Flight Sergeant Thomas Paxton, M.I.D.

Flight Sergeant Thomas Galbraith Paxton, Mentioned in Dispatches.  He died from wounds on 7th April 1942 whilst serving with 30 Squadron, Royal Air Force, aged 20. He had been born in Maxton, Roxburghshire and was the son of William and Margaret Paxton of Fernirig, Birgham, Eccles and is buried in Colombo ( Kanatte) Cemetery, Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka). He had been educated in Eccles and the Berwickshire High School before becoming a tax officer with the Inland Revenue in Penrith. He enlisted in the R.A.F. in 1940 and served in the Middle East.  The Squadron had re-equipped from the Bristol Blenheim light bomber to the Hawker Hurricane and posted to Ceylon to repel Japanese air attacks on Colombo and the naval base at Trincomalee which they did.  On the 5th April  he was engaged in intercepting of attacks made on Ceylon from Japanese aircraft carriers.  During the battle he shot down two enemy Zero fighters before being hit and havinf to abandon his burning aircraft.. He was picked up and taken to hospital with second degree burns but died two days later from secondary shock. He is also commemorated on the Birgham War Memorial.