´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was gathered and submitted to the WW2 Peoples war by Oliver Murphy

Michael Robert MacClancy
Squadron Leader, 226 Squadron,
Royal Air Force
Died 12 April 1942

Robert MacClancy was born on 5 June 1919, the son of Nancy and Michael MacClancy (a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) of Foxhill, Howth Road, Raheny. He was one of six children, two girls and four boys. Robert (or ‘Bobby’ as he called by his friends and family) attended Belvedere College, Dublin, for just two years. He started in third year in 1934 (having attended O’Connell’s School with his brothers Noel, Brendan and James up till then), and left after completing the Intermediate Certificate Exam at the end of fourth year in 1936. There was no Transition Year in those days!

Robert MacClancy’s obituary (in the 1942 Belvederian) states that ‘he was a quiet boy and rather frail when he was at school, but after he left he built up a fine physique and was already an officer in the Royal Air Force when the war broke out’.

In 1939, Bobby MacClancy married an actress, Beatrice Campbell. Ironically, Beatrice Campbell subsequently married the actor Nigel Patrick who starred as Group Captain Hope in The Battle of Britain (1969). It was also during 1939, before the war, that MacClancy joined the RAF at Prestwick in Scotland. He got his pilot’s licence in less than ten weeks, such was the urgency to provide pilots at the time. By the end of 1941, Bob MacClancy was a squadron leader in the RAF.

During the war, Bob MacClancy fought as both a fighter-pilot and as a bomber. He was a Fighter Squadron throughout the Battle of Britain, in which the British airforce proved its superiority to the Luftwaffe.

At the time of his death Bobby MacClancy was also involved in training crews in the handling of new aircraft. On Sunday 12 April 1942, he had already been up on these practice flights with several such crews. He took off with the very men who had already flown with him on many hazardous operations on what was supposed to be the last flight of the day. But this was no practice flight - it was a bombing mission to Trongen in Germany. It proved to be the last flight of his life. The plane was damaged on its mission. As it approached base at Hemswell in Lincolnshire, the engine failed when the aeroplane was fifty feet above the ground and about to land. The plane stalled and one of the wings hit some trees. The plane crashed, killing all six people on board.

Bobby MacClancy’s body was brought home to Ireland for burial. The very large attendance at the funeral mass in Sutton bore testimony to his popularity. He is buried at the Old Ground, St Fintan’s cemetery in Sutton. He was only 22 years of age at the time of his death.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.