder sisters, Phyliss (b. 1908) and Lorna (b. 1911), two younger brothers, Robert (Robin) (b. 1915) and Raymond (b.1919) and a younger sister Pamela (b. 1925). He returned to Britain from India with his entire family in 1923.

Along with his brothers, he attended Bedford Modern School in Bedford. He was a pilot officer in the 59 Squadron Royal Air Force and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action. On one encounter on 14 July 1940 he was flying a Bristol Blenheim Bomber Mk IV and was attacked by four Messerschmitt ME109s The navigator was wounded and the aircraft badly damaged. They got back to RAF Thorney Island and crash-landed. They all survived. On 26 March 1941 flying a Bristol Blenheim Bomber Mk IV serial number V6065 returning from a sortie to Brest it crashed in fog at Winterbourne Abbas, Dorset. The aircraft was engulfed and destroyed by fire and all crew were killed. He is buried at The Commonwealth War graves at Warmwell, Dorset. (sandesancestry.net)

Further Information
Awardee of the Battle of Britain Clasp - Although entitlement was revoked by the Air Ministry in 1960 (read more).

If you have any information about P/O Sandes, please contact me, thank you.

 

 

Rest In Peace