Operation: Patrol?
Date: 25th July 1940
Unit: No. 234 Squadron
Type: Spitfire Ia
Serial: P9493
Base: RAF St. Eval
Location: Mawla near Porthtowan, Cornwall
Pilot: P/O. Geoffrey Kenneth Gout 41918 RAF Age 24. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
During a routine patrol the pilot was returning to St. Eval but found it to be blacked out. It seems that perhaps he became disorientated then, when very low on fuel at 23.45 hrs crashed in a field close to a Tin mine shaft at Maval near to the village of Porthtowan.
The aircraft was recovered on the 5th August 1940 by 50 Maintenance Unit and returned to Taunton for spares/scrap.
Sherborne School, Dorset - Any further information that you are able to assist them with fallen former pupils from all wars, we would be pleased to pass onto them.
Burial details:P/O. Geoffrey Kenneth Gout St. Eval Churchyard. Row 1. Grave 13. Further information (supplied by Sherborne School Archives): Son of Geoffrey Davee Vernon Gout, and of Dorothy Marguerite Gout (later Mrs. Gennert), of Sevenoaks, Kent, England. Attended Sherborne School (School House) 1929-1933; 6th form. Automobile Engineering College, Chelsea. Prior to breakout of war he had been a keen motorist and raced at Brooklands. Joined the RAF in February 1939 on a short service commission.
Researched and dedicated to the relatives of the pilot with thanks to Sherborne School Archives, Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Aircrew Remembered own Archives.
