Flying Officer John Michael Hewlett SARGENT (43553)
No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 16th July 1917
Date of death: 9th December 1941

Killed in action aged 24
Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 30
He was born at Chiswick on the 16th of July 1917 the son of Major Laurens Christopher Sargent OKS, East Kent Regiment (Buffs), army tutor, later ordained, and Ethel Muriel (nee Dancy) of Up Pantiles, Ryders Avenue, Westgate-on-Sea, later of The Vicarage St Peter in Thanet, Kent and later of Ingrave Rectory near Brentwood, Essex.

He was educated at Doon House, Westgate and at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1931 to July 1936 where he was in School House. He was a King’s Scholar, a House Monitor and served as a Sergeant in the Officer Training Corps. For two years he was a prominent member of the PT squad (35/36), was a silver bugler and was Hon Secretary of the Debating and Marlowe Societies.

After school he passed directly into the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Tank Regiment on the 27th of January 1938. He served as a wireless instructor and as officer in charge of PT.
He transferred to the Royal Air Force and was granted the rank of Pilot Officer on the 13th of May 1940. He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 13th of May 1941 and was posted to No 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, part of Coastal Command. He flew his first operational sortie for them on the 3rd of October 1941 in Spitfire Mk 1 Type G N3117.

At 11.05am on the morning of the 9th of December 1941 John Sargent took off from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire in Spitfire Mk 1 Type G N3117 for a low-level photographic reconnaissance near Berck. He failed to return from the mission.

Miss Powell of Salisbury received the following telegram dated the 10th of December 1941: - "Regret to inform you that Flying Officer John Michael Hewett Sargent is reported as missing as the result of air operations on 9th December 1941. Any further information received will be immediately communicated to you. Should any news of him reach you from any other source please advise this department. His father has been informed.

The Germans recovered his body from the burnt wreckage and identified him from the initials "JMS" on his shirt collar. He was buried by them in the military cemetery at Le Touquet but the site of his grave was not recorded.

His brother, Private 6013470 Miles Christian Templar Sargent OKS 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment, was killed in action on the 16th of May 1940.
School House

Back