Charles John Wharton Darwin
Saunders Roe Ltd - British aerospace and marine-engineering.
Secret Intelligence Service MI-6.
- Family History
- Military history
- Extra information
- Photographs
Son of Colonel Charles Waring Darwin, C.B., D.L., J.P. and of Mary Dorothea Darwin (nee Wharton), of Newark, Nottinghamshire; husband of Sibyl Renee Darwin, of Marylebone, London. His Son, Christopher William Wharton Darwin also died on Service.
Served in France with the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards from 1914 to 1916. He then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. His first assignment, to 27 Squadron, saw him flying a Martinsyde G.100.
He then returned to England to instruct at the Central Flying School, Upavon, in 1917. When 87 Squadron was founded at Upavon in April 1918, Darwin led the effort. He accompanied the
squadron into combat in France as a captain. When Major Joseph Callaghan was killed in action on 2 July 1918, Darwin succeeded to command. Flying Sopwith Dolphin no. C4158, Darwin destroyed four enemy planes and drove down a fifth one out of control between 31 May and 26 September 1918.
He accompanied Churchill at the Paris peace talks and in 1920 became one of the first flying
instructors at RAF Cranwell. He resigned his commission in 1928 but was retained by the Secret Intelligence Service. He joined the Bristol Aircraft Company and later Saunders Roe, traveling all over the world, probably in part for the SIS.
In 1939 he helped set up Bletchley Park and then traveled in Europe briefing agents and setting up a chain of radio transmitters. In 1940 he left the SIS and rejoined the RAF, being posted to RAF Kinloss near Inverness. Attached to RAF Portreath as part of Fighter Command, suffered an epileptic attack on 19 July on the Isle of Wight , he was placed on sick leave, but died from an internal hemorrhaging gastric ulcer at his wife's house , Montague Mews North, Montague Place , N1.
Unknown
Photo of Charles John Wharton Darwin