The Hon. Michael Julius W. Benn

This story is shared by the Trust with kind permission from John Hamblin, Researcher.

The Hon. Michael Julius Wedgwood Benn, Flight Lieutenant 103589 DFC, 21 Squadron, Royal Air Force. Died of wounds on the 23rd of June 1944, aged 22.

Michael Julius Wedgwood Benn was born in Sussex on the 5th of September 1921. the eldest son of Air Commodore the Right Honourable William Wedgwood Benn DSO, DFC MP, 1st Viscount Stansgate, and Vicountess Stansgate, Margaret Eadie Benn (née Holmes) of 40, Millbank, Westminster and of Stansgate Abbey in Essex.

He was educated at Westminster School where he was a Homeboarders from September 1934 to July 1940. He was a member of the 3rd Rowing VIII in 1937 and of the 2nd Rowing VIII in 1939. He was elected as Secretary of the Boat Club in 1940.

He enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve where he trained as a pilot and rose to the rank of Leading Aircraftman before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 16th of August 1941. He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 16th of August 1942 and to Flight Lieutenant on the 16th of August 1943.

He was serving with 153 Squadron when he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was announced by the Air Ministry on the 20th of August 1943. Michael Benn and his navigator, Flying Officer William Alec Roe, took off from RAF Thorney Island at 2.10am on the 23rd of June 1944 in Mosquito FB Mk VI NS837 YH-G for a patrol. It was to be his final operation before he was to take up a post as Aide-de-Camp to the Air Marshal commanding the Far East.

Soon after taking off he noticed that the air speed indicator was malfunctioning and he called the base to say that he was returning. When he arrived over the airfield he found that the runway lights had been turned off. With no way of judging his landing he was afraid of landing short of the runway but instead he landed too far down it and struck a nine foot sea wall at the far end of it. The aircraft crashed through the wall, crossed the beach and into the sea beyond.

Michael Benn had broken his back in the crash and William Roe, although injured himself, had to hold Benn’s head above water until the two men were rescued. They were taken to St Richard's Hospital, Chichester for treatment. Margaret Benn rushed to the hospital to visit her son and was able to speak to him before he died twenty minutes later at 3.40pm.

He had left a letter to his parents, which was to be opened in the event of his death. It read as follows: -
“So may I now take my leave of you, Father, from whom I inherited those qualities which I hoped would play their part later in my life and who was always a friend I could trust and who was everything a friend could be. If he knew how true his first words had come. Mother, from whom I inherited the precious gift of religion, time alone would have shown what I intended to do with that. James (Anthony) who would have been a helping friend and who shared so many interests with me. We might have done great things together. The little Prof (David) to whom I am devoted. Take care of him. Last, but by no means least, Nursey, who has contributed to the family more than she can ever realise. To you all I say au revoir. It was my dearest wish to settle down to do what I could to prevent the suffering of another war from descending on the lives of our children. How I longed to see a world when people could be as free and happy as we were in our family. The toast is then, “The Future”. God Bless you all, my family”

The Hon. Michael Benn is commemorated at Golders Green Crematorium, Panel 1. His funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium on the 28th of June 1944, but his father and brother, Anthony, were unable to attend. He is commemorated on a memorial in St Lawrence’s Church, Steeple in Essex and on the war memorial at Westminster School.