William Robert Humphrey Whiting (1920-1942)

Second World War Roll of Honour

William Robert Humphrey Whiting was born at Brentford, Middlesex on 16 February 1920, the only son of Dr Maurice Henry Whiting MA MB B.Ch OBE and Blanche (nee Aggas) of 17 St John's Wood Court, St John's Wood, London. He was educated at Mill Hill School where he was in Collinson House from 1933 to 1938. He was a member of the Boxing Team in 1937 and 1938 and was appointed as their Hon Secretary in the latter year. He served as a Sergeant in the Officer Training Corps and was elected as a Prefect. He was a member of the 2nd Rugby XV and won the McClure Music Prize in 1937. On leaving school he worked for a few months at the Daimler Company works at Coventry before entering Downing College in October 1938 where he studied for the Mechanical Sciences Tripos. He had passed the preliminary examination but decided to volunteer for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in October 1939 after the outbreak of war. He was called up for training in March 1940 when he began ground and elementary flying training at RAF Brough in Yorkshire. He went on to RAF Cranwell where he received his "Wings" and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 24 November 1940. For the next year he instructed Cadets in elementary flying before volunteering for operations and converting to bombers. William was married in Surrey in 1941 to Betty Hilary Gordon (nee Mayberry). He was promoted to Flying Officer on 24 November 1941.

On the night of 30/31 May 1942, Bomber Command planned an operation on Cologne in which, for the first time, they were to use 1,000 bombers to attack a German city. In order to gather together enough aircraft to carry out the operation, they planned to use aircraft from Coastal Command and from Operational Training Units. In the event, the Admiralty did not allow the aircraft from Coastal Command to take part as they needed them for the battle against the U Boats. They dispatched a total of 1,047 aircraft for the operation. In order to assist the bombers, another 56 aircraft were sent to attack enemy night fighter airfields to disrupt the German defences. 868 aircraft claimed to have bombed the main target during the operation, with 15 hitting other targets, and the damage to the city was severe.

William Whiting and his crew took off from RAF Graveley at 11.45pm on 30 May 1942 in Wellington Mk IC W5704 WG-S for what would be his first operation. Having successfully attacked the target, the aircraft was returning home at a height of 11,500 feet when it was attacked at 2.30am. The aircraft crashed at Middelbeers, some sixteen kilometres to the west of Eindhoven, Holland, with the loss of the entire crew. Theirs was one of forty one aircraft lost on the operation, the highest number of aircraft lost on a single raid to that point in the war.

Flying Officer Whiting was killed in action on 31 May 1942, aged 22. He is buried at Woensel General Cemetery and also commemorated on the war memorial at Mill Hill School. The Downing College magazine, The Griffin, wrote of him: - "He was cheerful and vigorous, and had made many friends, whom in the summer days of 1939 he used to charm, under one of the porticos, with his guitar. He would have made a good engineer and was a most companionable friend."  

Sources

Book - Mill Hill School Roll of Honour

TNA – RAF Casualty file AIR 81/14653

Images

Whiting in uniform from the Mill Hill School Roll of Honour.
Downing College Rugby XV, 1938-9 (DCPH/2/3/8/5b). William Whiting is 4th from right, back row. This photograph has been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers.