Nat Gould

Dermot Evelyn Gould 1918-1940

Dermot Evelyn Gould was born in 1918, the son of Philip Gould 1870-1942 and his wife nee Maria Augusta Stewart.

51 Squadron Badge

He was educated as a Flight Cadet at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 18 December 1937 (1), and promoted to Flying Officer on 18 June 1939 (2).

Whitley Bomber

Dermot Gould served with 51 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, then based at Dishforth in Yorkshire and equipped with Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers.

The squadron badge received royal approval in December 1937. The symbol of a flying goose was chosen as a play on the word Anson, the type of plane flown by the Squadron when the badge was designed. (Anser is Latin for goose.) As the goose is a fast day and night flyer, and one of the heavier wild fowl, it was appropriate for a Bomber Squadron.

Runnymede RAF Memorial

On 5 April 1940 the Whitley bomber that he was flying was lost on a night training exercise, with all its crew of five. He was 22 years of age.

The cause of the disaster was never ascertained. It was presumed to have gone down in the Bristol Channel some ten miles off the Welsh coast at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire (3). No trace of it was ever found (4).

Flying Officer Dermot Evelyn Gould and all his crew are commemorated on the RAF Memorial at Runnymede in Surrey.

He is also commemorated on his parents' grave in St. Katherine's churchyard, Savernake Forest in Wiltshire (5).

(1) London Gazette 18 January 1938 page 268; Western Morning News 19 January 1938.
(2) London Gazette 4 July 1939 page 4580; Flight 13 July 1939.
(3) The other officer on board, Flying Officer Frederick Oscar Dickson, is commemorated on the war memorial at Hadlow near Tonbridge in Kent. The information about their final flight is given in http://www.kentfallen.com/PDF%20reports/HADLOW.pdf
(4) Gwlad Nini Community Heritage Project gwlad-nini.org It is there stated that the plane "was lost while returning from a bombing raid on Germany. [[That seems unlikely as the Whitley was lost over the Bristol Channel.] No trace of it was ever found."
(5) The photograph of the gravestone is shown by kind permission of Steve Rogers, The War Graves Photographic Project www.twgpp.org