Flight Lieutenant, RAF
Born: September 26th 1916
Died: October 30th 1941
Age at Death: 25
Killed on active service, October 30th 1941
Medals / Honours: Distinguished Flying Cross 1941
House Prefect 1933
2nd 15 1933-1934
Albert was born on 26 September 1916 in Surbiton, Surrey, to Albert Oettle, a prosperous baker and son of a naturalised German, and his wife Alice (née West). During the Great War many people of German ancestry anglicised their surnames, but his family appears to have felt secure with its original name. He played percussion in a College production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, and returned to help in the same role the next year in The Mikado despite having left the school.
In 1937 he joined the RAF. During the war he flew the Whitley bomber for 51 Squadron, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for bombing operations. In October 1941 his plane stalled on landing at the end of a routine flight within England, and crashed at RAF Stradishall in Suffolk. He is buried at St Andrew’s Church, Hove.
To mark Remembrance in 2023, a Brighton College family visited Albert’s grave and left a poppy wreath.