Pilot Officer Ian Alexander Nigel ATCHISON (63426)
58 Squadron Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 18th November 1912
Date of death: 30th September 1941

Killed in action aged 28
Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 31
Ian Alexander Nigel Atchison was born at Toat Farm, Pulborough in Sussex on the 18th of November 1912 the eldest son of Major Francis Alexander Atchison, Hampshire Regiment, and Irene Margaret Mary (nee Barttelot) Atchison later of "Hamblebank", Warsash in Hampshire.

He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Sandersons House from September 1926 to July 1932. He was a member of the Football XI from 1929 to 1932 and was Captain in 1931. He was Drum Major and a Cadet Officer in the Officer Training Corps achieving Certificate A in 1929. He was Drum Major and a Cadet Officer in the Officer Training Corps, achieving Certificate A in 1929. He was appointed as a House Captain in 1930 and as a Prefect and Head of House in 1932

In 1932 he went on to Jesus College, Cambridge where he read Engineering but failed all of his examinations and left in 1933.

On the 17th of September 1934 he obtained his Aero Club Certificate (No.12420) at the Hampshire Aeroplane Club flying a DH60 Moth Cirrus 11 Moth.

On the 10th of December 1936 he was married to Kathleen Ivy H (nee White) at St Mary's Church, Alverstoke in Hampshire; they owned and ran a riding school at Westend Riding School, Crabthorne Farm, Stubbington in Hampshire.

He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the 8th of April 1941 with seniority from the 26th of March.

On the 29th of September 1941 Bomber Command despatched 139 aircraft for a raid on Stettin. 67 Wellingtons, 56 Whitleys, 10 Stirlings and 6 Halifaxes took part in the raid, reporting good bombing in conditions of slight haze over the target area.

Ian Atchison and his crew took off from RAF Linton-on-Ouse at 6.52pm on the 29th of September 1941 for the operation in Whitley Mk V Z6944 GE-R. The last signal received from the aircraft at 3.53am indicated that it was "somwhere near the English coast" but it failed to return to base. An extensive search was made over the sea but no trace of the aircraft was found.

The crew was:-

Pilot Officer Ian Alexander Nigel Atchison (Pilot)
Sergeant John Roland Maddison Vaisey (2nd Pilot)
Sergeant Cecil Brian McMullan (Observer)
Sergeant Joseph Edwin Horne (Wireless Operator)
Sergeant Stewart Ireland Collister Moulds RCAF (Air Gunner)

Theirs was one of eight aircraft which did not return from the raid.

His mother received the following telegram dated the 1st of October 1941: - "Deeply regret to inform you that your son Pilot Officer Ian Alexander Nigel Atchison is reported missing as the result of air operations on 30th September 1941. Any further information received will be communicated to you immediately. Should any news of him reach you from any source please inform this department. His wife has been informed."
Sandersons House

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