We are saddened to report the death of OH Dr Arthur Page (H 37) who has passed away aged 100.
Upon leaving Haileybury in 1941 Arthur Page trained as a pilot in England and Ontario and joined the Fleet Air Arm as a Lieutenant in WW2 flying a three-crew Fairey Barracuda. By August 1944 he qualified to fly the more powerful Grumman Avehger torpedo bomber and flew with 849 Squadron from HMS Victorious in the Far East, including the very last attack on the Japanese mainland in 1945.
In July 1945, Page was flying south-west of Fukuyama, when his aircraft was hit and set on fire. Page reached the open sea to find mountainous waves. Page and his crew, consisting of a rear gunner and a Reuters reporter, survived the crash and climbed into a life-raft ready to take their chances. Fortunately, his crash-landing was spotted by one of his squadron, the fleet alerted as to his position, and within three hours they were rescued by a whaler from a British destroyer; within 36 hours he flew another Avenger to continue the attack.
The son of a Royal Navy chaplain and from a long line of doctors on his mother’s side Arthur Page read Medicine at Bart’s and became a popular doctor in general practice in the New Forest. He obtained a private pilot’s licence in later life and flew regularly until the age of 75.
With thanks to www.telegraph.co/uk, ww2f.com and www.imw.org.uk
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