Bunting, Paul Lidgett, brother of Christopher Evelyn Bunting (qv); b. 29 Dec. 1926; adm. Sept. 1941 (H); left July 1944; Trin. Coll. Camb., matric. 1944; RN (FAA); accidentally killed on active service 5 July 1946.
Paul Lidgett Bunting was born at Queen’s Road, Bayswater, London on the 29th of December 1926 the son of Sheldon Arthur Steward Bunting MA, MBE, MICE, BSc an engineer for the Indian Public Works Department, and Kathleen (nee Collett) Bunting of 33, Kingsley Way, Hampstead, London N2 and of Northleach, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire
He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Homeboarders from September 1941 to July 1944. He matriculated for Trinity College, Cambridge on the 1st of October 1944 as a Royal Navy Officer Cadet. He was posted to the Royal Naval School of Music near Burford, Oxfordshire.
On the night of the 4th/5th of July 1946, Paul Bunting was one of a number of Marines who were traveling in a lorry while returning from leave in Cheltenham to their base at Burford. At midnight the lorry was in collision with a civilian lorry at Hangman’s Stone, near Northleach. He died at the scene from a fracture to the base of his skull; his body was taken to Northleach mortuary.
The dead and injured were: -
Musician Charles Walter Montgomery (Died from injuries at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford) Musician G. De Peyer (Injured)
Musician Paul Lidgett Bunting
Musician B. Farmer (Injured)
Marine L. Midham (Head injuries)
Coporal C.W. Freeland
An inquiry was held into the accident which concluded that the naval lorry had been traveling over the centre line of the road at a speed of 30-35 miles per hour when the collision occurred. The Coroner concluded: - “There is no evidence here of undue speeding, and I think of the two drivers concerned, Ogden, the Royal Marine driver, was to blame for the collision. Whatever carelessness there was on his part amounts to nothing more than to justify me recording a verdict of misadventure.”
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Trinity College, Cambridge.
He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial Panel 94.