Colin Francis - the Lost Old Boy

Emanuel School's new School Archive has a wall dedicated to the School Fallen of both World Wars, highlighting in brief biographies, the type of bravery rarely seen in today’s world of pop culture and mobile-phone technology.

Colin Dunmore Francis was just one of these men, one of over  200 Old Boys who lost their lives in the  Wars.

After Colin left Emanuel in 1937 he immediately joined the RAF and by 1938 he qualified as a pilot.  

When the War started he was based in Croydon, and in the early stages of the Battle of Britain he was shipped to Kent. In early 1940 the fighting was fierce and the RAF was regularly heavily out-numbered by the German Ludwaffe.

On 30th August, 75 German bombers attacked Kent, and only 3 fighter planes able to fly and mount a defense. Colin flew one of these planes. It was his maiden combat voyage. The chances of survival were slim, this was fighting odds of 25-1. He was last sighted by a witness flying into a swath of German fighters. He was not seen alive again and his plane disappeared.

After the battle there was a search for the crashed plane, however, it could not be found.  He was an only child, and both his parents died knowing that his body lay undiscovered somewhere. This remained the case until 1981 when his body was found, still in his plane, in a Kent field not far from the original battle site.

The story had considerable press coverage at the time, and there was a nationwide search for surviving relatives. Sadly, however, only some distant cousins could be traced. Colin Francis was finally buried with full military honours with members of the school and surviving members of his squadron attending.

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<img xsrc="/images/CollinFrancisfuneral_400.jpg" alt="The funeral in 1981 of Colin Francis" width="400" height="282" border="0" /><br />
The funeral in 1981 of Colin Francis
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At the funeral the RAF reiterated that the Battle of Britain was littered with such stories of extraordinary bravery, and saluted a young man, only 21 years old, who had taken off probably knowing he was going to die against such heavy enemy numbers.

Our new Archive & School Museum also remembers such men for today's generation.

TRJ