Operation:  Sweep

Date: 3rd September 1942 (Thursday)

Unit: No. 65 Squadron 

Type: Spitfire Vb

Serial: W3312

Base: RAF Tangemere

Location: Goodwin Sands, off Deal, Kent.

Pilot: P/O. Noel Rees Macqueen 121320 RAFVR Age 19. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

During a fighter Sweep operation P/O. Macqueen was flying Spitfire W3312 when it suffered an engine failure west of Deal - the pilot did bale out but low low for the parachute to take effect, the aircraft crashed onto the Goodwin Sands in the English Channel.

Burial details:

P/O. Noel Rees Macqueen. Margate Cemetery, Kent. Sec. 50.Grave 16203. Further information: Born 14th September 1922, son of Alexander Rees Macqueen and Ada Lucy Macqueen of Greengates, Littledown Road, Bournemouth, England. Attended Wychwood preparatory school, Bournemouth. Attended Sherborne School (School House) May 1936-March 1939.

Obituary, 'The Shirburnian', December 1944: 'Nowell Reece Macqueen, son of A.R. Macqueen, Esq., Greengates, Littledown Road, Bournemouth came to Sherborne in 1936. I first made his acquaintance in the preparatory school stage when I saw him playing the part of 'Dick Dead Eye' in HMS Pinafore, at Wychwood Preparatory School, Bournemouth. At Sherborne he spent three very happy years travelling up the school at a normal rate of progress, making a host of friends and living the normal healthy life of a public school boy with no extravagances and no serious misdemeanours. But he left while he was still quite young on the outbreak of war. He served in the RAF and must have been in one of the first contingents to be trained in Canada. He quickly made his mark as a skilled Pilot and returned to England after six months absence; one of his first acts on returning was to visit his old school proudly displaying his newly acquired wings. Shortly afterwards he was posted to an operational squadron and, it seemed but a few days after his visit to Sherborne that we heard the sad news that he had been shot down within the first month of his active service over the Channel. He leaves behind him many happy memories of a very gallant, cheerful and friendly spirit.'

With thanks to Sherborne School Archives for additional information. Other sources as quoted below.