Lieut. Raymond Burch (RAF)

We are very sorry to hear that Raymond Burch was killed on June 28th – the  third of our airmen to die this year.

His Colonel has written a detailed letter to his parents:

“He went off on Friday morning (June 28th) early to assist the infantry in the attack they were making. About 6.30 a.m. we had a report to the effect that his machine had been hit by a shell and had crashed to the ground a total wreck, and that both pilot and observer were killed. 

Later on, we heard that the infantry, near which the machine fell, had taken the bodies to the cemetery at Borre, a village near Hazebrouck, and that their padre had buried them there.

Apparently the shell burst directly on the machine, and they must have been killed instantly, so I hope and pray that they felt nothing and were spared the agony of falling out of control…”

Raymond graduated as a pilot in May 1917 and was deployed to 4 Squadron in France in April this year. He had been flying the Royal Aircraft Factory  RE 8, which is used for reconnaissance and as a light bomber.

RE 8 aircraft.

His Colonel also writes warmly of Raymond, both as a pilot and a person.

“He was an excellent pilot, very conscientious and painstaking, and perfectly forgetful of self in the execution of his duty. The Squadron has lost one of her best sons and his death leaves a gap which it will be hard to fill.”

Raymond was a rather delicate, quiet, self-dependent boy. Though his bent was always scientific, he was not without literary and artistic taste and capacity.

He was married in 1916 and leaves his wife with a son, who was born last year.