The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. R H R Meyer

Reginald Henry Rome Meyer was born on 12th September 1920, the son of Harold Meyer and Mary Lovden Meyer (nee Minto).

He attended Taunton School, he would have gone on to university but for the war. He joined the RAFVR about December 1938 as an Airman u/t Pilot. Called up on 1st September 1939, he completed his training, soloing on the Blenheim IV in September 1940.

He then joined 236 Squadron Coastal Command, operating Blenheims, on 20th October 1940. The squadron was operating as part of Fighter Command in the anti-shipping role from St. Eval in Cornwall.

Meyer's logbook for this period records sweeps over Brest, chasing but losing a Dornier in the clouds and having an engine shot up.

He was commissioned on 3rd July 1941 and is believed to have been engaged on convoy protection duties for the rest of 1941 and all of 1942 during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Above: Meyer, centre, location and other personnel unknown

In 1943 he converted to the Beaufighter, being rated above average, and was posted to 252 squadron at Mersa Matruh, Egypt in November that year. He had been promoted to Flight Lieutenant in August 1943.

He had married Phyllis Lilian Campani in Yorkshire in 1943.

On his second sortie with the squadron he destroyed a Ju88.

On 9th February 1944, on his third sortie, he was leading a flight of four Beaufighters in the vicinity of the Greek island of Leros. His Beaufighter LZ287 was engaged by two Me109s and shot down on the island of Ikaria (west of Samos). F/Sgt. P Grieve was also killed.

Both were buried on the island by the locals and post-war were reinterred in Phaleron War Cemetery, Athens.

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On 22nd February 1944 Meyer's wife Eve gave birth to a son, Christopher. He went on to become Sir Christopher Meyer KCMG, British Ambassador to the United States 1997 to 2003.

Above images and additional research courtesy of Christopher Meyer.

In 2013 Christopher Meyer recorded how his life developed without knowing his father and his later investigation into his father's service and loss. It is available as a Kindle download:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=sv_kinc_2?ie=UTF8&node=2445826031

He died on 27th July 2022.