On this day in 1941 Flight Lieutenant Hugh Speke DFC died in a flying accident. He is at rest in the village churchyard at Dowlish Wake, South Somerset.

Hugh Speke was a descendant of the noted English soldier and explorer John Hanning Speke who discovered the source of the River Nile.  Speke was born in South Africa on April 14^th 1914, but after the early death of both his parents, William Speke and Gwendoline Constance Speke (nee Maitland), he came to England with his twin sister and brother to be brought up by relatives in Pigdon, Northumberland.

He joined 604 ‘County of Middlesex’ Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, in 1937 and subsequently began full-time service on 24^th August 1939.  On the outbreak of war the squadron was flying the twin-engined Blenheim Mk IF, a not very successful fighter as it was merely a conversion of the Blenheim light bomber fitted with four .303 inch machine guns in a pack under the fuselage.

With 604 Sqn. now operating in the night-fighter role, on the 24^th August 1940 Speke’s Blenheim crashed near Odiham during a night patrol – fortunately both he and his gunner escaped unhurt.  However, before the end of 1940 Speke and his gunner, Sergeant A. K. Sandifer, intercepted and damaged He111s on two occasions.

By the spring of 1941 many of the RAF’s night fighter squadrons were using to good effect the radar equipped Bristol Beaufighter Mk. IF.  It was armed with four 20mm cannon and powered by 2 Bristol Hercules radial engines which gave it a top speed of 324 mph at 11,750 feet and a service ceiling of 27,000 feet.

In May 1941 Flt. Lt. Speke was flying a Beaufighter with 604 Squadron from Middle Wallop in Hampshire, an airfield in No.10 Group of RAF Fighter Command.  At 0100 hours on the 4^th he shot down a He111 of 1/KG26 which had just bombed Bristol.  The German bomber crashed in Binford Wood, Crowcombe Heathfield, in Somerset.

On the night of the 7^th/8^th July Speke, assisted by his radar operator Sergeant G.L. Dawson, shot down a He111 of Kgr100 into the sea off Bournemouth.  Twenty-seven minutes later near Lymington he shot down another He111 from the same unit.  The next night he shot down a He111 from 3/KG26 near Lulworth.

On the 26^th July Flt. Lt. Speke and Sgt. Dawson were killed during a night flying test flight in Beaufighter X7548 NG-S.  For reasons unknown the aircraft flew at high speed into Oare Hill near Pewsey in Wiltshire. 

On the 27^th July 1941 Hugh Speke was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for destroying 4 enemy aircraft at night and damaging at least 2 more.

Speke is buried, alongside several of his ancestors, in the churchyard of St. Andrew’s in Dowlish Wake, near Ilminster, in South Somerset. The tomb of his ancestor John Hanning Speke is within the church itself.

The grave of Flt. Lt. Hugh Speke DFC in the churchyard of St. Andrew's Church Dowlish Wake, South Somerset.  

The Church of St. Andrew in the village of Dowlish Wake, South Somerset.

Sadly, Hugh Speke’s brother, Captain William Maitland Speke MC, was killed in action at the age of 35 in Libya on 18^th February 1942 while serving with 72 Field Regiment Royal Artillery. He is buried in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma in Libya.