Squadron Leader H Pugh

More than a “Few” South Africans

RAF personnel included Squadron Leader the Reverend Pugh who had been posted to Takoradi from RAF Bridgnorth, a Royal Air Force station in Shropshire with a hospital but no runway established as a basic training facility and transit centre two months after war was declared and, where Reverend Pugh’s day to day functions involved “spiritual support” and “moral guidance”.

More than a “Few” South Africans

Named after Lord Herbert Kitchener and Cecil Rhodes, Herbert Cecil Pugh was born in Johannesburg in 1898 and one of seven children. Educated at Jeppe Boys High, his traumatic experiences as a 17- year -old First World War Field Ambulance stretcher bearer on the Western Front motivated him to enter the ministry. He studied at Oxford on a scholarship, ordained in 1924, he was serving as a Christ Church minister in Middlesex when he joined the RAF’s Chaplin branch in 1939.

More than a “Few” South Africans

The 7 000 km sea journey from Liverpool to Takoradi was threatened by German warships and U- Boats and almost half the distance had been covered on July 5th when German torpedoes struck HMT “Anselm”. Unconcerned for his own safety, Reverend Pugh insisted on being lowered into the flooded hold to comfort the trapped and injured, losing his life in the process. No other South Africans have been identified but several Rhodesian RAF groundcrew were reportedly among the 254 casualties.

More than a “Few” South Africans

The March 28th 1947, “London Gazette” announced the “George Cross” award to the Reverend Herbert Cecil Pugh MA (Oxon) for his act of “most conspicuous courage”. The citation for the only Second World War RAF Padre recipient included the words; “…had every opportunity of saving his own life, but without regard to his own safety and in the best tradition of the Service and of a Christian Minister, he gave up his life for others”.