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Sub Lieutenant (A) Harold Cosgrove LARGE RNVR
820 Squadron Fleet Air Arm, HMS Formidable Royal Navy Date of birth: 31st December 1918 Date of death: 5th April 1943 Killed in action aged 24 Commemorated on the Lee-on-Solent Memorial Bay 4 Panel 7
Harold Cosgrove "Peter" Large was born at Singapore on the 31st of December 1918 the son of Harold James Cosgrove Large, an electrical engineer, and Emily Large. He spent his early life living in India, China and Egypt before coming to England to go to school. He was educated at Lancing College where he won an Exhibition and was in Olds House from September 1932 to 1936. On leaving school he spent some time at university in Munich before returning to the UK in 1937 and taking a job as a journalist on the staff of the Gloucestershire "Echo". He played cricket for the English Public Schools team and was Secretary of the Cheltenham Squash Racquets Club. Having risen to the position of sub editor, he took up a post with the Grimsby Telegraph in 1939 but when war was declared he volunteered for pilot training with the Fleet Air Arm and was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant (A) on the 3rd of February 1941. In March 1941 he was married at his station at Crail in Scotland to Veronica Dorothy Olive (nee Dartnell) of Cheltenham who he had met before the war and who was serving as a Third Officer with the Women's Royal Naval Service at Tees Naval Base, West Hartlepool. He was posted to 820 Squadron based on the aircraft carrier, HMS Formidable, serving in the Mediterranean. On the 7th of November 1942 he was flying in Fairey Albacore X9173 when he suffered an engine failure and had to put down in the sea. He and his crew were picked up by a destroyer. On the 5th of April 1943 he and his crew took off from HMS Formidable in Fairey Albacore Mk I BF766 for a night time anti submarine patrol. The aircraft had encountered bad weather and, while the crew were attempting to establish a bearing, the aircraft stalled and crashed into the sea at around midnight. Harold Large and the air gunner, Acting Leading Aircraftman Sydney Evett RN, were killed in the crash. The Observer, Sub Lieutenant Edward Charles Pipe RNVR (NZ), managed to climb into a small dingy and, after five days in the sea, he was spotted by an American sea plane and was later picked up by a French trawler. He was taken to the US 5th Army hospital at Oujda in Algeria suffering from an injured leg. Harold Large's wife received the following telegram: - "From Admiralty. Deeply regret to inform you that information has been received that your husband Sub Lieutenant (A) H.C. Large must be presumed killed on active service."

Olds House