Memorials & Monuments
on the Isle of Wight
- CWGC Headstones -
- Yarmouth St James's Cemetery : George Ebb Lansdowne -

SQUADRON LEADER 13132
G LANSDOWNE
ROYAL AIR FORCE
17TH MARCH 1946 AGE 59
+
BELOVED HUSBAND OF CHRIS
GOD BLESS YOU DADDY DARLING
LOVED BY ALL

IN LOVING
MEMORY OF
CHRISSIE IRIS
LANSDOWNE
WHO DIED
5TH MAY 1981
AGED 82 YEARS
DEARLY LOVED
WIFE OF
GEORGE.
REUNITED.

Death of a Pioneer Airman -
One of the original members of Britain's air services, Squadron Leader George Lansdowne, D.F.C. (retd.), of The Bungalow, Station-road, died in the County Hospital on Sunday at the age of 59, after a brief illness. Mr. Lansdowne, a native of Crockerton, Wiltshire, joined the Navy as a boy at 14, and rose to be Yeoman of Signals to Admiral Jellicoe aboard the Iron Duke. He was one of the original 20 men selected for the Royal Naval Air Service, in which he became observer and navigator with the rank of warrant officer. He was commissioned on being transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, and was shot down on a bombing mission in Russia in 1919, landing in the River Dwina. He was taken prisoner after swimming for a mile, and on his release in 1920 he was transferred to the Royal Air Force. From then on he flew regularly in flying-boats, and was involved in two serious crashes, one into the channel, when the crew was picked up by a cruiser, and the other on the sands at Southend, when he jumped clear before the machine was completely wrecked. He was eventually posted to Uxbridge on administrative duties in 1934, and retired in 1936, only to be recalled on the outbreak of war three years later. He was engaged on administrative duties at Stranraer and Brighton until he was finally demobilised with the rank of Squadron Leader in September last. He leaves a widow and two children, a daughter in the W.A.A.F., and a son, who is studying aeronautical engineering. The funeral took place on Thursday at St. James's Church, the Rev. D. Pickering officiating. The hymn "The day Thou givest" was sung. The principal mourners were Mrs. G. Lansdowne (widow), Mr. R. Lansdowne (son), Miss C. Lansdowne (daughter), Messrs. C. and F. Lansdowne (brothers), Mr. and Mrs. R. May (parents-in-law), Mr. G. Lansdowne (nephew), Mrs. R. Smith (niece), Mrs. C. Lansdowne (sister-in-law), Mr. E. Crouch (brother-in-law), Mrs. F. Gibbs (aunt), Mr. G. Gibbs, Miss I. Woodford, and Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Biddlecombe (cousins), Mrs. C.E. Biddlecombe (aunt), and Mr. E. Simms. Others present included ...

the remainder of the mourners and the reports of floral tributes have not been transcribed