Yesterday at Tangmere

Yesterday at Tangmere Church the family of Sgt H A Adair (the first name to be found on the Battle of Britain roll) gathered from all over the UK and as far away as Canada to pay tribute to Hubert Adair who went missing on 6 November 1940 whilst flying from Tangmere with 213 Squadron. Circumstantial evidence points strongly to the fact that his Hurricane was recovered at Widley, on Portsdown Hill, during 1979 but the remains of the unfortunate pilot found in that wreck were not positively identified and were formally disposed of, un-named, and without ceremony.

My recent book “Finding The Few” is dedicated to Sgt Adair and as a direct result of this the family decided that a memorial service ought to be held. The family, a party of about forty from all generations, led by Hubert’s daughter (17 months old when he was lost) later visited the scene of the crash at Portsdown and visited a memorial to Hubert that was placed nearby during the 1990’s.

The event was a simple, fitting and exceptionally moving tribute to one of “the few”.