Flight Lt AS Ainslie

Links of Long Standing

Several joined well before war was declared including amongst others, TH Archbell, AS Ainslie, I Bocock, CBE Burt-Andrews GL Cruickshanks, G Chater, IB Difford, FA Harte, GDL Haysom, CB Hull, GLB Hull, AG “Sailor” Malan, EJ Morris, MT Pattle, H Rosofsky, JF Roulston RN Selley, HWL Sheahan CR Taylor and FL Watson.

The First Ten Months

Coastal Command pilots, Flight Lieutenant’s AS Ainslie and HWA Sheahan were the first South Africans serving in the RAF to be decorated during the Second World war and their “Distinguished Flying Cross” awards were announced in the February 20th “London Gazette”.Twenty-seven - year-old Ainslie a No 210 Squadron Sunderland pilot from the Eastern Cape trained as a “General Botha” cadet after attending Dale College 8 and had spent time at sea before joining the RAF, while 28- year- old Sheahan, a No 220 Squadron Lockhead Hudson pilot, completed his schooling at King Edwards in Johannesburg.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Time has created bland masks for the twenty-six airmen on the “Roll of Honour” but names like Ainslie, Watson, Hay, Lourens, McKendry and Nettleton tell uniquely different stories.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Twenty-seven -year-old Flight Lt Allan Stuart Ainslie, born in King Williams Town in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, left Dale College to become “General Botha” Cadet No 424 in 1929. He spent a few years at sea before commissioning in 1935. A No 210 Squadron Sunderland pilot, the first South African in the RAF and “General Botha Old Boy” to be decorated during the Second World War, was also their first airmen killed in action.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Appointed a Flight Lt shortly before his February 1940 “Distinguished Flying Cross” award, Ainslie’s citation suggests he led by example, “……. detailed for sorties in circumstances which would have been impossible for junior pilots, and it is entirely due to his courage and endurance that certain sorties were completed. In this respect he has been a source of inspiration to the junior pilots”.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Filmer was a “POW” and the war ten months old when Ainslie’s No 210 Squadron Sunderland and his 8-man crew were lost without trace off the Irish coast on June 29th.

The Airmen who started at Sea

No 210 Squadron Sunderland on convoy escort duty. This Consolidated Catalina, a Coastal Command “OTU” training aircraft at the time was later transferred to No 210 Squadron. Ainslie’s “General Botha” contemporary Flight Lt AWK Watson lost his life in a No 202 Squadron Catalina a year later.

The Airmen who started at Sea

Squadron Leader AG Malan, Cadet No 168, was awarded the “Distinguished Flying Cross” two weeks before Ainslie was posted missing while Cadet No 592 Pilot Officer JS Simson, the first “General Botha” bomber pilot to be decorated, earned his “Distinguished Flying Cross” announced in the October 1st, 1940 “London Gazette” during an attack on the “Gneisenau”.