Lt ER Smith

The Dreaded Telegram

Two Eastern Cape families received bad news on separate occasions regarding sons who lost their lives in the air, all educated at Queens College.The small community of Seymour some 160 km northwest of East London shared the news that James and Alice Murdoch’s youngest son twenty two-year-old Alistair an RAFVR Sgt and No 44 Squadron Lancaster Navigator was among eight crew members including Rhodesians Flight Sgt Lyster Warren Smith who was educated at St John’s College and Sgt Richard Marston, who lost their lives on March 24th 1942 during a mine laying sortie in the first Lancaster loss of the war. Their eldest son Ronald, a SAAF flying instructor lost his life nine months earlier in training accident on June 6th, 1941.

SAAF Airmen in RAF Squadrons

Whereas the “Secret” June 6th 1941 “Office of the Minister of Defence” communication from General Smuts to Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Headquarters in Cairo formalized the April attachment of fifty SAAF airmen “retaining rank and uniform”, a practice which prevailed throughout the war, attachment had actually been in effect since mid-1940 as Lt’s AM Colenbrander, LR Dudley, AQ Masson, ER Smith and S de K Viljoen were flying No 112 Squadron Gloster Gladiators out of Egypt in June 1940 and when Lt HH Geraty joined the squadron in September, they had already returned to SAAF squadrons. Lt JG Fischer and 2nd Lt FJ Joubert, No’s 33 and 274 Squadron Hurricane pilots shot down in December 1941, the first SAAF airmen killed on secondment, lost their lives well in advance of the “Secret Communication”.