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Wing Commander Laurence Archibald William DEANE
RAF College, Halton Royal Air Force Date of birth: 21st April 1899 Date of death: 8th August 1951 Killed on active service aged 52 Unknown
Laurence Archibald William Deane was born at Towcester, Northamptonshire on the 21st of April 1899 the son of the Reverend William Hodgson Deane, Rector of Woodham Ferrers, and Evelyn Mary (nee Holmes) Deane of The Vicarage, Woodham Ferrers, near Chelmsford in Essex. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in News House from May 1913 and in Sandersons House from September 1915 until he left in December 1915. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on the General List for the Royal Flying Corps on the 19th of July 1917. He obtained his Royal Aero Club certificate (No. 7744) on the 19th of March 1918 and served in France with 38 Squadron. In 1924 he was serving with 7 Squadron at RAF Bircham Newton in Norfolk when he and two other officers, Flight Lieutenant Allan Lancelot Addison Perry-Keene and Flying Officer Albert James Moss, designed an aircraft which was known as the Bircham Beetle. In September 1924 the machine was entered for the Royal Aero Club Grosvenor Challenge Cup, to be held at Lympne Airfield on the 4th of October 1924 but the event the aircraft was not included the final list of entrants and did not attend. He transferred to the Royal Air Force Reserve of Officers on the 28th of December 1926 with the rank of Flying Officer and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on the 1st of April 1929. While in the Reserve he trained at the Bristol Central Flying School between the 15th and the 17th of February 1927 and between the 3rd and the 9th of May 1927. A note was added to his file that stated:- "Not to be considered for mobilisation without further flight training." He became a civilian technical officer for the Royal Air Force at RAF College Halton from 1926 to 1939 and was moblised on the outbreak of war. During the war he worked at the Ministry for aircraft production and was recommended for the award of an O.B.E, although this was not approved. From 1946 to 1951 he served as a Wing Commander at RAF Halton. He lived at "Wakerley", Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire. He was killed in an accident while walking near the summit of Mount Snowden. A memorial service was held in his memory at St George's Chapel at RAF Halton at 3.20pm on the 30th of September 1951.

Sandersons House