Lancaster bomber roars over Herefordshire for flypast

THE skies above Ledbury were treated to the majestic sound of four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines recently as the Avro Lancaster PA474 Bomber made a highly unusual pass over the town.

The plane was en route to perform a flypast over nearby St Bartholomew Church in Munsley, in honour of Wing Commander HJ ‘Tony’ Davies DSO DFC and Bar who is buried there along with his wife Marjorie.

The touching tribute to a remarkable local World War II pathfinder pilot, who flew an incredible 88 sorties during a time when the chances of surviving thirty such operations were just one in three, also being awarded the DSO, DFC and Bar and being one of the youngest ever wing commanders at the age of 25, was the idea of Ledbury Lancaster enthusiast Chris Ponter.

Mr Ponter, a member of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which owns the Lancaster, as well as the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association for thirty years, was inspired both by stories of Wing Cdr Davies told to him by his father in the early 70s when they delivered fuel to Paunceford Court where the former pilot farmed, and the extensive book on his extraordinary career written by local author Andrew Hodges.

Tony pictured with his family outside Buckingham Palace after being presented with his DSO by King George VI (Image: Chris Ponter)

After years of searching for members of Wing Cdr Davies' family able to attend a service in his honour, Mr Ponter finally struck gold in 2015 through social media when Vicky Churchill, whose husband is related to the family, answered his query on the ‘Old Ledbury’ Facebook page and informed him that Wing Cdr Davies had three daughters; Anne, living in Australia, and Sue and Margie both living locally.

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With an application for a 2020 flypast from the ‘City of Lincoln’ Lancaster over Herefordshire being successful, everything was in place for Wing Cdr Davies' family to attend a memorial service for this local war hero, only for the coronavirus pandemic to extinguish any hope of formal gatherings taking place that year.

An attempt the following year was looking positive until all Lancaster flypasts were cancelled due to the aircraft becoming unserviceable, temporarily being retired to the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire for repairs.

Last year’s planned flypast saw rain and low cloud keep the bomber away, despite a large gathering of Wing Cdr Davies' extended family still attending Munsley for an unveiling of the new memorial bench in his honour near the church entrance.

Local author Andrew Hodges (top left), event organiser Chris Ponter (top right), Margie Bradstock and Sue Probert (daughters of Tony) with the memorial bench placed in the churchyard in Tony's honour last May (Image: Chris Ponter)

Despite a fraught a few weeks when one of the engines on the BBMF fleet had a problem, momentarily grounding the vintage squadron as rain on the morning of the fourth attempt shredded nerves even further, the skies cleared by late morning to allow this magnificent aircraft, one of only two left flying in the world, to pay proper tribute to a renowned pilot of its forebears with three amazing low passes over the churchyard.

Mr Hodges' book on Wing Cdr Davies' career will be reprinted shortly, and will include a piece on how and why the Lancaster flypast happened.