Why a pilot’s story deserved recognition
A memorial to Battle of Britain pilot Flying Officer Peter Pease stands in Kingswood. American professor John Oakley explains why he commissioned it
What brought me to Kingswood in the first place? That is a long story.
I am of English stock, and although my forbears took up arms against the King at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, that squabble is long past.
Indeed, my father, as an American solider served under your General Montgomery after D-Day in the campaign through Belgium and the Netherlands and across the Rhine as part of the American Ninth Army.
My father remained in the U.S. Army all his career, and from mid-1957 to the end of 1959 our family lived in Surrey while he was stationed in the heart of London, in the NATO high command.
I was a visiting student at the University of Sussex in 19661967, and a visiting professor at University College, Oxford, in 1982-1983. I’m an unabashed Anglophile.
I feel that England is my second home, and I visit it frequently.
After 40 years teaching law and philosophy at the University of California at Davis, I retired to pursue other interests. I have a private pilot’s license and inherited from my father a strong interest in diplomatic and military history.
So it was a return to my roots to decide to study, simply as a matter of intellectual curiosity, the finer points of the Battle of Britain. Not just the nuts and bolts and .303 machine guns and constant-speed propellers of Hurricanes and Spitfires and how to fly them, but the diplomatic side of that coin as well — how in the world, I wondered, could Britain go from being the world’s greatest geopolitical power in 1900, to fighting a battle for its survival in 1940?
Early on in my research, I came across the personal account of a Battle of Britain pilot Richard Hillary, published as The Last Enemy. His best friend, Peter Pease, was heavily featured in the book.
I burrowed into all the material available in the Hillary archive at Trinity College, Oxford, and at Eton College, where Peter Pease was a celebrated student. I soon decided Peter deserved far greater historical appreciation than he had received and thought that I should write a book about him.
Then I discovered that, at the age of 96, Peter Pease’s fiancée, and Richard Hillary’s muse (he famously dedicated The Last Enemy to “DMW”, was still alive.
What’s more Denise Maxwell Woosnam was anxious to help me with my book.
I interviewed her four times between September 2014 and March 2015, each time flying 5,400 air miles each way from San Francisco to London.
Sadly, Denise Patterson (as she had become) died on July 29, 2015, just days before I was to arrive for my fifth trip, designed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
Her passing created in me a sense of obligation to make a reality of my book, honouring Peter and Richard but also two other pilots, and Denise herself (she was an officer in the ATS).
I had already visited Peter’s grave site at St Michael and All Angels Church at Middleton Tyas in North Yorkshire.
From the time of my very first visit to the field in Kingswood where Peter’s Spitfire crashed, I thought the lovely and thoughtful memorial tree (planted at the point of impact) might well be complemented by some sort of more conspicuous memorial which would need to be visible without entering the field.
I commissioned Gordon Newton of the Stone Shop in East Farleigh to create one and I’m very pleased with what he has come up with it.
I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself later this year when I fly over from the States.
Professor Oakley is still completing his book, Requiem For The Last Enemy. We will let readers know when it is published.