The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. D I Kirton

David Ian Kirton was born in Dover on 2nd June 1919, the son of James Hughes Kirton (1891-1918) and Kathleen Violet Kirton (nee Gibbs 1895-1995).

His father enlisted in the Royal Navy as an Electrical Artificer 3rd Class and was serving at a shore establishment, HMS Tarlair, on the Firth of Forth. He was taken ill and died on 9th November 1918 at the Naval Hospital, South Queensbury, Edinburgh aged 27. He is buried in St. James Cemetery, Dover.

JH Kirton had two brothers. William Howard was born in 1887 and was killed in action on 8th October 1917 serving with the 18th Battalion London Irish. He is buried in Duisans War Cemetery near Arras.

Samuel Palmer was born in 1894. He was killed when HMS Indefatigable was sunk at the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916, he is commemorated on the Naval Memorial in Portsmouth.

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DI Kirton was educated at St. James School and the County School for Boys locally. He left in 1935 and joined the RAF as a Boy Entrant. He was engaged in photography before applying, and being accepted for, pilot training.

On 12th June 1939 he commenced training at 22 E&RFTS Cambridge, going on to 6 FTS at Little Rissington in August. On 23rd March 1940 he was posted to 5 OTU Aston Down to convert to Hurricanes.

His first squadron posting was to 501 at Tangmere on 27th April but this proved a short stay as he went to 65 Squadron, equipped with Spitfires, at Hornchurch on 5th May.

Kirton was killed in action aged 21 when his Spitfire K9911 was shot down by Me109s over Manston on 8th August 1940.

He is buried in St. James Cemetery, Dover, next to his father.

His older brother, S/Ldr. JH Kirton, was killed aged 27 on 27th January 1944 whilst flying in Wellington X HZ484 of 84 OTU Desborough which crashed near Arthingworth in Nottinghamshire during an evening cross-country exercise. He is buried in Desborough Cemetery, Northamptonshire.

Also lost were:

F/O DE Blunt
F/O FW Jones
Sgt. J Orr
Sgt. ALL Butler
Sgt. JD Kennedy