Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Elliot, Herbert Hugh, 1909-1942
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1909-1942
History
Elliot, Herbert Hugh, son of Hugh Samuel Roger Elliot, author, of Chislehurst, Kent, and Rose Maud, d. of N. Chesterfield; b. 3 June 1909; adm. Sept. 1921 (H); left 1927; Trin. Coll. Camb., matric. 1927, BA 1930; PO RAFVR June 1942; m. 1939 Kate Marjorie, d. of Rev. Vernon Iles of South Marston, Wilts; killed in an air accident in Kenya 13 July 1942.
Herbert Hugh Elliot was born at Hove, West Sussex on the 3rd of June 1909 the only son of Hugh Samuel Roger Elliot, an author, and Rosa Maud (nee Chesterfield) Elliot of 15, Bede House, Manor Fields, Putney. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Homeboarders from September 1921 to 1927 and was a member of the Chess team in 1925 and 1926. He matriculated for Trinity College, Cambridge where he was admitted as an Entrance Exhibitioner on a Westminster Exhibition on the 1st of October 1927. He was awarded a BA in 1930.
He was married in south London in 1939 to Kate Marjorie (nee Iles) of “Abbots Cot”, Bourne End in Buckinghamshire. He was elected as a member of the London Rowing Club in 1932. He was elected as a member of the committee in 1938 and rowed in the Thames Cup in 1937, 1938 and 1939.
He enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve where he trained as an Observer and rose to the rank of Sergeant before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 12th of October 1941.
Herbert Elliott and his crew took off on the 13th of July 1942 in Blenheim Mk IV V5869 with two other Blenheims from the unit to practice low level attacks. They had been briefed that they were not to fly below 50 feet. The aircraft was making a mock attack on a vehicle on the Isiolo to Marsabit road, near Nanyuki in Kenya when it struck a tree and crashed at 10.45am killing all on board.
The crew was:-
Sergeant Lyndley Dawson Craven RAAF (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Herbert Hugh Elliott (Observer)
Flying Officer Eric Arthur Main (Pilot)
A telegram was sent to D, H. Hopgood dated the 15th April 1942: - “Deeply regret to inform you that Pilot Officer Herbert Hugh Elliott is reported to have lost his life as he result of an aircraft accident on 13/7/42. The Air Council express their profound sympathy. His wife has been informed.”
The accident was attributed to pilot having disobeyed his orders as the aircraft was seen to descend below 50 feet while making its dummy attack. As a result of the accident the unit was ordered not to fly below 100 feet during future exercises of the same type.
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Trinity College, Cambridge and on the memorial at the London Rowing Club.
He is buried at Nanyuki War Cemetery Row 1 Grave 34.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Pilot Officer 124655; No. 70 Operational Training Unit, Royal Air Force
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
GB 2014
Rules and/or conventions used
International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition
Status
Final
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020. Updated by Bethany Duck, Archives Assistant, September 2022.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from Play 1919 to Election 1989, Volume 4, compiled by F.E. Pagan and H.E. Pagan, Padstow, 1992.
Westminster School Second World War Memorial by John C. Hamblin, 2022.