Memorial stone unveiled to commemorate brave World War Two pilot

A memorial stone has been unveiled to mark the spot where RAF Battle of Britain pilot Flight Lieutenant Richard Carew Reynell fell to his death from his Hurricane aircraft.

Flight Lieutenant Richard Carew Reynell of 43 Squadron, died on 7 September 1940 when his fighter was shot down over Blackheath in London on the first day of the Blitz.

His body fell near The Point on Blackheath and the memorial was unveiled last month in Point Hill Park.

The ceremony and unveiling was funded and organised by the Shoreham Aircraft Museum in Kent, whose curator Geoff Nutkins said: 'Dickie Reynell was not just another of the brave "Few" - he was a real person, undoubtedly brave, with an interesting past, who died doing the job he loved and who perished helping to defend my city and furthermore, defending my local neighbourhood.'

Flight Lieutenant Richard Carew Reynell was already a notable pilot by the time the Second World War began.  

In the pre-war period of heightened tension between Germany and Britain, he was instrumental in government attempts to dissuade Nazi Germany's military expansion throughout Europe by demonstrating the exhilarating performance and capabilities of the new Hawker Hurricane to the 3rd Reich's Air Ministry.

Reynell was born in 1912, in Reynella, South Australia and in 1929, he came to England to study at Oxford but soon joined the Oxford University Squadron and having discovered his love of flying, abandoned his studies and joined the RAF in 1931, with whom he served in 43 Squadron at RAF Tangmere.