Richard Hillary

Another in our 'what to do at the weekend' series sees the pipe band recommending the healthy option of a cycle out to the Richard Hillary memorial at the former Charterhall airfield, near Leitholm. (The memorial is also well signed off the A697 for car-dependent people).

Hillary was a fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain, serving with the City of Edinburgh Squadron. During the battle he was badly wounded, but survived, recovered and was determined to return to the fight. So in 1942 he was posted to Charterhall, which was a training school for night-fighter pilots but was killed in a crash near the base in early 1943.

Charterhall had something of a bad reputation as a base and was nicknamed 'Slaughterall'. Some of those who were killed were from the Commonwealth and they are buried in the cemetery in nearby Fogo village. It seems a long way to come from New Zealand to die in a crash in the Merse.

Hillary's memorial is very well done and a helpful interpretative briefing is attached to a nearby tree to give a full understanding of his story.

Quite a lot of the base remains intact and is used for agricultural storage. Some light planes also use the runways, more here: http://www.charterhall.net/, and if you are Steven Speilberg: http://www.edinfilm.com/locations/Charterhall-Airfield.