Lieutenant Commander Digby Cosh D.S.C.

Lieutenant Commander Digby Rex Bell Cosh D.S.C., Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was based at H.M.C.S. “Niobe” and was killed in a flying accident on 24th June 1944, aged 25. He is buried in Kirknewton ( St. Gregory ) Churchyard, Kirknewton, Wooler, Northumberland. H.M.C.S. “Niobe” was a Canadian Naval shore base at Greenock. There is a stained glass window to his Memory in the Church and it reads ” In Memory of Lieutenant Commander D.R.B. Cosh D.S.C. Commanding Officer of 881 Naval Air Squadron, November 1943-June 1944 “. He was the son of Major F. and Mrs Cosh of 180 Lisgar Street, Ottowa and the husband of Mrs Joan Cosh of Forrest Home, Taymount, Forrest Hill Rise, London. He had had a fine career as a Grumman Wildcat fighter pilot  and was credited with shooting down a German reconaissance plane in 1943 when he was flying from an Escort Carrier in the Atlantic on convoy protection. In April 1944 he took part in the attack on the German Battleship Tirpitz as she lay in the Alten Fijord, Norway. He received his Distinguished Service Cross for ” Good Services in Air Actions ” and was also mentioned in dispatches.