Flight Lieutenant, Royal Australian Air Force
Pilot Officer, RAF
Born: June 26th1916
Died: March 26th 1940
Age at Death: 23
Killed, March 26th 1940
Ian was born on 26 June 1916 in Croydon, Surrey, the son of William Hinton, a clerk, and his wife Grace (née Clark).
At the College he was in the Modern Section, which concentrated on maths and science rather than the Classics. He joined the RAF in January 1939, perhaps in anticipation of conflict.
Assigned to 103 Bomber Squadron as a Pilot Officer flying the Fairey Battle, a light bomber, Hinton was despatched to France’s Champagne region as part of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force, the day before Britain declared war on Germany. The conditions faced by the squadron’s men show both the chaos and tensions of the war’s opening months. The aircrews had to sleep under their aircraft when they arrived until accommodation was found locally, and the initially good relations with locals deteriorated when enemy bombers started to target airfields and the surrounding areas.
On 26 March 1940 Hinton and the other two members of his crew set off for a low-level night exercise at a bombing range. Disaster struck just after take-off, when the aircraft hit a tree about two miles west of the airfield. The entire crew was killed.
Hinton is buried at Terlincthun British Cemetery.