Leonard Cheshire
[8] At the end of his final Easter term 1936, his father arranged for him a stay in Germany with the family of Ludwig von Reuter in Potsdam[9] and while there, witnessed an Adolf Hitler rally.Fred Astaire was an inspiration; Leonard even took tap dancing lessons in the hope of emulating him and modelled his hair and habit of using a cigarette holder on The Saint.He chose the cavalry, but soon found the early hours and physical demands were not to his liking, and he transferred to the Oxford University Air Squadron because it involved sitting down.[21] He joined as a way to get out of his university finals, but his father soon put his foot down and insisted he sit them, then apply for a permanent commission under the RAF's direct entry scheme."Lofty kept drumming into my head the fundamental lesson of never thinking that you have mastered your job, of applying your whole heart and mind to the task of perfecting as far as is humanly possible the techniques of operational flying.To begin with, I had great trouble with the station's warrant officer, because he knew King's Regulations backwards and forwards, and he was perpetually quoting it at me, and I had no idea if they were right or wrong, and I just felt out of my depth.Once operational these powerful guns would be able to fire a 500 lb (230 kg) shell into London every minute, and buried in the earth and protected by 50 feet of reinforced concrete, they were impervious to bombing attack.He identified the roof top of the Gnome-Rhone factory, and proceeded to make a series of low-level passes at 20 feet, hoping the workers inside would take the hint.Cheshire and Martin approached to make a low-level marking of the line, but it was soon discovered that since the last attempt the Germans had placed a large number of flak guns on the hills overlooking the viaduct.The camp was French, built for their armoured formations, but since the fall of France the Germans had been using it to train replacement crews for units refitting from losses suffered in the east.An assembly point marker was dropped 15 miles away from the target, and the aircraft of the two groups of heavy bombers were ordered to orbit it at stacked altitudes of 100 feet separation while awaiting instructions to attack.On the night of 5/6 June 1944, 617 Squadron used precision flying to drop window over the channel at low level in succession, generating the radar appearance of large numbers of approaching ships.At the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, both Cheshire and warrant officer Norman Jackson were to receive the VC from King George VI on that day.He had been asked to do the job by Winston Churchill, but had to report to new Prime Minister Clement Attlee, who was startled by Cheshire's insistence that the answer to peace was more research into the development of atomic energy as a means of propulsion into space.[99] Historian Max Hastings wrote: "Cheshire was a legend in Bomber Command, a remarkable man with an almost mystical air about him, as if he somehow inhabited a different planet from those about him, but without affectation or pretension.""[42] At St Luke's hospital, Cheshire was free to come and go and soon had a thriving correspondence with old contacts, trying to find a purpose to replace life in the Air Force.[86] Bemoaning a lack of the war spirit and unity of purpose, he put out a call in his column to set-up a colony for ex-service men and women as a way of easing the transition between life in the service and as civilians, and was overwhelmed by support.[100] He decided to start a communal living experiment called 'Vade in Pacem' (in English, 'Go in Peace') first at Gumley Hall in Leicestershire, and then at Le Court in Hampshire[101] later that year - a house and estate he had bought from his aunt.[102] His aim in establishing the VIP Colony was to provide an opportunity for ex-servicemen and women and their families to live together, each contributing to the community what they could to help their transition back into civilian life.The local GP and others had misgivings about the project, but as Cheshire pointed out, no matter how basic or unsatisfactory it was from a medical viewpoint, the alternative for most of the people accepted to Le Court was much worse.For ‘a life saved’ in 1996 Childs and the trustees created The Leonard Cheshire Chair of Conflict Recovery,[120] headed by an army surgeon, which provided advice to devastated post-conflict regions.[122] The Millennium Chapel of Peace and Forgiveness contains the Cavendish Cross, carved by Ken Willoughby of the Essex Woodcarvers as a tribute to the life and work of Sue Ryder and Leonard Cheshire.To Cheshire's surprise, as he sat back, "pleased with his worldly wisdom," he was roundly rebuked for "talking such rot" by a woman friend who "was one of the last persons on earth he would have credited with" religious convictions.[126] Dykes died in August 1948 and, after completing the arrangements for his funeral, Cheshire read a book given him by a friend, One Lord, One Faith by Vernon Johnson, a High Anglican clergyman who had converted to Catholicism.[129] At the time of this pilgrimage, Cheshire was himself recovering from a tuberculosis infection that had destroyed one of his lungs and a few ribs; he attributed his recovery from the serious illness to the life-size replica of the shroud at the foot of his hospital bed.[130] Cheshire lived at King Edward VII TB Hospital in Midhurst from 1952 to 1954 while recovering, and while there set up a 'Mission Bus' fitted with tape-recorded speeches on Christ's life, and a place to view a film on the Holy Shroud.[131] In 1992, when Cheshire knew he was dying from motor neurone disease, his last thoughts were gathered by his spiritual advisor Father Reginald C. Fuller in a book called Crossing the Finishing Line.[132] In 2017, on the centenary of Leonard Cheshire's birth, the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia held a memorial Requiem mass to promote his cause for sainthood.[137] After his diagnosis with motor neurone disease, Leonard Cheshire and Sue Ryder made a final trip to the Raphael Centre they had founded in India.I feel very privileged to be a small part of that fraternity of people who are contributing, researching, working, and living with the objective of making life more livable for those who have some kind of disability".
Leonard Cheshire DisabilityServant of GodChesterCavendishSuffolkRoyal Air ForceGroup captainService numberNo. 102 Squadron RAFNo. 35 Squadron RAFNo. 617 Squadron RAFRAF Marston MoorNo. 76 Squadron RAFSecond World WarVictoria CrossMember of the Order of MeritDistinguished Service OrderTwo BarsDistinguished Flying CrossMentioned in DespatchesConstance BinneySue RyderGeoffrey Chevalier CheshireCommonwealthlife peerbeatificationRoman Catholic ChurchEnglish lawScottish Army familyOxfordDragon SchoolStowe SchoolMerton College, OxfordT. H. Whitelawn tennisnatural historyGermanyLudwig von ReuterPotsdamAdolf HitlerNürburgringMerton CollegeOxford University Air SquadronJack RandleBattle of BritainFred AstaireThe SaintjurisprudenceF. H. Lawsoncavalrypilot officerRoyal Air Force Volunteer ReserveBomber CommandRAF HullavingtonRAF Abingdonflying officer102 SquadronArmstrong Whitworth Whitley4 GroupRAF Driffield77 SquadronJimmy MarksWhitleyRAF Linton-on-Ouse35 Squadron"Willie" TaitHandley Page Halifaxraids on Berlinsquadron leaderflight lieutenantLiberatorcapital shipsU-boatsHudsonArthur Harriswing commanderHalifaxBeningbrough HallNurembergEric BrownRoderick CarrMarston Moor1652 Heavy Conversion UnitWellingtonPercy PickardDon BennettHamish MahaddieNo. 5 GroupRalph Cochrane617 SquadronGuy GibsonDortmund Ems CanalH. B. "Mick" MartinMöhneEdersee DamsOperation ChastiseRAF Warboys"Mick" MartinMick MartinV-3 long-range gunsFranceMimoyecquesBarnes WallisTallboyBennettRobert Saundbydive-bombGnome et RhôneLimogesSaint-RaphaëlMarseille–Ventimiglia railwayAlbertneedle roller bearingSaint-ÉtienneMichelinClermont-FerrandBergeracToulouseSaint-Cyr-l'ÉcoleJuvisy marshalling yardsMosquitoMunichRAF Manstonraid against MunichMailly-le-Campfall of France