Eugene Quimby Tobin

Pilot Officer Eugene Quimby ‘Red’ Tobin was an American, born in Salt Lake City in 1917 and raised in Los Angeles, who came to Europe hoping to fly for Finland and then France before both fell, and finally reached Britain to join the RAF. Posted to No. 609 Squadron in August 1940, he flew through the Battle of Britain — one of a handful of Americans to qualify as one of ‘The Few’ — before becoming a founder member of No. 71 ‘Eagle’ Squadron, the first all-American fighter unit. Unknown to the RAF, he had concealed a diagnosis of lupus in order to keep flying. On 7 September 1941, on the Eagle Squadron’s first fighter sweep over northern France, Tobin was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109s and crashed near Boulogne. He is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.