John Hunter Coghlan

John Hunter Coghlan was born on 7 September 1914 in Shanghai, the son of Henry and Katherine Coghlan, and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as a permanent officer in the mid-1930s. He joined No. 1 Squadron in October 1936 and later served with No. 72 Squadron before transferring to No. 56 Squadron, a Hurricane unit based at RAF North Weald, by the outbreak of war. During the battles over France and the Low Countries in May and June 1940 he built a combat record that included damaging enemy fighters, sharing in the destruction of a Heinkel 111, and accounting for a Dornier 17, and he was gazetted for the Distinguished Flying Cross on 30 July 1940 in recognition of his gallantry in flying operations against the enemy. By early August 1940, having been credited with some six victories, he was transferred away from No. 56 Squadron and posted to the Parachute Practice Unit at RAF Ringway, then attached to the newly formed 419 Special Duties Flight for clandestine work. On the night of 17–18 August 1940 he took off in Westland Lysander R2625 tasked with landing a Belgian agent, Henri Leenaerts, in German-occupied territory; neither man returned, and the aircraft is believed to have come down in the North Sea somewhere north-west of Ostend, most likely on the return leg after fuel ran out. Coghlan’s body was recovered from the beach at Wimereux on 23 September 1940 and he now lies in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France, in Plot 13, Row B, Grave 2; he was twenty-five years old.