Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm
Born: January 18th 1918
Died: September 24th 1940
Age at Death: 22
Killed, September 24th 1940
Gerald Wheeler was born in London on 18 January 1918 to Captain Philip Wheeler, an army officer, and his wife Constance. At the College he was in the Modern Section, which concentrated on maths and science rather than the Classics.
Gerald joined the Royal Air Force Reserve in 1937, and served in the war in the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Navy’s own air force.
On 24 September 1940 Wheeler took part in the unsuccessful Allied attempt to capture Dakar in French West Africa from the pro-Nazi Vichy French regime. His plane was shot down by shore batteries on its approach to attack warships in the harbour, which included the almost completed Richelieu, one of the most advanced battleships ever built. The crew bailed out, but Wheeler did not survive.
He is remembered in the Lee-on-Solent Fleet Air Arm Memorial in Hampshire.