Allan Stuart Ainslie

Allan Stuart Ainslie served as an officer in the Royal Air Force under service number 37310, having been educated at Dale College in King William’s Town and trained at sea as a cadet with the White Star Line and a probationary midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve before joining the RAF in 1938. By 1940 he was an acting flight lieutenant with No. 210 Squadron, a Coastal Command unit flying Short Sunderland flying boats on the long maritime-patrol and anti-submarine sorties demanded during the war’s opening campaigns, including operations off Norway. His service was recognised with the Distinguished Flying Cross, announced in the London Gazette of 20 February 1940 (Issue 34795, page 1055). On 29 June 1940 Flight Lieutenant Ainslie and his entire crew were lost over the North Sea, their Sunderland failing to return. Having no known grave, he is commemorated on Panel 4 of the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, which honours airmen of the Commonwealth air forces who were lost with no grave but the sea or sky.