Sgt T Pascoe

Links of Long Standing

Twenty-five-year-old Sergeant pilot Terence Pascoe was educated at Jeppe Boys High in Johannesburg where rugby was played with passion and public-school traditions selectively maintained, but “Kings Regulations” and “Air Council Instruction” relegated him to the back of the class, as despite being skilled enough to fly a bomber, he could not captain the aircraft as a Sergeant pilot if another crew member was commissioned. According to the Air Ministry bomber pilots required “considerable physical and mental endurance”, had to be “brave yet cautious, cool yet daring”, requirements which applied no less equally to Sergeant pilots. Pascoe was never in that position as he lost his life in an “Operational Training Unit” Blenheim that crashed after engine failure in June 1940.