Page 141 - Wish Stream Year of 2018

Vashon Wheeler
champion knocked out a fellow ranch hand for calling him ‘an effing Pommie’). Returning to the UK, he paid for flying training and earned a living in the 1930s as a commercial airline pilot. At the start of WW2, and knowing he would be consid- ered too old for operational flying, he again lied about his age and was granted a commission in the RAF Volunteer Reserve. At the same time, he discretely stopped claiming his WW1 disabil- ity pension.
Wheeler firstly flew transport aircraft, then coastal patrols for most of 1940, before being posted to 85 Squadron, where he flew 71 combat mis- sions as a night fighter pilot. After shooting down two German bombers, he was awarded the DFC in September 1941. Promoted to acting Wing Commander he commanded 219 and later 157 Squadrons, flying intruder flights over occupied France, which resulted in the award of a bar to his DFC, gazetted in September 1943.
By now aged 45 and nicknamed ‘Pop’, Wheeler was forbidden from flying as a fighter pilot but, at the height of the bomber offensive against Germany, managed to transfer to Bomber Com- mand and was given command of 207 Squad- ron, flying Lancasters. He took every opportu- nity to fly and, as one of his NCOs noted: “The Wing Commander was a fantastic character for a crowd of young lads like us, going on every trip
like he did. He did not stand at the end of the runway seeing us off like a normal CO. He gave us tremendous confidence”.
However, Wheeler’s luck could not hold and on the night of 22/23 March 1944, over Frankfurt, his aircraft was hit by flak. He managed to keep the aircraft level so three of his crew could bale out but was killed in the subsequent crash. It was his 158th combat mission.
SETH ANTHONY – 1942 GHANA
Seth Anthony was born in Ghana in 1915. A teacher at the outbreak of WW2, he enlisted as a Private in the Gold Coast regiment before enter- ing Sandhurst in 1941. The following year he became the first black African Officer to be com- missioned into the British Army. Anthony served in Burma, being mentioned in despatches and awarded the MBE at the end of the war.
When Ghana gained independence in 1957, Seth Anthony was a member of his country’s fledgling diplomatic service and the first Chargé d’affaires of the diplomatic mission in Wash- ington. As the first representative to the United Nations, he delivered the acceptance speech when Ghana was admitted to the UN. During a long and successful career as a diplomat, he was High Commissioner to India, Canada and the United Kingdom, being awarded the Order of the Star of Ghana, his country’s highest civilian award. He died in 2008.
Seth Anthony
HISTORICAL 139