Honour hero pilot who gave his life to save schoolchildren
Villagers call for memorial to Robert
CAMPAIGN Helen Tracey
VILLAGERS are calling for a memorial to a Second World War pilot who sacrificed his own life to avoid crashing into a school.
Robert Coventry, 27, was at the controls of a Bristol Blenheim bomber when it crashed in September 1940.
The plane, which had three crew on board, suffered engine problems during a training mission over Gloucester.
Canadian-born Robert bravely stayed in the cockpit to steer the stricken bomber away from Quedgeley School.
His heroics on that fateful day protected dozens of youngsters sitting in their classroom.
It cost Robert his life but his two crewmates survived. Now, 80 years on from the tragedy, villagers are calling for a memorial to be built in his memory.
They include some of the children whose lives were saved by Robert that fateful day and their relatives.
Helen Tracey’s mum Margaret Cale was a six-year-old pupil at the school at the time of the crash.
She said: “If the plane had hit the school on that day, mum would have died and therefore I would uld never have been born. He is sa a hero. He was killed while trying ing to save the lives of all those children. chilenant I owe my life to him.”
Robert, an RAF flight lieutenant who lived in Wiltshire with wife Olga, was piloting the plane on a simulated bombing mission off the Welsh coast. The plane suffered engine failure over Gloucestershire as the crew, of 17 Operational Training Unit, headed back to their base in Cambridgeshire. It is believed Robert was trying to land at a nearby airfield when it came down in fields near the school.
Peter Hickman, 90, was 10 when he saw the cras crash from his classroom window a and said a memorial would be a “nice thing to do”. He rem remembered seeing the stricken bomber bo flying low before crashing i in a nearby field. “We saw the pl plane burning and stood there absol absolutely shocked,” he said. “We were unable to do an anything. We couldn’t get
near it. I felt very sad. It was very brave.”
Robert, the son of a Canadian MP, died instantly in the crash and is buried at Down Hatherly church near Gloucester.
It is believed he was trying to land the stricken aircraft at a nearby airfield.
Robert was grandson of the 9th Earl of Coventry. He and Olga had a daughter, Monica, who later moved to Canada. Olga died in 1985 in South Wales.
Discussions for a memorial are at an early stage but the local council has said it will investigate the possibility of a plaque. Steve Smith, chairman of Quedgeley town council, said the authority would look into a way to “commemorate the bravery” of the pilot.