Cosme Lockwood Gomm

Cosme Lockwood Gomm was born in 1913 in Brazil, the son of Harry Herbert and Isabel Withers Gomm of São Paulo, and joined the Royal Air Force in the early 1930s. He served pre-war with fighter squadrons in Egypt and the Middle East before returning to Britain, and in July 1940 joined No. 77 Squadron, completing a bomber tour for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; he then retrained as a night-fighter pilot and flew with No. 604 Squadron, where he was credited with destroying several enemy aircraft. In November 1942 he helped form the Australian No. 467 Squadron and took command of it, flying Avro Lancasters from Bottesford, and during this second operational tour he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. On the night of 14/15 August 1943, returning from a raid on Milan in Lancaster ED998, his aircraft was attacked by a German night fighter over the Chartres area of France and was destroyed; Gomm was killed on 15 August 1943 at the age of 30. He is buried in St. Désir War Cemetery in France (Plot VII. C. 6.), his headstone bearing the inscription “The great adventure now begins; not dead, but gone before — his name shall live evermore.”