The Airmen's Stories - F/Lt. S G Beaumont

Group Captain (Flight Lieutenant during the Battle) Stephen Beaumont, who has died aged 87, fought as a 30-year-old Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain until his 26-year-old squadron com-mander felt that, at such an advanced age, his survival was unlikely.

His life was probably saved by the decision but at the time he was most reluctant to be posted, as an instructor and flight commander, to an Operational Training Unit (OTU). Once there he helped to produce hastily trained Hurricane and Spitfire pilots to replace the high daily casualties. Beaumont was thus spared the perils of several sorties a day against experienced Luftwaffe pilots, many of them "blooded" in the Spanish Civil War. He served with distinction as a station commander and staff officer. Beaumont's background was quite unlike that of RAF regulars and his opponents. He was a solicitor who had learned to fly at his own expense. In 1936 he had become a "weekend flyer" in No 609 (West Riding) Squadron in the Auxiliary, later Royal Auxiliary, Air Force. With the coming of war in 1939 the squadron replaced its obsolete Hart and Hind biplanes with Spitfires.

During the "phoney war", the squadron undertook defence patrols over the north of England and Scotland: when France and the Low Countries were invaded in May 1940, 609 was ordered south.

On June 11, Beaumont and eight other pilots were dispatched to Warmwell in Dorset to rendezvous with an Imperial Airways Flamingo containing Winston Churchill and escort it to Briare, near Orleans in falling France. Two days later he again escorted the Flamingo, which this time carried the Prime Minister and Lords Halifax and Beaverbrook to Tours in a bid to keep France in the war.

Beaumont recalled:

The airfield at Tours must have been a good example of the disintegration into which France had sunk. Here we were with the Prime Minister and, initially there was no one there to meet him. Tours airfield with its uncut grass and shabby buildings, resembling a bankrupt flying club, was totally unlike our spruce RAF stations. If this was an aerodrome of the French Air Force, then its morale must have been rock bottom.

When, at the end of May, the BEF was evacuated from Dunkirk, Beaumont flew sorties against heavy odds to provide a semblance of fighter cover for troops on the beaches. Subsequently, after fighting in the early part of the Battle of Britain, he left the squadron, having served briefly as its acting commander. Years afterwards, George Darley, the 26-year-old who had taken over in 1940 greeted him: "Hello Beau, still alive? That's due to me!".

When Beaumont left 609, seven of the 12 pilots with whom he had gone to war were dead and two were invalids. Of an additional 12 who had joined later, only three were alive. Posted to No 7 OTU at Hawarden, Beaumont found life "restful" after the stress of operations over the Channel and southern England. One of his pupils was Wing Commander Ira "Taffy" Jones who had been awarded the DSO, MC, DFC and MM in the First World War. Beaumont's task was to introduce the gallant veteran to the Spitfire. So impressed was the Wing Commander that upon being appointed to command a new OTU at Turnhouse, Edinburgh, he recruited Beaumont as chief instructor with the rank of Squadron leader.

In July 1941 Beaumont moved on to Fighter Command’s No 9 Group defending the North West and was mentioned in despatches. Feigning puzzlement about this he told enquirers that the mention was for designing the layout of WAAF sleeping quarters. In fact he had played an important part in organising the design of the Group’s new fighter stations.

In August 1942 Beaumont was promoted Wing Commander and posted to Andreas on the Isle of Man. The posting was urgent as his predecessor had crashed a Whitley bomber on a joy ride killing himself and six passengers including a woman friend. As a solicitor Beaumont was ideal for the mission. He discovered that on the afternoon of the flight the last entry in the station commanders mess book was two bottles of port.

Andreas was a diversionary airfield for Flying Fortress bombers coming in from the United States and Beaumont invariably welcomed pilots and crews. When Beaumont greeted a top sergeant who bad just landed on the Isle of Man, the American airman remarked: "Say colonel, I always knew England was it little island but I didn't know it was as small as this".

In the spring of 1943 Beaumont briefly commanded Woodvale on the Lancashire coast before moving to Zeals in Wiltshire, where he boldly amalgamated the RAF and WAAF messes. Posted as group captain in July 1943 to No 84 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, in the role of Deputy Air Officer Administration, he was soon involved in preparations for the D-Day invasion on June 6. In Normandy he lived and worked in the back of a three-ton truck complete with washbasin. After being invalided home with hepatitis he returned to 2nd TAF in time for VE Day.

Stephen Gerald Beaumont was born on May 2 1910, the eldest of three sons of Gerald Beaumont of Hatfeild Hall, Wakefield. His father, who had been awarded the MC and Bar in the First World War, headed the family firm of Greaves, Atter & Beaumont, solicitors. Young Stephen was educated at Oundle and New College, Oxford. In 1931, after visiting Kenya, he entered the family firm. After his father's death he took on increased responsibilities in his twenties. Yorkshire clients and colleagues accepted his youth, but were inclined to comment: "We like thee lad but we can't always understand your Oxford accent".

After the war Beaumont became Clerk to the Governors of Wakefield charities, Clerk to the Commissioners of Tax, Secretary of the Wakefield Chamber of Commerce, Deputy Coroner for Wakefield and Chairman of the Wakefield Hospital Management Group. During the next 50 years he said that the appointment which brought him most satisfaction was the clerkship of the Wakefield Grammar School Foundation consolidated charities.

In 1967 Beaumont was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1979 High Sheriff of West Yorkshire. Beaumont's sense of humour was proverbial. As High Sheriff he was responsible for judges' lodgings and he liked to tell of how he appointed a replacement house-keeper after a lady lawyer complained that her smalls had not been washed.
In retirement at Devizes in Wiltshire, Beaumont liked to read poetry. He particularly enjoyed Lear and Belloc, whose verse he imitated wittily. He was also a keen historian and published histories of Wakefield rural district council and of the sheriffs of Yorkshire and Wiltshire.

Beaumont was awarded the OBE in 1945 and twice mentioned in dispatches.

Stephen Beaumont married first, in 1936, Elisabeth Joan Porter Kaye, who died in 1976 and secondly, in 1979, Mrs Marjorie Douglas who also predeceased him. He leaves two sons and a daughter by his first marriage.

With acknowledgments to the Daily Telegraph