Blenheim bomber pilot dies aged 102

THE last surviving Blenheim bomber pilot of the Second World War has died at the age of 102.

Leonard Trevallion, who lived in Perthshire, was a pilot with the RAF’s 13 Squadron, flying the famous aircraft – designed as a civilian plane by Scots aeronautical engineer Frank Barnwell in response to a challenge by newspaper proprietor Lord Rothermere to produce the fastest commercial aircraft in Europe – in North Africa and Italy.

Mr Trevallion was also an inspector in the Metropolitan Police during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz and was involved in the investigation that led to the conviction of serial murderer John Christie, the Rillington Place Strangler, who killed at least eight women including his wife, Ethel, and went to the gallows in 1953.

Mr Trevallion began his police career in 1935 and remained in the Met for the first two years of the war.

When the RAF came to the force seeking new pilots he enlisted in 1941 and qualified to fly the following year. He ended the war as a flying instructor and returned to the police, rising through the ranks.

After leaving the police, he worked in government service, looking after Sir Winston Churchill and acting as security for Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in outer space, when he visited London.

Brought up in Walthamstow, London, Mr Trevallion spent the first part of his retirement in Kingston-upon-Thames but moved to Crieff, Perthshire, at the age of 88, in 2003.

At a celebration of Mr Trevallion’s 100th birthday in November 2014 in Perth’s McDiarmid Park, he was joined by members of the local Aircrew Association. One of his many letters of congratulations came from the head of MI5.

He died in his sleep last Thursday in a care home in Crook of Devon.