Group captain leonard cheshire biography of abraham

Cheshire Richard Morris, Bomber Pilot Leonard Cheshire,Robert Owen, Leonard Cheshire was one of the most highly decorated pilots.

His final battle was his courageous struggle with the debilitating effects of Motor Neurone Disease. He graduated in Jurisprudence in Cheshire was nearing the end of his fourth tour of duty in July , having completed a total of missions, when awarded the VC. Cheshire had pioneered a new method of marking enemy targets, flying in at a very low level in the face of strong defences.

In four years of fighting against the bitterest opposition he maintained a standard of outstanding personal achievement, his successful operations being the result of careful planning, brilliant execution and supreme contempt for danger — for example, on one occasion he flew his P Mustang in slow figures of 8 above a target obscured by low cloud, to act as a bomb-aiming mark for his squadron.

Cheshire displayed the courage and determination of an exceptional leader. Cheshire was, in his day, both the youngest Group Captain in the service and, following his VC, the most decorated. His notable wartime record makes his subsequent career all the more remarkable. On his st mission, he was official British observer of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki from The Great Artiste, an event which profoundly changed him.

While deciding what he should do with the rest of his life he heard about the case of Arthur Dykes, who had formerly served under him and was suffering from cancer. Dykes asked Cheshire to give him some land to park a caravan until he recovered, but Cheshire discovered that Dykes was terminally ill and that this fact had been concealed from him.

He told Dykes the real position and invited him to stay at Le Court. Cheshire learned nursing skills and was soon approached to take in a second patient, the year-old bedridden wife of a man whose own frailness meant he could no longer care for her himself. She was followed by others, some coming to stay and others to help.

Although Le Court had no financial support, and was financially perilous most of the time, money somehow always seemed to arrive in the nick of time to stave off disaster.