bentley priory - Spink

September 6, 2012 - LONDON
4
The Recommendation states: ‘This officer has led his flight
and during the last week, the squadron, with judgement and
a really good offensive spirit. He has personally destroyed 6
enemy aircraft and probably 4 more, and by his leading has
been responsible for the destruction of many others. He has
infected the pilots he has led with his own determination and
confidence and proved himself a most able Flight
Commander.’
D.F.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette 29.7.1941 Flight
Lieutenant Charles Brian Fabris Kingcome, D.F.C. (33319),
No. 92 Squadron
The Recommendation states: ‘This officer who received his
D.F.C. last October at the time had 5 enemy a/c destroyed
and probably 4 more. He has now increased his score to 10
destroyed 4 probably destroyed and 10 damaged, and during
the past 9 months has on many occasions led the squadron
with distinction. At all times he has shown real
determination, judgement and courage and has set a very
high standard to the other pilots which has reflected itself in
the achievements of his squadron.’
Group Captain Charles Brian Fabris Kingcome, D.S.O.,
D.F.C. (1917-1994), born Calcutta, India; aged 2 he was
sent to the UK with his elder sister; two years later he
embarked on his educational career, which was to encompass
nine different schools; whilst at Paxton Park his passion for
flying blossomed due to an impromptu visit from Philip
Gordon-Marshal, a friend from a previous school, ‘Philip was
four years my senior, and our paths had barely crossed, but he
had met my sister Pat when she visited me with my mother
for a school function and I think was rather taken with her...
He kept in touch... When he had left Allhallows he had tried
for the Royal Air Force, but had failed his medical. This was
a devastating blow to him. All his life he had known, without
a shadow of a doubt, that the RAF was to be his entrée to a
career in the sky... Once he had picked himself up, dusted
himself down, he decided to go for civil aviation... One sunny
afternoon early in my first term, while I was still bemused by
my new habitat, there came the drone of an aero engine
overhead - not a common sound in the mid-1930s - and a
small aircraft circled the school a couple of times at roof-top
height. The whole school rushed out to watch spellbound as
the tiny machine throttled back and, in that lovely burbling,
swooshing silence that follows the throttling back of an oldfashioned
aero engine, glided in to land in the park in front
of the house. Out of the aircraft stepped Philip Gordon-
Marshall, nonchalant in flying helmet and silk scarf, cutting
every bit as romantic a figure as Errol Flynn in Dawn Patrol.
‘Is there a Brian Kingcome here’ he asked. ‘Have I come to
the right place’
He had, and there was. My stock soared... Basking in the
gaze of many envious eyes, I climbed aboard and a moment
later found myself for the first time in a world that I never
dreamed could exist - a world free from the drag of the
earth’s umbilical cord, free to climb, swoop and dive, free of
boundaries, free of gravity, free of ties, free to do anything
except stand still... At that moment, in an instant, I
understood Philip’s passion for flying... From that day
onwards, ideas began to take shape about my own future
direction in life’ (A Willingness To Die, B. Kingcome refers)
Almost Over Before The Start
Whilst at Bedford School, aged 17, Kingcome saw an
advertisement for examinations and enrolment at R.A.F.
Cadet College Cranwell; he had left it late in the process, and
managed to cram in the work required in eight weeks; despite
the late charge he came 21st out of the top 25 applicants; he
entered Cranwell in January 1936, but almost immediately
had a serious car accident that nearly curtailed his flying
career, ‘in those pre-war days it was an accepted fact that the
services tended to provide a refuge for doctors and surgeons
who were unable to earn a living in the competitive civilian
world outside.
43