Flight Lieutenant John Swithin WAYLAND (47788)
241 Squadron Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 18th February 1921
Date of death: 17th March 1944

Killed in action aged 23
Commemorated on the Malta Memorial panel 13 Column 1
He was born in Uganda on the 18th of February 1921, the son of Edward James Wayland, director, and Ellen (nee Morrison) of "Loreto", Goodwin Road, Ramsgate.

He returned from Africa to the UK with his mother, landing at London on board the SS "Llandaff Castle" on the 4th of June 1928.

He was educated at the Junior King's School from September 1928 and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1934 to July 1939, where he was in The Grange. He was a school monitor in 1938 and 1939, won Fencing colours from 1937 to 1939, being Captain of Fencing in 1939. He was in the Rugby XV in 1938/39 and in the Rowing IV in 1938 and 1939 being Captain of Boats in the latter year. He served as a Sergeant in the Officer Training Corps.

On leaving school he joined an Officer Cadet Training Unit as Private 6091962 in the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment.

In December 1939 the Cantuarian published a letter from him:-

"As you can see I'm still at ______. It is now O.T.C.U.______, and my official status is that of Private in the Queen's. As such I draw 14/- a week. Four shillings, however, is removed every week for breakages, 2/6 extras for washing, whilst 3/- I pay my servant. Usual total left about 3/6. Never was 3/6 harder earned. We get up at 6.15am and don't finish till 7.35pm in the evening. In the afternoon however we are free for games, and I have being playing rugger for the company. As yet, however, the ground has been rather hard. It's rapidly improving with the rain we've been getting (usually whilst crawling through the undergrowth several miles away)."

He went on to the Royal Military College Sandhurst and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant (112977) in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment on the 31st of December 1939.

On the 24th of January 1942 he transferred to the Royal Air Force with the rank of Pilot Officer and was posted to 241 Squadron stationed in North Africa. He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 1st of October 1942. The squadron converted from Hurricanes to Spitfires in December 1943 and moved to an airfield at Canne in Italy where they were employed on tactical shipping reconnaissance and ground attack duties. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on the 25th of January 1944.

On the 17th of March 1944 John Wayland took off from Canne at dawn as part of "Red Section" for a shipping reconnaissance patrol over Unva on the Croatian coast. During the flight he radioed his flight commander, Flight Lieutenant Hardy, to say that he was having engine trouble and was planning to crash land his aircraft near to some freighters. As he was out of the sight of Hardy at the time, the other members of "Red Section", Hardy, Flying Officer Norton and Flying Officer Alting flew down to search the area for any sign of John Wayland's aircraft but they were unable to find anything and returned to base.

His housemaster wrote:-

"Early in his school days he chose the army as his career, but he regarded the military-as indeed most other things in life-with such abounding humour that there were many who doubted his ability to get past a staid selection board. An incident during his O.T.C. life at school may have comforted him. The Inspecting Brigadier asked to be shown an N.C.O. instructing recruits and was taken to the nearest section. Sgt. Wayland was in charge and at once relapsed in the dialect and jargon of a Buffs sergeant of whom he had made a close study , and was forced to continue the deception for many minutes before the fascinated Brigadier could be torn away. The Brigadier later became Field Marshall Lord Montgomery."
The Grange

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