Flight Lieutenant, RAF
Born: April 29th 1912
Died: February 14th 1943
Age at Death: 30
Killed in action, February 14th 1943
School Prefect 1930
2nd 8 Boxing 1931
Fives 8 1931
Shooting 8 1930
Owen Chave was born on 29 April 1912, the son of Lady Rachel Chave (née Morgan) and Sir Benjamin Chave, a merchant seaman knighted for ‘outstanding courage and leadership’ during the Great War after his ship was torpedoed and sunk; Sir Benjamin is commemorated in the National Portrait Gallery.
Owen entered the College on the top classical scholarship and became both a Prefect and captain of the Shooting VIII. In adulthood he found it hard, as some very bright people do, to settle down. He worked first in insurance and then in teaching, while also dabbling in journalism, before going into commercial aviation.
Chave joined the RAF Reserve in 1936, and flew Stirling bombers in the war. He detailed his experiences in published poetry, both jocular and serious, including an excellent short poem, ‘Night Bomber’, that contrasted the glamour of Fighter Command with the undeserved lower profile of Bomber Command. A verse reads:
Not theirs the sudden glow
Of triumph that their fighter-brothers know;
Only to fly through cloud, through storm, through Night
Unerring, and to keep their purpose bright,
Nor turn until, their dreadful duty done,
Westward they climb to race the awakened sun.
On the night of 14 February 1943 his aircraft was shot down by a night-fighter over Belgium while on a bombing raid targeting the German city of Cologne. Chave and the rest of the crew are buried in the Heverlee Commonwealth War Cemetery.
To mark Remembrance in 2023, the annual school German trip to Germany stopped off at the Heverlee Commonwealth War Cemetery. and found Cecil’s grave.
