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Pilot Officer Basil Leonard Francis Alfred HOLLAND (104337)
233 Squadron Royal Air Force Date of birth: 20th March 1917 Date of death: 15th March 1942 Killed in action aged 24 Buried at Seaford Cemetery Section C Grave 2114
Basil Leonard Francis Alfred Holland was born at Acton in Middlesex on the 20th of March 1917 the elder son of Sir Alfred Herbert Holland, a solicitor and Master of the Supreme Court of the Indicative Chancery Division, and Bertha Eleanor (nee Parrock) Holland of "The Clive", Lunton Road, Acton, later of "Nightingales", Penn in Buckinghamshire. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Gibbs House from January 1931 to 1934. On the outbreak of war he was a law student. He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939 where he rose to the rank of Sergeant before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 18th of August 1941. He was posted to 233 Squadron who operated Hudson aircraft from St Eval in Cornwall on reconnaissance missions over the Bay of Biscay. Basil Holland and his crew took off at 11.45am from RAF St Eval in Hudson Mk III ZS-V V9128 for a shipping search to Brittany. They were to locate and shadow enemy shipping and had no bombs on board. The aircraft failed to return and is believed to have crashed into the sea off Guernsey in the Channel Islands with the loss of the entire crew. The crew was:- Wing Commander Eric Hugh Paul Clarke AFC (Pilot) Sergeant David Wallace Dewar (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) Flying Officer Arthur Herbert Hiles (Observer) Pilot Officer Basil Leonard Francis Alfred Holland (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) Basil Holland's body was washed ashore at Portscatho near Falmouth on the 17th of May and that of Eric Clarke was washed ashore at Looe the day before. The two other crew members were lost and they are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial to the missing. His body was taken to Portscatho Coast Guard Station and his funeral took place on the 23rd of May 1942. His brother received the following telegram dated the 21st of May 1942: - "Deeply regret to inform you that further information now received states that your brother Pilot Officer Basil Leonard Francies Alfred Holland is reported to have lost his life as a result of air operations on 15th March 1942. The Air Council express their profound sympathy. His father has been informed." He is commemorated in the St Eval book of remembrance at St Mawgan in Cornwall, on the Allied Aircrew Memorial at Guernsey and on the memorial in the Lady Chapel at Holy Trinity Church, Penn.

Gibbs House