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2nd Lieutenant Leopold Grahame STERN
99 Squadron Royal Air Force Date of birth: 4th October 1899 Date of death: 26th September 1918 Killed in action aged 18 Buried at Chambieres French National Cemetery Metz Grave 379
Leopold Grahame Stern was born at Rodmell in East Sussex on the 4th of October 1899 the son of Leopold John Stern, a gentleman, and Lilias Mary (nee Dunlop) Stern of “Red Oaks”, Henfield in Sussex. He was educated at Langley Place Preparatory School, St Leonards-on-Sea and at Wellington College where he was in the Stanley from September 1913 to July 1914. He went on to Lancing College where he was in Olds House from September 1914 to July 1917. He was a member of the Football XI in 1915 and was Team Secretary in 1916. He was a member of the Cricket XI in 1916 and was their team Secretary in 1917. He was appointed as a House Captain and as a Prefect in 1917. He was a member of the in the Officer Training Corps from September 1914 where he rose to the rank of Company Quartermaster Sergeant. He applied for a commission on the 30th of July 1917 expressing a preference for the Royal Flying Corps or the Tank Corps in an application which was supported by the Reverend Bowlby, Head Master of Lancing College. On the same day he underwent a medical examination at Shoreham Camp where it was recorded that he was five feet ten and a half inches tall and that he weighed ten stones and seven pounds. On the 14th of September 1917 he entered No. 5 School of Military Aeronautics at Denham and was posted to 20 Training Depot Station at Vendome in France on the 17th of April 1918; then to 57 Training Depot Station. On the 10th of October 1917 he was posted to Halton Park. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force on the 15th of July 1918 and was posted to No 1 Flying School on the 16th of August. On the 26th of August 1918 he was posted to 99 Squadron, based at the aerodrome at Azelo, and joined the squadron at the front the following day. On the 26th of September 1918 the squadron took off for a raid on Thionville in support of ground operations there. The raid had been planned at short notice and in the event only seven aircraft crossed the lines, led by Captain Patrick Welchman MC DFC. Leopold Stern was flying DH9 (registration D5573), with Lieutenant Frederick Oliver Cook as his observer, when they encountered a formation of 20 to 30 enemy fighter aircraft. Welchman considered that the original target would be impossible to reach and signalled to the other aircraft that they would instead attack Metz Sablon. The fighting was intense with only one of 99 Squadron’s aircraft, with the observer dead in the back seat, managing to return. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Henfield in Sussex.

Olds House