Squadron Leader Angus McKinnon McVitie
(RAF Rtd), Old Philomathian

Amongst the Christmas cards I received last December was one which made me sit up with a jolt. It was from Angus MVitie, who had been at St. Albans a little before my time, but someone who, by sheer coincidence, was a member of a church we went to upon our arrival in Bedford. He had recognized my OP tie, and from then onwards we met from time to time, and travelled to London to attend an OP reunion.

I knew little about him, other than the fact that he was a deeply committed Christian, treasurer at his local church and a pilot. He was a very modest man, and I did not learn until much later that he had been a senior test pilot at Cranfield.

His card stated simply that his cancer has spread, and that he expected to be called Home in the next few weeks. He added that he had "the privilege of an interesting and rewarding life and my Christian faith to sustain me."

A couple of weeks later he had passed away. His funeral service and burial took place at St. Laud's Church, Sherington, and such was the impact that this gentle giant had had on people that the large church was almost full.

His eulogy was read by Jack Wardle, a cousin of his and also an O.P. Part of it is reproduced here:

Although cousin Angus would loved to have flown, for different reasons, Concorde and the Lancaster, and he had clocked up 11000 flying hours on all sorts of aircrafts, his greatest delight was the award of an Honorary Fellowship of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots in 1994 when he was numbered, amongst others, with Group Capt. John Cunningham of Comet fame, Charles Lindberg, Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle. He had previously, in 1988, received The Derry and Richards Memorial Medal, from the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, for test flying of outstanding value.

Although no prizes to guess his Scottish ancestry, it all began in The Forgotten Colony - Argentina. The English, Irish, Welsh and Scots had settled there in the 19".Century, making an incredible contribution without actually ruling the place! They formed their own communities..most of the Scots were farmers as were my ancestors, forming strong matriarchal societies marrying others who came over the horizon!. They celebrated St Andrew’s Day and Burns Night, had Gatherings of the Clans and Caledonian Balls, started their own Scots Church with itinerant ministers, schools and cemeteries. Practically everybody was related, or thought they were, however distant.

Eventually we ended up in St. Alban’s College, a public School. Angus was a Day Boy; I a boarder which meant invites to tea etc. and I well remember his bedroom, littered with The Meccanno Magazine and models of Aeroplanes all over the place as well as hanging from the ceiling. We were also members of a boy’s Bible Class called Crusaders, run by one of the masters, Charlie Cohen, which also meant free tea and plenty of wads!

That’s where it all began. He just wanted to fly and there was no action in Argentina. So in 1943, in mid war, he worked his passage on a banana boat to Britain and joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton, Bristol as a student apprentice. It was the nearest he could get to aeroplanes, but discovered he could learn to fly Tiger Moths at the University Air Squadron. That’s when we joined up again about 1947/8... Bristol, Filton and Crusader leaders, where he was highly regarded. One of the seniors, now well into his 80’s, remembers him as a “genial, gentle, giant”.

The next stop was Glasgow University, early 50’s perhaps, where we tried to do Aeronautical Engineering. He flew most of the time and we lived in a place called Duntocher, which has disappeared, under motorways and development. The bungalow belonged to a certain Donald McLeod, whc had been commissioned in The Black Watch during the war, and was in ministerial training. The problem was looking after the place and studying at the same time. We often recruited, had to recruit, the ladies from the College of Domestic Science to spend a Saturday with us doing the necessary cleaning and cooking.

By 1950 he had decided on a career in the RAF and gained his ‘wings’ in 1951 at Syerston, Nottinghamshire. Posted to Transport Command, he served in the Middle East, during the Mau Mau Emergency. He was ADC flying top brass about as well as in his own words “dropping Bronco” from Valettas and Ansons. He managed to fit in a wedding to Sheila in 1957.

But all along, his boyhood ambitions was in test flying, as did so many in that era. In 1956 he was accepted for the Empire Test Pilots’ School at the Royal Aercraft Establishment at Farnborough “ the hardest years’ work I ever did’ and stayed on there for three years after qualifying, as the last test pilot with the National Turbine Establishment.

Then, all set to return to Transport Command Brittania Squadron at Lyneham, someone called him back and asked, rather apologetically, if he wouldn’t mind going instead to RAE Bedford as Commanding Officer of Aero Flight, which was, in those days a plum test pilot’s job. After two years, there was Staff College at Bracknell, followed by secondment to the Royal Malaysian Air Force running their Joint Operations Centre during the emergency.

A desk job at the MOD, dealing mostly with fighter and helicopter cockpits was a pain...endless meetings fighting with financiers and so much being cancelled, with hardly any flying, decided him to take early retirement with the rank of Squadron Leader, and joined the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield Aerodrome as Chief Test Pilot in 1968.

But for all that, and its quite a career, Angus’ greatest joy was Sheila and Shuna, Fiona and Lorna.......as he wrote in his Christmas card “the privilege of our interesting and rewarding fife and my Christian faith to sustain me”. He had already written “my time to be with the Lord is fast approaching”. Well, that is where he is which is far better. He knew from an early age the assurance and certainty that his name was written in the “Lamb’s book of Life” (Rev 21.27).

Hasta luego mi amigo Angus.

Robert Leggat