Midshipman James Orlando
Burr was on No. 6 course at Gravesend in September 1939 and relocated to
Castle Bromwich on 2nd September,
the day before war was declared,
when 20 ERFTS amalgamated with 14 EFTS.
Burr was killed when the
aircraft he was flying (Blackburn Skua serial no. L3044) stalled on take-off
from Eastleigh and crashed.
He was serving with 759
Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, a fighter training unit based at Eastleigh.
Eastleigh had been used by the Navy off and on during the 1930's
and formally became HMS
Raven on 1st July 1939. 759 Squadron moved in during November.
Burr had been trained to fly by the Navy
and was passed out as a
pilot from No.6 Naval Pilots Course, where he learned to fly Tiger Moths
and Harvards at Gravesend,
Castle Bromwich and Netheravon.
As the course finished officially on 21st April and Burr was killed the
next day, it does give one the thought
that this might have been
his first and last flight piloting an operational fighter aircraft.
He is buried at Haslar Royal Navy Cemetery in Hampshire and commemorated on the war memorial at Woodchurch.
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