Wing Commander Robert Seymour. AFC. (Obituary 2017)
Wing Commander Robert Seymour AFC, who has died aged 95, joined the Royal Air Force in September 1940 and served for 22 years as a navigator, on wartime operations, peacetime record flights and Thor missile deployment. He taught BOAC aircrew before turning to education welfare, inspiring young people in Devon to achieve their potential.
His first squadron was 295, at Netheravon, Wiltshire; his pilot until May 1945 was GH “Buster” Briggs. In May 1943, they flew Halifax tugs towing Horsa gliders for nine-hour flights in Operation Beggar, taking gliders to north Africa for the invasion of Sicily. That July they made two drops to vital bridgeheads at Syracuse and Catania, the second from 500ft under intense enemy fire. In the autumn of 1943 he was with 298 Squadron at Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, preparing for D-Day and flying Special Operations Executive supply and agent missions over occupied France.
The sixth of June 1944 was a long day for my dad on two operations, Tonga and Mallard, that were both total successes. More SOE flights followed, then three flights to Arnhem. On 22 September he received the Croix de Guerre from the French army commander, Gen Marie-Pierre Kœnig, for his 17 operations over occupied France. His last wartime operation, in May 1945, was to fly Gen Roy Urquhart to disarm German troops still active in Norway.
Robert was born in Croydon, Surrey, to Henry Seymour, an engineer, and Nellie (nee Cooper) and attended John Ruskin College, which became John Ruskin grammar school. After school he went straight into the RAF for wartime service.
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In 1946 he was seconded to BOAC for two years. In June 1955 he was part of the RAF flying college Aries IV crew making the first jet transpolar flight, before setting a record for the return flight to London from Ottawa. For this he received the Air Force Cross.
On leaving the service in 1962 he moved to Hampshire; he was an instructor at the BOAC flying college at Hamble, then in 1970 he became an education welfare officer in West Sussex. Eight years later he moved to Crediton, Devon, to run a charitable home for recovering alcoholics.
He served as a governor at Landscore primary school and Queen Elizabeth’s school, the comprehensive where his children were educated. He ran chess and drama clubs, taught technology and practical skills such as carpentry at Exeter cathedral school and at St Aubyn’s school in Tiverton. He helped the Riding for the Disabled Association and the White Swan Cheese Club, a charitable group that raised funds to sponsor youngsters for schemes such as foreign teaching trips.
A lifelong Guardian reader and Liberal, his innovative marketing for the Lib Dem bookshop caught local attention: he would try to shift the flood of donated books and videos with offers such as two-for-the-price-of-three – but even he was defeated when he chose Hairstyles of the 1980s as video of the week.
He married June Lilge, from Florida, in 1945 – they had met in 1941 when he was doing his navigation training. They had seven children, Christopher, John, Geoffrey, Stephen, Robert, Katherine and Thomas. After they divorced in 1977 he married Judith Buckingham; they had two children, Ben and Lucy. Judith survives him, as well as his nine children, 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
His first squadron was 295, at Netheravon, Wiltshire; his pilot until May 1945 was GH “Buster” Briggs. In May 1943, they flew Halifax tugs towing Horsa gliders for nine-hour flights in Operation Beggar, taking gliders to north Africa for the invasion of Sicily. That July they made two drops to vital bridgeheads at Syracuse and Catania, the second from 500ft under intense enemy fire. In the autumn of 1943 he was with 298 Squadron at Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, preparing for D-Day and flying Special Operations Executive supply and agent missions over occupied France.
The sixth of June 1944 was a long day for my dad on two operations, Tonga and Mallard, that were both total successes. More SOE flights followed, then three flights to Arnhem. On 22 September he received the Croix de Guerre from the French army commander, Gen Marie-Pierre Kœnig, for his 17 operations over occupied France. His last wartime operation, in May 1945, was to fly Gen Roy Urquhart to disarm German troops still active in Norway.
Robert was born in Croydon, Surrey, to Henry Seymour, an engineer, and Nellie (nee Cooper) and attended John Ruskin College, which became John Ruskin grammar school. After school he went straight into the RAF for wartime service.
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In 1946 he was seconded to BOAC for two years. In June 1955 he was part of the RAF flying college Aries IV crew making the first jet transpolar flight, before setting a record for the return flight to London from Ottawa. For this he received the Air Force Cross.
On leaving the service in 1962 he moved to Hampshire; he was an instructor at the BOAC flying college at Hamble, then in 1970 he became an education welfare officer in West Sussex. Eight years later he moved to Crediton, Devon, to run a charitable home for recovering alcoholics.
He served as a governor at Landscore primary school and Queen Elizabeth’s school, the comprehensive where his children were educated. He ran chess and drama clubs, taught technology and practical skills such as carpentry at Exeter cathedral school and at St Aubyn’s school in Tiverton. He helped the Riding for the Disabled Association and the White Swan Cheese Club, a charitable group that raised funds to sponsor youngsters for schemes such as foreign teaching trips.
A lifelong Guardian reader and Liberal, his innovative marketing for the Lib Dem bookshop caught local attention: he would try to shift the flood of donated books and videos with offers such as two-for-the-price-of-three – but even he was defeated when he chose Hairstyles of the 1980s as video of the week.
He married June Lilge, from Florida, in 1945 – they had met in 1941 when he was doing his navigation training. They had seven children, Christopher, John, Geoffrey, Stephen, Robert, Katherine and Thomas. After they divorced in 1977 he married Judith Buckingham; they had two children, Ben and Lucy. Judith survives him, as well as his nine children, 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.