Flying Officer, RAF
Born: 4 October 1911
Died: 3 January 1943
Age at Death: 31
Killed in action, 3 January 1943
Medals / Honours: Distinguished Flying Cross
House Prefect 1928
Shooting VIII 1927-29
Douglas was born on 4 October 1911 in Westham, Sussex, to Herbert Lonsdale and his wife Ethel (née Hallewell). At Brighton College he was both a House Prefect and a member of the Shooting VIII from 1927 to 1929, on the same team as Edward Young (see page 164).
During the war Lonsdale was in 9 Squadron of the RAF, flying bombers. In 1942 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The citation included the lines:
As a captain of aircraft he takes meticulous care in the preparation of his sorties and performs them with vigour and determination. On several occasions he has spent long periods over heavily defended areas until able to identify his target clearly and bomb it from a low altitude.
On 3 January 1943 Lonsdale took part in a mission to bomb the German city of Essen. He crashed on the outskirts of Arnhem, in the Netherlands, after being attacked by a German plane. Lonsdale is buried at the Rheden (Heiderust) General Cemetery. He left a widow, Patricia.