Name
Gerald Patrick (Bill) Cahill
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
04/11/1941
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Leading Aircraftman
655403
Royal Air Force
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Letchworth Cemetery
Sec. B. Div. D. Grave 72.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Boys’ Grammar School Memorial (WW2), Letchworth Town Memorial
Biography
He attended Pixmore School in Letchworth and won a scholarship to the Hitchin Grammar School where he remained from 1927-1934. Of a cheerful unruffled disposition, he passed the London University Intermediate B.A. examination whilst in the sixth form. He was a prefect for two years and was an all-rounder in sport, winning first eleven colours in football, hockey and cricket and skippering the 1934 cricket team. After leaving school, he was employed by the Yokohama Specie Bank in London but kept up hockey and cricket with the Grammarians Club.
In the Spring of 1940, he joined the Royal Artillery, transferring later to the R.A.F. with Service Number 655403.
Whilst in training as a cadet at No. 18 Elementary Flying Training School, he went on a solo flight in a Tiger Moth at Fairoaks in Surrey and at 200 feet collided with another Tiger Moth. The other pilot survived but Bill was killed.
He is buried in Letchworth Cemetery in Division D Grave B72 and his parents are mentioned on the same gravestone.
One of his brothers was Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Cahill, O.B.E., who was in the R.A.S.C. and also a former Hitchin Grammar School boy. Edward, another brother, was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Engineers. His father was Mr P. F. Cahill, ex Royal Irish Constabulary, of 47, Jackman's Place, Letchworth.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, Hitchin Grammar School War Memorial, Hitchin Grammar School Chronicle, Hitchin Grammar School Registers, Citizen Newspaper dated 11th May 1945
