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A Devonshire man by birth, Eric Bidgood joined the RAF in March 1939, on a short service commission. He joined 253 Squadron at Manston in November 1939 and remained with the squadron until posted away, towards the end of the Battle of Britain. In mid-November 1940, the aircraft carrier HMS Argus sailed from Gibralter for a repeat secret mission to supply Hurricanes by sea to the beleaguered Island of Malta. Bidgood was one of the six volunteer pilots in the second flight who departed from the carrier on the 17th of November 1940. The Sunderland Flying Boat that was to guide them failed to take off from Gibralter. Then, after they missed their landfall at Galite and faced with direct headwinds and poor visibility, one by one they bagan to run out of fuel and fall into the sea. An aircraft was dispatched from Malta to conduct a search. The pilot searched for five hours and found no sign of any survivors. All six pilots perished. "Operation White", as the reinforcement mission had been codenamed, had been an unmitigated disaster. In great secrecy, an offical inquiry was held, initially the blame being placed on the missing aircrew. Eventually, the cause of inadequate weather forcasting, poor inter-service liaison and the over-cautious handing of the fleet were recorded as the official conclusion. Eric George Bidgood, agaed 22, is remembered on the Runnymede Memeorial Panel 5 and a memorial window in St. Aidens's Church, West Hartlepool.

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