Pilot Officer Harold Herbert Jordain HOBDAY (82198)
216 Squadron, Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 19th November 1909
Date of death: 17th December 1940

Killed on active service aged 31
Buried at Cairo War Memorial Cemetery Grave P297
He was born at 196 Upper Clapton Grove on the 19th of November 1909 the only son of William Herbert Hobday FRIBA, architect, and Annie Elizabeth (nee Paine) of 3 Beckenham Grove, Shortlands, Kent. He was christened at St Matthew's Church, Upper Clapton on the 6th of January 1910.

He was educated at the Junior King’s School from July 1920 to July 1921 and at Brighton College where he was in Chichester House from 1923 to 1928.

In 1933 he was a printer of 82 High Street Bromley in Kent, but by 1939 he was working as a chartered residential architect.

He was married to Eleanor Beatrice Linton (nee Thorp), at the Savoy Chapel London on the 21st of July 1936; they had a daughter, Virginia, born on the 2nd of April 1940 and lived at Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire and at 65/67 Longridge Road, Kensington.

On the outbreak of war, he became a Special Constable before being commissioned as an Acting Pilot Officer on probation in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the 20th of July 1940. He was graded as a Pilot Officer on probation on the 30th of October 1940.

At 10.55am on the 17th of December 1940, Harold Hobday and his crew took off from Heliopolis in Bristol Bombay Mk I L5821 for local flying and turret practice for air gunners, near the Suez Road bombing range. While making a practice run near the range the aircraft was coming out of a left hand turn in a steep dive after which it stalled and dived into the ground killing the entire crew.

The crew was: -

Flying Officer Francis Adrian Walton (Pilot)
Flying Officer Peter Aveline Slaney Baker (2nd Pilot)
Sergeant John Ogilvie Paul (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Harold Herbert Jordain Hobday (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer John Cottrell Leonard Hanmer-Strudwick (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer William Edward Laceby (Air Gunner)
Aircraftsman 2nd Class Robert Coulson (Wireless Operator)

His mother received the following telegram dated the 18th of December 1940: - "Deeply regret to inform you that your son Pilot Officer Herbert Jordain Hobday reported to have lost his life as a result of an aircraft accident on 17th December 1940. The Air Council express their profound sympathy. His wife has been informed."

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Brighton College but is not currently commemorated on the memorial at the King’s School Canterbury.
Junior King's School

Back