The Airmen's Stories - F/O J Lockhart

James Lockhart is first recorded as arriving at the Port of London aboard the ss Teiresias on 12th December 1923 aged 7, giving a birth date circa 1916.

He was accompanied by his parents, James and Elizabeth Lockhart (nee Minto), his father's occupation recorded as Accountant. They had boarded at Shanghai in China and James Jnr. may have been born there.

They gave a home address in Crawfordjohn, Lanarkshire.

He was commissioned in the RAF in November 1939. He completed his training and arrived at 6 OTU Sutton Bridge on 14th May 1940 to convert to Hurricanes. His first posting was 85 Squadron at Debden, where they had withdrawn from France three days earlier.

Above L to R : P/O JL Bickerdyke, F/O PP Woods-Scawen, F/O J Lockhart,

F/O RHA Lee, Sgt. L Jowitt, F/Lt. Bieber(MO), Sgt. ER Webster

He moved to 213 Squadron at Tangmere on 16th September 1940, staying with them until November 1941 when he was appointed CO.

Above: he married Morwenna Burt Lowry in Chelsea in November 1940.

In January 1942 he was posted to 258 Squadron, then being reformed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In the big attack by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft and subsequent air battle over Colombo on 5th April 1942 Lockhart was shot down and killed in Hurricane IIB BD701.

He was 26 and is buried in Kanatte cemetery, Colombo.

A notice of his death stated that his father was then Traffic Manager of the Great Northern Railway in Belfast.