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Flight Lieutenant Michael Orme DAVENPORT (82655)
Torpedo Development Unit, Royal Air Force Date of birth: 13th February 1918 Date of death: 16th June 1942 Killed on active service aged 24 Buried at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Rowner, Gosport
Michael Orme Davenport was born at Calcutta, India on the 13th of February 1918 the only son of Alexander Davenport, a mercantile assistant, and Dorothy Gresham (nee Bois) Davenport of Penland Cottage, Penland Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, later of East Lodge, Esher in Surrey. He travelled to Wellington, New Zealand with his mother and younger sister on board the RMS Corinthic on the 14th of August 1931 and was educated at King’s College, Auckland from 1931 to 1933. He returned to the UK with his mother and sister on board the SS “Moretin Bay”, landing at Southampton on the 23rd of October 1933. He then attended Lancing College where he was in Manor House from October 1933 to December 1935. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps achieving Certificate A in 1935 and gained his School Certificate the same year. He went on to the De Havilland Aeronautical Technical School at Christchurch in Hampshire. He was married in early 1939 to Diana "Jonny" Longfellow (nee Smith) of Drayton Parslow, Buckinghamshire. During the war he enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve rising to the rank of Sergeant before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 2nd of June 1940. He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 2nd of June 1941 and was posted the same month to the newly re-formed 143 Squadron at Aldergrove in Northern Ireland operating Beaufighter Mk IC aircraft. Here he was teamed up with Sergeant Tom Armstrong as his navigator. A few weeks later the squadron moved to Thornaby-on-Tees where they were one of eight crews who were sent to Kemble in Gloucestershire to pick up new Beaufighters and fly them to Malta. After having long range fuel tanks fitted they made the long flight from Portreath to Gibraltar and then on to Malta, arriving there on the 22nd of July 1941. The following day they were despatched, along with 252 Squadron, to protect a convoy and to attack enemy E Boats. On the 24th of July his aircraft was totally destroyed during the night during an enemy attack on the airfield. On the 28th of July they took off in a borrowed aircraft for an attack on Catania airfield in Sicily where they caused a great deal of damage to the rows of enemy aircraft which stood "wingtip to wingtip" on the ground. As they made good their escape they came under attack from three Italian Macchi 200 fighters and Tom Armstrong was slightly wounded. While Armstrong was in hospital Michael Davenport flew with 252 Squadron to Egypt where they were disbanded and absorbed into 272 Squadron. He flew on air operations in Libya before returning to England to be rested. He was posted to the Torpedo Development Unit based at the Royal Naval Air Station, Gosport on the 5th of February 1942 and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on the 2nd of June 1942. On the 16th of June 1942 Michael Davenport, and fellow test pilot Wing Commander Richard Griffith Shaw, took off from RNAS Gosport in Beaufighter Mk V1C X8065 to test a torpedo on the range at Stokes Bay off Alverstoke. Richard Shaw had 1,092 hours of total flying time of which 7 hours were on Beaufighters while Michael Davenport had a total flying time of 591 hours of which 150 were on Beaufighters. During the exercise, the aircraft was turning to port at a height of two hundred feet over the range when the port engine failed. The aircraft rolled, became inverted before righting itself, and crashed on its belly at the junction of Anglesey Road and Fort Road at Alverstoke, Hampshire where it partially burned out, killing both men. His wife received the following letter dated the 24th of June 1942: -“Madam, I am commanded by the Air Council to express to you their great regret in learning that your husband, Flying Officer Michael Orme Davenport, Royal Air Force, lost his life as the result of an aircraft accident on 16th June 1942. The Air Council desire me to convey their profound sympathy in your bereavement.” A Court of Inquiry into the accident was convened on the 17th of June 1942. The two men were buried at a funeral which was held on the 19th of June 1942. He is comemorated on the war memorial at Esher.

Manor House