Squadron Leader PHV Wells

Links of Long Standing

CJ Laubscher was one of the earliest “University Air Squadron” members. The few others, included Johannesburg born CW Goldsmith and PHV Wells who were educated in England, studied mining engineering and were members of the London University Air Squadron. Bishops educated Anthony Ellerton Ryan Fry, another member of that Air Squadron had completed his degree and working in a Denmark brewery when he was called up after war was declared. Cambridge University Air Squadron members MR Hill, IBDE Hay and NJM Barry, a long-time school contemporary of Oxford University Air Squadron member Percy Burton.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Given his flying activities, Lewis’s “OTU” posting was not surprising, and neither was the fact that he became non- operational after being shot down in Ceylon in 1942. Squadron Leader AG Lewis DFC and Bar resigned his commission in 1946, attended the Royal Agricultural College and returned to South Africa in 1947. A devout Mormon, he moved to Britain in 1957 to farm. Fellow pilot PHV Wells described him as having “taken to religion in a big way” though certainly not the only wartime pilot to become religious.

The Dreaded Telegram

Denis Norman McCarthy and Anthony Ellerton Fry left Bishops in 1934. McCarthy’s post school activities are unknown. Fry, completed an Engineering degree at London University with Honours, a member of the University Air Squadron with PHV Wells and CW Goldsmith, he and Goldsmith were appointed Flying Officers in December 1939. Denis McCarthy commissioned as a “Pilot Officer on probation” on June 18th 1940, a few days before Flying Officer “Tony” Fry joined No 59 Squadron. Fry had flown more than 40 operational sorties when “The London Gazette” announced his and another former Bishops pupil Laurence Hull’s “Distinguished Flying Cross” awards on December 24th.